Beer Smith or Beer Friend??

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Big_Cat

Big_Cat

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Beer Smith cost $27.99, Brewers Friend is $9.99 for a year and $17.99 for two years.... My question is which program do you use and why??
 
I use Beersmith, and I have for over 6 years. I like it. My equipment profile fits, and works, and my inventory is updated. I liked the original version more than the upgraded version, but there is support and it's easy to add things (like homegrown hops) to the list.
 
They both have free/trial versions. Why don't you use both and see which you like best?

I personally am a BeerSmith guy. Looking at the Brewer's Friend site, it looks similar to BeerSmith in it's basic functions. All things being equal, you can pay a ONE TIME $24.00 for BeerSmith at Birdman Brewing, or $17.99 every two years for Brewer's Friend, so it looks like BeerSmith starts being cheaper after two years. Comeon, though, we're talking about less than a typical batch of beer here!!
 
I use Beersmith and am very happy with it. I am also not a fan of having to cough up money on an annual basis to use something that I use almost daily.
 
There are a number of features of BS that are not available on brewersfriend. Equipment profile and automatic mash, sparge, boil volume calculations being the most glaring. Brewersfriend has the advantage of being a website so it is potentially available anywhere with internet access, but Beersmith has functionality built in there as well. Also, since brewersfriend is a website, it can be more easily updated with new features which you will have immediate access to - although I have been playing with brewersfriend off and on for the last few months and have not seen any changes, so i dont know how actively they develop it.
 
You can buy the disc at NB and it used to be cheaper (than the BS website) and when NB had their flat Rate shipping it was a no brainer when ordering anything from them.

BTW... Beersmith is the only choice IMHO.
 
Yooper said:
I use Beersmith, and I have for over 6 years. I like it. My equipment profile fits, and works, and my inventory is updated. I liked the original version more than the upgraded version, but there is support and it's easy to add things (like homegrown hops) to the list.
Click to expand...

I need to figure that out then....I used Zythos the last brew but it wasn't there so i added it as a note that I subbed it for Centennial...need to play with it more. I love the cloud too
 
That's the biggest thing to learn about Beersmith. All the equipment tweaks to get all the numbers to come out accurate to what you're actually doing. But being able to update ingredient lists is great too. Cloud has turned out to be really handy...especially with those pesky hacker attacks! Reload & download. Done.:mug:
 
Beersmith is far more accurate if you use it correctly. BF just isnt there yet. It will be and it seems to go through a heck of a lot more updates than BS does. I use BF for my mash pH estimates, ABV calculator and pitch rates. Recipe design is BS all the way. BF never gives me the numbers of BS nor the numbers I get from the actual brew day.

BS for now...BF in a few years at the rate it improves.
 
No software is effective if you don't use it properly or if it does not seem to be easy for you to use. I would recommend doing a trial of each and determining which meets your needs and is easy enough for you to use.

That said, as a Beersmith user, if you take the time to customize the software to your particular brewing set-up and process, the more accurate and effective it will perform for you. Beersmith met that condition for me.
 
Can anyone comment on the mobile, cloud, multi-device capabilities of BS and BF? I purchased BeerToolsPro a couple of years ago and I find I just don't use it because its resides on my one computer and I'm rarely one because I do so much from my phone, tablet, etc. I'm realizing that is just not how I work anymore, its gotta be accessible from wherever, whenever.

Another issue would be pulling my recipe database into the cloud. Extra points to an app that can work from a database in a Dropbox, as I trust that more than the servers these brewing apps are running. BS's website looks like its hasn't been updated since the 90s, doesn't give me the confidence they are up with the latest with Amazon S3...
 
I do my recipe handling on my iPad and the mobile beersmith seems less friendly to set up. I had trouble tweaking my equipment profile. Brewers friend being a web site, works fine on my iPad or Mac. You can tweak your equipment settings and it keeps track of your inventory as well as creates shopping lists. There are a bunch of nice calculators for various jobs such as water volumes, bottling sugar, etc. maybe I'll try the full version of BS sometime but for now, I'm comfortable with BF.
 
Big_Cat said:
Beer Smith cost $27.99, Brewers Friend is $9.99 for a year and $17.99 for two years.... My question is which program do you use and why??
Click to expand...

Beersmith is my brewing friend.

But seriously, I like beersmith, but I would have preferred a web version rather than a mobile app.
 
BF, but its mostly for two reasons.

1. It is free

2. It is free and it gives me reasonably accurate calculations that match my outcomes, while still being free.

My SRM is usually a tiny bit lower than what is predicted in BF, but at max I'm only off by about 2 SRM, generally its lower than 1 SRM and thats within personal bias (I might be making it all up in my head). The water chemistry and pH calculations seem to be spot on and I can make reasonable predictions when I do decoction mashing (mental adjustments for pH changes due to the decoction).

Either calculator will give you fairly close numbers as long as you make sure you tweek the individual statistics to match what your system is doing. For example starting boil volume can have a large down stream effect on your beer and its an easy stat to forget to tweek (if you start with a 7.5 gallon boil vs. a 6 gallon boil).

I have the BF free app on my phone, which sucks I can only have two recipes listed at any time. But I'll have an "on-deck" recipe which will be the next beer I brew and then assorted "idea" brews I'll put through the second slot if I'm out and think of a beer idea for somethign I want to brew. Otherwise I run the web version on my iPad when I am at home so I can do reviews of my recipe side by side with water chemistry calculations.

TLDR: The calculators are only as accurate as the user.
 
The respondents all seem to be BeerSmith cheerleaders. Personally I have both BeerSmith and Brewer's Friend, and find Brewer's Friend friendlier and easier and more comfortable to use. Both are available for IOS and Android also, and the IOS version of Brewer's Friend appears to be a one time payment rather than a subscription.


H.W.
 
I've been planning to buy Beersmith before my next brew day. Once you have a product key, can you use that key on multiple devices. i.e., I've got my desktop computer that I do most of my work on. But I've also got an old laptop I've been thinking about formatting to Ubuntu and using as a brew day computer, and then the mobile app for brew days at a friends house, etc.
 
dkwolf said:
I've been planning to buy Beersmith before my next brew day. Once you have a product key, can you use that key on multiple devices. i.e., I've got my desktop computer that I do most of my work on. But I've also got an old laptop I've been thinking about formatting to Ubuntu and using as a brew day computer, and then the mobile app for brew days at a friends house, etc.
Click to expand...

Looks like mobile app goes for another $8
 
Well, clearly I am in the minority here, but I use Brewer's Friend and I love it. I've found it to be really accurate for me, and I get predictable and repeatable results (it always kind of blows my mind how correct it is). I also really like being able to build a recipe on my laptop and have it easily sync to my phone and ipad (or vice versa).

I haven't used Beersmith, but I'm fully aware that it seems to be the most used / standard brewing software. I just started with Brewer's Friend and it's always worked great for me, so I plan to stick with 'em.
 
I've never used brewers friend, but I don't regret buying beersmith one bit. It has so many features that I don't use yet - I've got a lot of room to grow before I even utilize it fully.
 
dkwolf said:
I've been planning to buy Beersmith before my next brew day. Once you have a product key, can you use that key on multiple devices. i.e., I've got my desktop computer that I do most of my work on. But I've also got an old laptop I've been thinking about formatting to Ubuntu and using as a brew day computer, and then the mobile app for brew days at a friends house, etc.
Click to expand...

You can use the product key on the laptop but would need to purchase the mobile version for tablet or phone. I have both and prefer Beersmith over Brewers Friend.
 
I suggest you try Brewer's Friend online... It's free to use but you can't save recipes, etc without subscribing. Unlike Beersmith, you can go right to work without doing a lot of configuring. You can of course configure to your heart's content...... and save those configurations when you subscribe.

H.W.
 
Owly055 said:
I suggest you try Brewer's Friend online... It's free to use but you can't save recipes, etc without subscribing. Unlike Beersmith, you can go right to work without doing a lot of configuring. You can of course configure to your heart's content...... and save those configurations when you subscribe.

H.W.
Click to expand...

This is what I did. Always utilize a free service before dropping cash on a pay-to-play service. You can always "theory-craft" the recipe in BF then write the numbers down in a notebook (once I brew a recipe I remove it from my BF app and write it in my notebook of beer recipes/notes).

I am contemplating Beersmith now because I have my system down so I know what sort of predictions I can make about the myriad number of measurements you can make.

If I bought BS right away I would've still spent a long time figuring out my system, you can enter whatever settings in BS you want but if you don't know how your system will react those settings are completely useless.
 
ArkotRamathorn said:
This is what I did. Always utilize a free service before dropping cash on a pay-to-play service. You can always "theory-craft" the recipe in BF then write the numbers down in a notebook (once I brew a recipe I remove it from my BF app and write it in my notebook of beer recipes/notes).

I am contemplating Beersmith now because I have my system down so I know what sort of predictions I can make about the myriad number of measurements you can make.

If I bought BS right away I would've still spent a long time figuring out my system, you can enter whatever settings in BS you want but if you don't know how your system will react those settings are completely useless.
Click to expand...

I have used both......... I much prefer BF to BS, and get consistent and accurate results, the efficiency setting is about the only one you need to adjust, rather than going through all the nonsense of setting up your system parameters. But I only use the bare minimum of the capabilities of these programs. All I want is to be able to dial in the OG,ABV, SRM, and IBUs, inputting my grain and water volumes, mash temp, and yeast. The rest of the features are quite useless to me, except for a few calculators. I would prefer a minimalist software package actually.

H.W.
 
You can do the same thing with BS2. I started out that way, & am still getting used to all the settings. Especially after the computer took a dump twice since I bought BS2.
 
I use the mobile Beersmith. great program and was able to purchase for iPhone for only $8 (on sale).
the portability is awesome especially while brewing.
although I do use Brewers friend for water adjustments (haven't made the step to Bru'N water just yet) ��
 
Owly055 said:
I have used both......... I much prefer BF to BS, and get consistent and accurate results, the efficiency setting is about the only one you need to adjust, rather than going through all the nonsense of setting up your system parameters. But I only use the bare minimum of the capabilities of these programs. All I want is to be able to dial in the OG,ABV, SRM, and IBUs, inputting my grain and water volumes, mash temp, and yeast. The rest of the features are quite useless to me, except for a few calculators. I would prefer a minimalist software package actually.

H.W.
Click to expand...

This is why I recommend running a trial of each software package and determine which works for you.

I move between 10 liter batches (BIAB) indoors during the cold months to 20 liter batches (traditional 3V mash tun) outside when the weather turns, um, warmish(?). Having both systems dialed in in BeerSmith allows me to move recipes from indoors (development stage) to outdoors (production stage) and hit all my numbers consistently. My systems are completely different for trub losses, dead space, brewing process, and efficiency and BeerSmith allows through the scale recipe feature for seamless movement between the two.

Some people don't need that sort of detailed ability, and other software covers their needs just fine.
 
Oginme said:
This is why I recommend running a trial of each software package and determine which works for you.

I move between 10 liter batches (BIAB) indoors during the cold months to 20 liter batches (traditional 3V mash tun) outside when the weather turns, um, warmish(?). Having both systems dialed in in BeerSmith allows me to move recipes from indoors (development stage) to outdoors (production stage) and hit all my numbers consistently. My systems are completely different for trub losses, dead space, brewing process, and efficiency and BeerSmith allows through the scale recipe feature for seamless movement between the two.

Some people don't need that sort of detailed ability, and other software covers their needs just fine.
Click to expand...

This was the more eloquent point I was trying to make. Try both, but always take the cheaper option first. Particularly for someone trying to make the step into creating their own original recipes.

I started right out the gate with creating my own recipes for beers, if I had been using BS or BF, they all still wouldve been bad(in some case only a little bad), BS wouldn't have necessarily make my recipes better since I was still making the ingredient choices. If I had bought BS for 8 bucks, I would've been extremely sour about BS simply because I bought a calculator for brewing and my beers still werent coming out the way I wanted them (well, 60% of my issues were recipe related, the rest was not knowing my system/not brewing often enough).

Is the BS trial version a "trial" version or "free" version? Aka do you only get to use it for like 2 months on your device and then they say "oh you can only use this now if you purchase".
 
I use the brewersfriend recipe designer v1.26 app on my laptop. It was free and works fine. If I didn't have a free app to use, I would have to do math :mad:
 
ArkotRamathorn said:
This was the more eloquent point I was trying to make. Try both, but always take the cheaper option first. Particularly for someone trying to make the step into creating their own original recipes.

I started right out the gate with creating my own recipes for beers, if I had been using BS or BF, they all still wouldve been bad(in some case only a little bad), BS wouldn't have necessarily make my recipes better since I was still making the ingredient choices. If I had bought BS for 8 bucks, I would've been extremely sour about BS simply because I bought a calculator for brewing and my beers still werent coming out the way I wanted them (well, 60% of my issues were recipe related, the rest was not knowing my system/not brewing often enough).

Is the BS trial version a "trial" version or "free" version? Aka do you only get to use it for like 2 months on your device and then they say "oh you can only use this now if you purchase".
Click to expand...


The trial for Beersmith is a 30-day trial, no commitment.

I also started with designing my own recipes. I went through the math a couple of times and produced 'eh' recipes. Hated going back to redo all the impacts of minor changes. BeerSmith helped with recipe design, impact of small changes (and major ones), impact of process changes. After a few brews to dial in my system, it was easily able to reproduce accurate results for me.

Being a 'process-oriented' type, BeerSmith just seemed to have a lot more to offer when I did my trials of several types of software back three years ago.
 

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