BeerSmith, Brewers Friend, or????

[Drewed]

I’m loooking at buying brewing software. What is everybody using, and what er the good/ bad points.

I mainly want to use it track and store my brewing journal. I also need it to scale up or done in volume as I usually make 1 -3 gallon batches.

If it would be able to handle mead and cider that would be a plus.

Price is not an issue, but is the biggest negativity to brewers friend -25$ a year!

 

[kh54s10]

I use Beersmith. It is not a plug and play, you have to learn how to use this tool. I have never used it to scale. Or to create mead or cider, though I think it can.

I have bought more than one copy due to a computer dying... But it is a one time cost.

I don't know what you want a journal to do. Beersmith has places for notes but they would be within a recipe, not all in one place.

 

[Boomer]

I’ve found a good old fashioned composition notebook paired with beersmith to be a great combination.

Not sure if beersmith can do wine and mead because I don’t make either. I’ll likely be venturing into mead this year so that’s a great question that I hope gets answered.

 

[ttuato]

BrewCipher - it is free. It is available on another beer forum for download - just google it (am not sure about rules to link to another forum). I have used it for two years. I originally started using it as a trial before converting to BeerSmith / BrewersFriend. It ended up meeting (almost) every need that I had so I never converted.

Notes, Recipe scaling, add custom hops / yeast / malt, SG correction, yeast starter, Refractometer converter, CO2 tables, water adjustments (I use Brun Water instead - it predicts pH better. It is free too located here on HBT)

 

[Setsumi]

I use 2. #1. Brewtoad a web app free. BUT only allows one equipment profile in free version. A lot of recipes.
#2. Beersmith mobile, can use on multiple devices but need to set equipment profiles on all devices. But can create multiple equipment profiles and mashes. Recipes in cloud is limited to 5 but I download them to different devices. Also beersmith mobile cant import bmx? Recipes. But if shared in cloud you can download and scale tou your equipment. Price for me was very reasonable.

 

[bpgreen]

I used qbrew for a while, but switched to BeerSmith and haven't looked back.

 

[kh54s10]

Be aware that Beersmith mobile is a trimmed down version of the PC program. It will do a lot but not all that the PC version will do. Many use the PC version for developing a recipe then send it to the mobile for brew day. I just take my laptop to the brew station.

I used the free Brewtoad before Brewtoad bought it and changed it up. It made good beer but was not very versatile. Whe Brewtoad got it they changed it a lot. At first I didn't like it, but have not looked at it since then.

 

[pshankstar]

I use Beersmith too. I have it on my MacBook and iPhone. It does everything I need and more. As others have said, there is a learning curve and you need to dial in your equipment if you want your numbers very accurate. It is not very hard and may seem intimidating, but it is not after you put some time into it. I went with it over Brewer's Friend, b/c I did not want another subscription to pay every year. I place all my notes into the "Notes" section with every recipe I brew.

Now if you want to add photos to your recipe, that is not available. If I am taking photos of the brew day, fermentation, kegging/bottling and then the finished product, I will export the recipe to a PDF and create a note in MS OneNote for this. Otherwise, I just keep all the notes in the "Notes" section.

 

[V-Fib]

I use Wort Homebrew Calculator on my phone and a notebook. It stores all your recipes, can scale, has an area for brew day notes, gives references for styles, it can be customized for equipment, gives you numbers based on the recipe and your efficiency, carbonation calc, gravity corrections, efficiency calc, ABV. It also looks like it can be linked to a Google account to store your recipes there also. The developer is working on a "personal inventory" feature where you can keep track of your inventory in the near future. The free version is the same as the paid for $4.99 I think.

Not designed for meads or cider but you can enter in your own ingredients and it will calculate your numbers if you know the ingredients sugar potential.

 

[JohnSand]

Interesting discussion. I have used BrewersFriend for years, and like it. At first I used the free version, which will only save five recipes. I don't really need to save them, as I wrote them down. But for $15 a year, I subscribed. Now that it is $25, and I have a newer computer, I'll try Beersmith.

 

[WestMichBrewer]

I use Brewer's Friend. Being a web application, you can access your recipes and the recipe builder from anywhere, even your phone if you are in need of last minute substitutions or adjustments while at your LHBS for instance.

I paid for multiple years...didn't know it had gone up to $25/year...Might have to investigate alternatives...Open Source BrewTarget looks interesting...and free, so definitely worth a try.

 

[DonGavlar]

I use beersmith and love it, nothing to complain about thus far. Has everything I need. Once you have it dialled in, its very accurate.

 

[kevin58]

I was a Pro-Mash user for years and years until the developer abandoned it. When it came time to find something new I researched and tried a lot of trial versions until I finally settled on Beersmith. It takes a bit of working with it to get it dialed in but now I love it. What I don't like so much is the mobile version. You can't do half the stuff on the mobile version that you can on the full version.

 

[Smellyglove]

I also use beersmith. It's a great tool, when you've learnt it, the learning curve is pretty steep.

There's also a free web based software called brewingday.net which is free at the moment. The developer is adding features and buxfixes all the time. You sort of just "hey, how about a feature which blablabla" and he's "sound good" (if it truly is a good feature), and a few hours or days later it's there.

 

[day_trippr]

Pretty sure Brewer's Friend is a division of the same burgeoning conglomerate that owns HBT

I use BS2 on my peecee for recipe creation and inventory management, pull recipes through the BS cloud to a tablet on brew days, then push them back with all of the data and notes filled in.
I use MS Project for tracking brewery activity and resource management. I have it set up with all my cold-side equipment and when a new batch is scheduled it'll tell me if I have a conflict on fridge space/fermentors/whatever. It has a journal going back over a decade...

Cheers!