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Which one do you prefer?I used Beersmith for years, switched to Brewfather last year
Which one do you prefer?I used Beersmith for years, switched to Brewfather last year
Not sure what the WIN OS issue is related to?, I run WIn 10 latest update with no problem. I thought I had it set to run in compatibility mode, no its running native under Win10 . Dont know if I can provide any advice to get it running for you againRegarding QBREW - I too loved that simple, yet elegant, brewing software, and used it exclusively for many years. However, it stopped working after the most recent Microsoft update. It just will not open. Brewtarget still works, but was always second best to QBREW. Sigh. I cry tears for you QBREW.
I had the old version, 1.5 and used that for years with no complaints. The biggest difference was the update to the BJCP categories. It does inventory but I mostly only use that for hops. I never print anything. I have my own brewlogs and I write them by hand. There is an online recipe database. I think BeerTools has some connection to the people at BYO magazine. So its software designed by brewing people for brewing people.I use Beer Tools Pro, and still feel like it's the best brewing software out there (functionality, GUI, etc.). I'm not convinced Beersmith or Brewfather (the only others I would consider if I had to switch today) do anything that is significantly better, and they are much harder on the eyes (especially BeerSmith, which is just fugly.)
On the downside, Beer Tools Pro is not maintained to the same degree as the others. A new update (2.11) was recently released, and IIRC this was the first new update in several years. That said, I haven't found it to be wanting for anything; when it first came out, and especially when 2.0 was released, it was light years ahead of anything else on the market (especially for Mac users, where options were always limited)
Now, to be clear, if someone's main purpose is simply a recipe database, *any* software will work.
The real value of brewing software is when you calibrate all of your equipment (to be able to accurately predict the brewday), manage your ingredient inventory, etc.
A buddy of mine is still using ProMash... if it works, it works!
Which one do you prefer?
If you are creating the recipe in the local folder (My Recipes) and moving it to the cloud, @Golddiggie is reporting an issue with strike temperatures changing. I didn't try particularly hard but I didn't have the issue happen when I tried to test it. I will check on it in the future just to see.fwiw, while I create and manage recipes (and inventory) using BS3 on my Windows box, I use BS3 mobile on an Android tablet on brew days, as it provides the strike water temperature tool and the timer function along with the basic recipe amounts and timing. I push the recipe up to a slot in my BS Cloud space and pull it down to the tablet, and away I go. I can also back-annotate brew day data via tablet input.
I don't think BS3 mobile is ready to be a standalone product...yet. I expect it will, eventually...
Cheers!
I have a consistent issue with printing my recipes from the app itself
Ditto. Still don’t know what printing is problematic.I have this issue as well. My solution is to create a print preview of the recipe and then print the print preview. Image below. Otherwise I love Beersmith.
View attachment 743957
Any problems using BeerSmith on Mac? I’ve had a few issues (printing, not updating correctly when scaling batch size) but more so with my recipes on cloud & using mobile version on iPad.Mac user… started with BeerAlchemy years ago, then transitioned to Beersmith. Was hearing good things about Brewfather so began running both to compare. Now a premium Brewfather user and very happy. I imported all my recipes easily but had to work on the inventory as some of my ingredients had slightly different parameters (grain color/alpha acid %, etc.) that the Brewfather software didn’t recognize but it was relatively easy to fix. Ability to use it across all my devices a real plus. Also seems to be a bit easier to use once you get familiar with the layout.
I love that they support multiple platforms. I have it installed on my win10 desktop and also installed on my Linux mint laptop. There are a couple of tiny quirks graphically in mint but other than that it works very well. The cloud works great too.Any problems using BeerSmith on Mac? I’ve had a few issues (printing, not updating correctly when scaling batch size) but more so with my recipes on cloud & using mobile version on iPad.
BeerSmith does not use a predictive model for efficiencies, even though it is fairly straight forward to predict mash efficiency if you know your typical conversion efficiency. What is does is use the brewhouse efficiency, that you specify, and the equipment losses that you also specify, to back calculate the "estimated" mash efficiency. The big bogey in this is the lauter efficiency which depends on your sparge process and grain bill weight to pre-boil volume ratio....
I can't seem to get the mash efficiencies to come out right on Beer Smith (not that it matters).
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Any problems using BeerSmith on Mac? I’ve had a few issues (printing, not updating correctly when scaling batch size) but more so with my recipes on cloud & using mobile version on iPad.
Not really… one quirk (and I believe it’s the same with Brewfather), is when I make any adjustments to my equipment profile, I have to refresh the recipe by changing the profile to another option, then back again to trigger the adjustments. Perhaps this is similar to your scaling issues. I never used the cloud service and never print so can’t speak to those items. Beersmith was fine for me but I’m liking Brewfather better. The seemingly less detailed screen appearance provides all the information I need in an easier to view format.Any problems using BeerSmith on Mac? I’ve had a few issues (printing, not updating correctly when scaling batch size) but more so with my recipes on cloud & using mobile version on iPad.
when I make any adjustments to my equipment profile, I have to refresh the recipe by changing the profile to another option, then back again to trigger the adjustments.
Not really… one quirk (and I believe it’s the same with Brewfather), is when I make any adjustments to my equipment profile, I have to refresh the recipe by changing the profile to another option, then back again to trigger the adjustments. Perhaps this is similar to your scaling issues. I never used the cloud service and never print so can’t speak to those items. Beersmith was fine for me but I’m liking Brewfather better. The seemingly less detailed screen appearance provides all the information I need in an easier to view format.
I have several different profiles for different systems. When I take say a 10 gal recipes and scale them with the 5 gal system profile the liquid volumes always need to be closely checked and often adjusted. The 5 gal profile works well if not scaling a larger batch, cloud issues not withstanding…The profiles are basically master “templates” that you can attach to a recipe. Changing a profile will not change a recipe for the reason @duncan.brown mentioned above (that would really be a mess if it did).
You can however edit the profile in the recipe. There should be a little edit button next to the profile selector (at least there is in Windows). There, you can make changes that will immediately be reflected for that recipe. It will not change the master profile or affect other recipes. This goes for any other type of profile (mash, water…).
That’s a great point that never occurred to me!! I can imagine going back to brew one of your flagship recipes and not recognizing the equipment profile had changed!!I actually think that's a feature, not a bug. It allows me to tweak my equipment profile without changing the parameters of old batches that were made before the tweak.
I use Beersmith on the Mac and other than printing, I love it.
Yep, that’s similar to my scaling issues. And Duncan.Brown’s feedback may have just explained why that’s been happening. I like BeerSmith and may stick with it in the long run, but I’ll switch to BrewFather this weekend based on input - thanks! I have 3 new recipes to do next week so I’ll do smaller batches, then scale them to larger and see how it goes. I do like the screen better on BF as you also mentioned.Not really… one quirk (and I believe it’s the same with Brewfather), is when I make any adjustments to my equipment profile, I have to refresh the recipe by changing the profile to another option, then back again to trigger the adjustments. Perhaps this is similar to your scaling issues. I never used the cloud service and never print so can’t speak to those items. Beersmith was fine for me but I’m liking Brewfather better. The seemingly less detailed screen appearance provides all the information I need in an easier to view format.
BeerSmith does not use a predictive model for efficiencies, even though it is fairly straight forward to predict mash efficiency if you know your typical conversion efficiency. What is does is use the brewhouse efficiency, that you specify, and the equipment losses that you also specify, to back calculate the "estimated" mash efficiency. The big bogey in this is the lauter efficiency which depends on your sparge process and grain bill weight to pre-boil volume ratio.
Brew on
I wish there was a way to customize the BS sheets, as it always displays (to me) redundant data (such as the estimated vs measured data). Brad Smith is very good at responding to any inquires, as is the Brewfather creator on their FB page. Can't really go wrong with either.
Aha! I was looking around in the program folders for what might be the template that the recipe prints from. I saw the reports section but didn't realize you could add something there. Thanks!This can be done, look here. It can be difficult getting started if you are't familiar with html.
Well Joe, I did it…I switched to Brewfather and paid for subscription yesterday when trial period ended. Recipe transfers from BSmith - simple. Building inventory list - easy but took some time.The switch was really easy. I find it must more user friendly, and the fact that you can use it on all phone, tablet, PC, etc and it saves automatically is a plus.
I have yet to see a downside to it really. The only thing is possible missing ingredients, but I brew "simple" so that is few and far between. I only had to add Midnight Wheat, but I took all the information from the website and plugged it in.
You can transfer recipes from Beersmith, but only from a computer (in my experience.) From Beersmith, export recipe to beer XML. Log into Brewfather and import beer xml file.....Done
Didn’t you mean that the other way around? Brewfather’s Tilt integration is one of the few reasons I have considered switching from BS to BF.Beersmith has a better integration with my tilt hydrometer than Brewfather but I have gotten both to work.
Not for me. I do not have a dedicated logging device for my Tilt. I usually log to my phone when I am around my brew room - 3 to 4 times a day. I export a csv file and import that into Beersmith. Brewfather does not have the capability to import a Tilt CSV file. I know I can log to a google sheet and then sync that to Brewfather but so far it has not worked well. On the one batch I had gotten it to work, the data disappeared after I had kegged the batch. It is certainly an area I need to go tweak. I just found the integration to be easier with BS.Didn’t you mean that the other way around? Brewfather’s Tilt integration is one of the few reasons I have considered switching from BS to BF.
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