Brewing software suggestions?

SSBrew - 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Jako

Jako

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2017
Messages
1,201
Reaction score
407
Location
Northern Utah
I recently received a recipe from a brewery in FL that i really love. In the email he suggested i use beer smith to figure out some of the additions for my specific brew system, makes sense. But i started looking at brew smith and thought is it worth the money? I currently use Wort on my phone and Brewgr on the computer both have pro's and cons but hey for free i haven't had to many issues beside having to use both to get all my information.

I am looking for a safe place to keep my recipes as well as looking to become more organized and would like have a little more consistency with my beer's. i would also like the program to have a water profile calculator as i will be working with RO water soon and this will be a first for me.
 
Jako said:
I recently received a recipe from a brewery in FL that i really love. In the email he suggested i use beer smith to figure out some of the additions for my specific brew system, makes sense. But i started looking at brew smith and thought is it worth the money? I currently use Wort on my phone and Brewgr on the computer both have pro's and cons but hey for free i haven't had to many issues beside having to use both to get all my information.

I am looking for a safe place to keep my recipes as well as looking to become more organized and would like have a little more consistency with my beer's. i would also like the program to have a water profile calculator as i will be working with RO water soon and this will be a first for me.
Click to expand...

I got beer smith and love it. I probably use like 10% of what it can do.
It does go on sale from time to time.

What is it like $30 a year?
Figure it costs $2/week?
That is two less craft beers at the bar, or one craft 6 pack less a week.
Make your own really tasty beer instead!
Use beeramith to help make better beer!!

(I am sure you can use anything for any price. But if you LIKE what fl g
Brewer sent you, then you may have found a platform you like.)
 
@Jako, I have BeerSmith2, BeerSmith3 and Brewer's Friend. Initially, I liked Brewer's Friend. It was easier to understand and use and I liked the program's layout. I liked (and still do) BF's mobile app over BS. During my first year of brewing all grain, I used both programs. I never could get both programs to agree exactly with each other even though the recipe and equipment setup were the same.

With that said, this past year I have used BS3 exclusively except when it comes to acid additions. BS actually calculates what additions and amounts to add for a particular water profile. BF does not. Plus, there are more water profiles in BS3.

When it comes to pH, I use Mash Made Easy for estimated pH and whether I need acid or baking soda.

Recently, when I imputed a BS water profile into BF's water calculator, BF indicated one of the addition levels was way too high and suggested it was a health risk. Thus, I lowered the addition to a more reasonable level.

I suggest you download a free trial of each program and determine what you like best. I believe each still give you two weeks free trial of their full version. Make no mistake, BF feels updated and more modern. However, in my opinion, BS3 is a workhorse.

Good luck in your search!
 
BeerSmith 3 is pretty good though it could use quite a few updates to the UI on the Mac side to bring it out of eye-bleeding Windows port and into a native Mac app that shakes hands with the mobile offerings a little more gracefully.

My workflow typically goes iPad—>sketch my recipe, save to cloud—>Mac where I can make better use of the brewing tools including the water chemistry adjustments—>print for brew day and my brewing notebook.

Took me a few batches to get my efficiency to agree closely with BeerSmith’s estimates and now my custom equipment profiles consistently push out accurate predictions on recipe variables. Great tool overall despite the differences between mobile and desktop versions. Get both and ask Brad to keep refining his programs; they’re getting very good.
 
Wayne1 said:
I have used BeerSmith for many years. I recently trialed BrewFather https://brewfather.app/
I feel it is far superior in use to BeerSmith. I have switched completely to BrewFather
Click to expand...

is BrewFather an Apple app i don't see it under android store.

using the trials to figure out what i like best is a good idea. not sure why i didn't think of that. For the Beersmith phone app have any of you had issues with it losing recipe information? i was reading a few reviews that said its not reliable. cost is not a issue i just want to make sure its worth the money i would hate to buy something that i never use.
 
Imhoppy said:
Bring back the old-school slide rules... interesting thread here.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/index.php?threads/286771/
Click to expand...

They overlooked DR. BOB TECHNICAL'S WHEELS OF BEER.

FWIW, there appear to be side projects where people emulate slide rules in web browers - seems like a good way to learn advanced HTML/CSS/JS.
Jako said:
I am looking for a safe place to keep my recipes as well as looking to become more organized and would like have a little more consistency with my beer's. i would also like the program to have a water profile calculator as i will be working with RO water soon and this will be a first for me.
Click to expand...

There are a couple of people here at HBT who offer their Excel spreadsheets available for download - check out the brewing software forum.
 
I'm a big fan of Brewfather as well. It's not a downloadable app per se... just a website with the feel of an app.
 
going to save my trials once i get closer to my brew day so i can take full advantage of. found out today my house move in date was pushed back 3 weeks. sigh.

thank you for all the suggestions i will give it all a try and see what works best for my application thank you for all the advise.
 
Jako said:
going to save my trials once i get closer to my brew day...
Click to expand...

Brewfather doesn't have a time limit on its free version. It just has a limit on the number of active recipes and batches you can do, and some advanced features are disabled. But you can play around with the recipe editor all you want.
 
I have used Beersmith 2 for many years. I was an early bird buyer of Beersmith 3 when it went on sale. There are many user defined steps that trip up a lot of users. The most common is the equipment profile. Set this up accurately and you will love the program... don't and you will be frustrated.
 
I use bs3 with great results. I like that I can do to everything in one program without needing brunwater etc. Only things I would add is you want to ensure your chilling times are entered accurately to avoid over bittering especially if you use alot of late hops and I typically find that I only need 70% of what it recommends for my mash acid addition. Cheers
 
CodeSection said:
@Jako, I have BeerSmith2, BeerSmith3 and Brewer's Friend. Initially, I liked Brewer's Friend. It was easier to understand and use and I liked the program's layout. I liked (and still do) BF's mobile app over BS. During my first year of brewing all grain, I used both programs. I never could get both programs to agree exactly with each other even though the recipe and equipment setup were the same.

With that said, this past year I have used BS3 exclusively except when it comes to acid additions. BS actually calculates what additions and amounts to add for a particular water profile. BF does not. Plus, there are more water profiles in BS3.

When it comes to pH, I use Mash Made Easy for estimated pH and whether I need acid or baking soda.

Recently, when I imputed a BS water profile into BF's water calculator, BF indicated one of the addition levels was way too high and suggested it was a health risk. Thus, I lowered the addition to a more reasonable level.

I suggest you download a free trial of each program and determine what you like best. I believe each still give you two weeks free trial of their full version. Make no mistake, BF feels updated and more modern. However, in my opinion, BS3 is a workhorse.

Good luck in your search!
Click to expand...
I do the same. The lactic acid additions in Beersmith is crazy.
 
Blazinlow86 said:
I use bs3 with great results. I like that I can do to everything in one program without needing brunwater etc. Only things I would add is you want to ensure your chilling times are entered accurately to avoid over bittering especially if you use alot of late hops and I typically find that I only need 70% of what it recommends for my mash acid addition. Cheers
Click to expand...

that's cool for calculating IBU very interesting to me.
 
I have used 3 or 4 different applications/apps over the years. I have lost enough recipes and brew session info over the years that I finally decided that I would stop using brewing software as my "source" of data. I now populate a Word document with my recipe info. I also like that I can print out a copy to write on during brew day (vs trying to use a phone or computer while wet/sticky). Once complete, I print out a fresh copy to go into a notebook.

My current flow is to use BeerSmith3 Mobile to calculate my core numbers. I find that once I tuned my equipment and mash profiles, that I get very accurate predictions. Well, I use Bru'n Water for water chemistry and mash pH; BeerSmith seems terrible at predicting the impact of acid additions. The UI of BS3 Mobile kinda sucks, but I can enter a recipe from scratch in 5 minutes and since it is on my phone I can look up recipes on the go or play around while at work.

I am frugal...so $6 for BS3 Mobile and a $10 donation to Martin (the free version of Bru'n Water is fine, but $10 is still frugal).
 
Are you able to export from BS3 Mobil and save in a word document? i haven't had the chance to mess with anything this week. the paint on my wife's car was wrecked in a car wash and the wash is paying to have it fixed....
 
@Jako, I searched on the mobile BS3 app and the mobile Brewer's Friend app and neither of them had the capability to export to a word document or even print. BS3 had the capability to "copy" or "move" to another folder. The desktop versions of BS3 and web based Brewer's Friend allow you to print, which then you can print to a pdf file to save.

I reviewed BrewFather last March and based upon Wayne1 strong recommendation, I'm going to use it along with BS3 for the next few batches or so. Since BrewFather is web based, there is not any real limitation on printing. BrewFather's premium edition allows "exporting" to a pdf file.

I'm not sure the significance of you wanting to export to a word document. I would imagine any notes and items you wanted to type in a word document, you could accomplish with any of the desktop and web based programs. I can only speculate based upon rereading your original post is that you feel the word document is further backup in both electronic file and/or paper. If that is the case, and since computer hard drives fail, you might want to look at an encrypted backup service like https://www.idrive.com/.

I have been using idrive over 10 years. Here it how it compares with its competition https://www.idrive.com/idrive-vs-competition

EDIT: idrive various compliance approvals https://www.idrive.com/online-backup-compliance
 
Last edited:
Beer smith has a 30 day free trial śo give it a go!

Nate R said:
I got beer smith and love it. I probably use like 10% of what it can do.
It does go on sale from time to time.

What is it like $30 a year?
Figure it costs $2/week?
That is two less craft beers at the bar, or one craft 6 pack less a week.
Make your own really tasty beer instead!
Use beeramith to help make better beer!!

(I am sure you can use anything for any price. But if you LIKE what fl g
Brewer sent you, then you may have found a platform you like.)
Click to expand...
Jako said:
I recently received a recipe from a brewery in FL that i really love. In the email he suggested i use beer smith to figure out some of the additions for my specific brew system, makes sense. But i started looking at brew smith and thought is it worth the money? I currently use Wort on my phone and Brewgr on the computer both have pro's and cons but hey for free i haven't had to many issues beside having to use both to get all my information.

I am looking for a safe place to keep my recipes as well as looking to become more organized and would like have a little more consistency with my beer's. i would also like the program to have a water profile calculator as i will be working with RO water soon and this will be a first for me.
Click to expand...
Jako said:
I recently received a recipe from a brewery in FL that i really love. In the email he suggested i use beer smith to figure out some of the additions for my specific brew system, makes sense. But i started looking at brew smith and thought is it worth the money? I currently use Wort on my phone and Brewgr on the computer both have pro's and cons but hey for free i haven't had to many issues beside having to use both to get all my information.

I am looking for a safe place to keep my recipes as well as looking to become more organized and would like have a little more consistency with my beer's. i would also like the program to have a water profile calculator as i will be working with RO water soon and this will be a first for me.
Click to expand...
 
ended up buying the app. so far i like it a lot. I need to set my system up and test my kettle loss etc and figure it all out. I like to use roasted barley for color so i will add it in at 10 min left of mash or at mash out. no app has an option for that but maybe an odd ball thing i do but it works well.
 
I used a custom spreadsheet for 22 years then Beersmith for the last 6. It works great for me so why look elsewhere?
 
Brewer's Friend. I've never tried beersmith since I wanted full functionality on mobile.

I've played around a little with Brewfather, but I don't like the layout and flow of the website. Brewer's friend has had some grumblings because of some updates but I still think it's better for my needs. Then again you can just build your own brew sheets like I did when I started.
Black_Lion_allgrainsheet_Page_1.jpg
 
BrewnWKopperKat said:
There are also a couple of brewing spreadsheets in the "Brewing Software" forum that are under very active development.
Click to expand...
Yes those work too. Mine was intended as a pen and paper version. If I'm at home and decide to brew on the fly, I'll pull a sheet out and write down what I'm brewing and calculate gravities by hand. I might go back and estimate IBU, but not often.
 
I have been very happy with beersmith over the last two versions. I have not used it on a mac though. I find that its cost is nothing compared to the benefits I get from it.
 
cfrazier77 said:
I have been very happy with beersmith over the last two versions. I have not used it on a mac though. I find that its cost is nothing compared to the benefits I get from it.
Click to expand...

I use BeerSmith 3 on a Mac and have no complaints. So long as Brad keeps supporting the platform I’ll probably keep buying the upgrades/chipping in the annual fee.
 
For the past few years I've used Brewer's Friend but when Brewfather went on sale, I decided to try it out. I've come to like Brewfather over Brewer's Friend and plan to let my subscription lapse at the end of the year.

In addition to that, I use Bru'n water for figuring out water additions, and Priceless BIAB for figuring out my BIAB water volumes.
 
myndflyte said:
For the past few years I've used Brewer's Friend but when Brewfather went on sale, I decided to try it out. I've come to like Brewfather over Brewer's Friend and plan to let my subscription lapse at the end of the year.

In addition to that, I use Bru'n water for figuring out water additions, and Priceless BIAB for figuring out my BIAB water volumes.
Click to expand...

I started out with BS2 -> BS3 and BF. This year I have only used BS3 and I too, do not plan on renewing my BF subscription.

As mentioned in my post#22, I'm going to be using both BS3 and Brewfather. There is a lot to like about Brewfather. I particular like like the integration of my Tilt with Brewfather.
 
I have a question. I will be using a 2v system w ok would a full volume mash be the same as BIAB numbers for calculating volumes? It's a rims system if that helps any.
 

Similar threads

P
swap citric for lactic acid
Replies
4
Views
586
phbern
P
David Kozelenko
What water to use to brew
Replies
22
Views
627
IslandLizard
IslandLizard
A
Which Software to pay for?
Replies
26
Views
2K
Knightshade
Knightshade
Gadjobrinus
SMaSH IPA - 100% Warminster & EKG. Samuel Smith - "toasted," crystal?
Replies
18
Views
977
Gadjobrinus
Gadjobrinus
oakbarn
  • Poll
Maximum Different Hops During Boil Poll
Replies
6
Views
537
oakbarn
oakbarn
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top