BeerSmith, BeerTools, Or Something Else?

[NorthMoonBrewing]

Hey guys, Looking to buy a brewing software to create and maintain recipes. I have used Beersmit's trial version and I enjoyed it so far.But I want to know what others think before I 20+ dollars on one of these. Give me some feedback for which way to go please.

 

[BGHSmt7]

I use both the desktop and mobile versions of BeerSmith. I also utilize the cloud-based services available with BeerSmith. I have not used the others because BS works great for my needs.

 

[raysmithtx]

You will probably get lots of opinions on what software to use. I tried most of them and ended up with Beersmith and am very happy. Lots of users and lots of questions already answered here and on the Beersmith forum.

It has a bit of a learning curve and it will take a few brew sessions to get your numbers dialed in but I think Beersmith is a great product for the homebrewer.

 

[zbeth02]

beersmith

 

[GreenGoatee]

Beersmith desktop and mobile, create recipes on pc, then copy to cloud to use my phone on brewday.

 

[day_trippr]

I use the desktop version of BS2 for recipe creation and inventory management, and the 'Droid mobile version on a Tab S2 on brew days.
While BS2 still has its aggravations and there are still plenty of issues extant, I've found the core functions extremely useful and can't imagine a brew day without it.

If one has already scaled much of the Beersmith learning curve and hasn't punted it out of frustration, I'd say go for it

Cheers!

 

[jcav]

I agree with day trippr. I dialed my electric system in with BeerSmith 2 and once I got it nailed I really like it. Now that I am used to it I am very happy with it and wouldn't brew a recipe without it on my system. It scales your recipes very well and you can adjust gravity, hops, color, etc for your system very easily once you dial it in. I'm sure other programs work well also, but I only have experience with BS2.

John

 

[kh54s10]

No experience with any of the others. Some of the online ones work but are semi accurate. You cannot adjust as much so there is some generalization.

Beersmith is a tool and it does take some "dialing in" You might need to do a few - to quite a few brews with adjustments to the profiles to get accurate results.

Beersmith has been in constant development so I would say it will be improved where some of the others might have been developed and presented then left as is.

From what I see in references on HBT, I would say that Beersmith is far and away the most used.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Beersmith is the biggest, and is the best "all in one" software. There's a number of (small-ish) issues with it, and a number of improvements I would make for user friendliness. The only thing that's inaccurate is the mash chemistry / water adjustment formulas (uses Troeser formulas instead of @MartinBrungard s), and the yeast starter formulas (uses Jamils formulas instead of Troeser).

Brewtarget is an open source free software alternative, that on the surface looks very similar. It's a work in progress, and currently I don't think it's quite ready to replace beersmith. It's getting close, and I like a lot of the new things that the development team has planned for version 2.4. The biggest issue for recipe formulation in brewtarget is that mash temps don't influence attenuation (FG), this is something they're patching on the next version I believe.

Brewers friend is the biggest online "all in one", and is pretty decent. Again there's a learning curve, but I don't think it's as thick as beersmith. Some ingredient malt specs don't match what I get from malsters (or from beersmith), so the efficiencies and gravities don't always line up. They don't seem to update their standalone calculators (the efficiency calculator is horribly inaccurate).

Next is brewtoad, homebrewhedonist, and a couple other free online ones that have small user demographics. I don't really recommend any, there's always something that conflicts or doesn't work well when compared to the others.

I definitely recommend using an online calculator in conjunction with setting up your beersmith equipment profile and mash profiles in order to make sure it's calibrated correctly. Setting up beersmith can be cumbersome, I recommend checking out brulosopher's video guides. One such calculator (mine) is located in my sig, let me know if you have any questions about it.

My general process is

1. recipe formulation in beersmith.
2. Water volumes, temps, mash parameters, and brewday numbers from my mash calculator. Get efficiency estimation, and plug that back into beersmith, and scale the recipe according to new brewhouse efficiency.
3. Mash PH and water chemistry from Bru'n water.

 

[Totally]

Landed on Brewers Friend myself.

I like the interface the most and that its web/cloud based software. Its as advanced as BeerSmith with a much cleaner and easier to use UI.

 

[Big Monk]

It will come as no surprise to anyone who has interacted with me that I am a fan of Excel.

Brewing spreadsheets in Excel are the best option for someone with the time and wherewithal to write one up. You customize everything to your brewery and make zero concessions to the developer like most people have to do commercially available software.

My spreadsheet has yeast calcs, pH estimation and water software, packaging calcs, recipe formulation, etc. all in one package. I pick what calculations I want to use. Hell, you can even incorporate beer.xml output into an excel sheet and make an output file for trading with other users or inputting to your controller.

Excel puts you in charge of your own destiny so to speak. With that said, it can take some time to get everything squared away and formatted. You can start small though and add things over time. My sheet has been evolving for 3 years now.

 

[55x11]

Hey guys, Looking to buy a brewing software to create and maintain recipes. I have used Beersmit's trial version and I enjoyed it so far.But I want to know what others think before I 20+ dollars on one of these. Give me some feedback for which way to go please.

BeerSmith for sure. I tried a bunch of different software packages, some have nicer interface but beersmith has extensive functionality that fits just about anyone. Water profiles, fairly new feature, makes it very easy to do all your water calculations/adjustments in one place. Extensive library of hops, grains, etc. Lots of recipes in the cloud (wish it integrated a bit better - and I wish more people made their recipes available in the database and ranked them).

Mobile version just got a major update too so you can do just about anything on the phone that you can with laptop.

 

[jrodmfish]

Beersmith + Brewers Friend for water calculations

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

Thanks guys, I had been leaning towards beer smith as I had used their trial version twice. I just wanted to make sure, as while reading Kal's book he talks about BeerTools. But this made it easy for me, will be purchasing today and getting everything started, Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[Anyhowe]

Beersmith on my iPad seems very limited. Can't seem to find water profile adjustments or anything but basic inventory of recipies etc. . Where is the whole file structure that I see in the examples? Clearly this must be user error.

 

[BGHSmt7]

Beersmith on my iPad seems very limited. Can't seem to find water profile adjustments or anything but basic inventory of recipies etc. . Where is the whole file structure that I see in the examples? Clearly this must be user error.

I don't see the water profile adjustment screen on my android phone either. I use my laptop for the profile and take a photo with my camera phone. Not the best solution, but it's a solution.

 

[BeerAddikt]

I use BrewersFriend. It seemed easier to pick up than my limited attempt at BS2.

 

[Anyhowe]

I don't see the water profile adjustment screen on my android phone either. I use my laptop for the profile and take a photo with my camera phone. Not the best solution, but it's a solution.

Crap a waste of money, oh well. Do people still use laptops and desktops??

 

[BGHSmt7]

Crap a waste of money, oh well. Do people still use laptops and desktops??

Surprisingly, yes. I work at a Pawnshop as my 9-7... A lot of laptops are still being sold. Sometimes it's easier to have a proper computer rather than a tablet/phone. Sometimes a tablet/phone is more convenient albeit limited in functionality.

*EDIT:
However, the easy update for the brew day specifics on the app is nice.. Strike water temp, timer, session data, etc. is a really nice feature where my laptop/computer would just not cut it for me.

 

[kh54s10]

Unless BS has updated the tablet version, which I don't think has happened, it is not the full version of Beersmith. For that you need the PC version. The tablet version is good for starting a recipe on the go, or for use on brewday. You can access a recipe that you did a full workup on the PC through the cloud on brewday, or access the tablet recipe for tweaking on your PC.

I did not get the tablet version since I already had the PC version. On brewday I just take my laptop to my brew porch.

 

[Totally]

Another reason to vote for BrewersFriend.

Web based application, so gives a consistent experience on all platforms. I use my laptop, tablet and phone all the time to both brew and design recipes without learning a new interface or missing a key feature.

Am I a BF FanBoy? Sure am!