What do you want from your software, that it doesn't do currently?

[rhamilton]

I'm a software developer and I've started making my own little app for personal use. I've toyed around with the major software offerings, and I'm curious about any features that may be missing which you think would be useful?

So other than brewing the beer for you -- what would you like to see from any new software?

 

[Nateo]

There isn't really a good stepped-starter calculator, that I'm aware of. Sean Terrill came up with a way to trick mrmalty into calculating stepped starters, but it's a workaround.

 

[JerseyBrewer]

I feel like the place that current brewing software falls down is moving us into a future where we use smart phone/devices for the brew day and a computer for planning/post-brewing stuff. I currently use BeerSmith and have suggested this on his forum, but I'll para-phrase it here.

I want better brew-day features. Right now the software tends to focus on planning and not on the process during the day. For example there's a Notes section but not broken down by the process. So I tend to keep a log in the notes section. But if I want to see all of my past "mashing" notes I have to look back through other notes in other brews. Stuff like that.

I can envision a tool that allows me to pull up my recipe and start the brew on my android. The program would then give me a "wizard" like interface where I could check off all of the various steps of my brew day. Weigh out 10 lbs of Marris otter? check; heat 11 gals of sparge water? check; add Irish Moss? - oh almost forgot that one, you get the picture.

I would also like to have the wizard include a scheduler/timer - when you start the mash, you could tell it to warn you at 60min and then alarm at 90. Then have a timer for recirculation, then for sparge, etc... I've been brewing for 6 years and still forget to set the damn timer on occasion. I also inevitably want to know how much time it actually took rather than just the plan. It would have to be easy tho.... big button to start, big one to pause another to turn off the alarm, etc...

I would want to do this on a smart phone (Android) and have it sync back up with my computer where I could analyze the day, determine where I want to change it for the next brew session and even re-order ingredients/parts...

I've got lots of ideas... Funny thing is that I'm a programmer by trade so I could actually build something like this. However, I have to budget my spare time: Wife, 2 kids, brewing, learning to play guitar, drinking to excess. Doesn't leave enough time for another "project". Good luck to you.

 

[rhamilton]

Yea I definitely understand understand the time issue as a programmer --

I was thinking something like your brew-day app too -- it seems you can build recipes out with the tools but that is where the app end. The yeast starter tool would be a great feature too. I can do Android and Windows apps but I refuse to develop for Apple

Basically the mobile app would pull-down a list of recipes in your 'library', select one to brew, and have a wizard interface to read the recipe, break it down into steps, and guide you through a brew with timers, reminders and all that jazz. Not too terribly difficult to write but brilliantly handy.

Do any of the existing apps handle prices for ingredients? I think that would be nice too since you could keep not only a record of all your recipes and every time you've brewed them, but also keep track of brew prices. I've also added tasting notes for every completed brew so you can make tweaks based on your own or even outside feedback. Think hopville + ratebeer.com

 

[JerseyBrewer]

Both BeerSmith and ProMash (used to) have a field for you to store the price of each ingredient and it defaults to a standard price when you add a new one.

What would be really cool - but unpopular with the online vendors - would be a way to scrap the prices from the sites and display the current market price. If you paired it with an "fill online shopping cart" you may be able to offset the angst and the price comparisons.

Also, I think that the brewing software has settled on some kind of xml format for recipe interchange. I forget what the standard is but your software could just use that from the other applications and then take it forward in the process. If you focused just on the brew-day application it would be a nice complementary product instead of a competing one. Perhaps even considered a plug in?

Another thing that would be very nice for the beer brewing programmers amongst us, would be an API from your product that we could use to trigger electronic switches on the brew system itself. Think how cool that would be: hit the timer to start the re-circ and it actually switches the valves appropriately.

I'm with you on the Apple dealo. My wife keeps getting under my skin by teasing me that she's going to get an iPhone next... knows it drives me up the wall.

 

[944play]

I'd like water profile to have a correction for dilution with RO. This calculator does it, BeerAlchemy currently does not.

 

[budbo]

Make sure you can import recipes from promash and beersmith

 

[Hume-ulus]

Something that would be great for people like me would be a software that you can enter the ingredients you have on hand and it would five you a list of recipes using those ingredients. I seem to get things given to me alot and have to brew with what i have instead of buying what i need per a recipe or style guidline. if you know of something.......... some one let me know. I have the makings of a mutant franken-beer........... bless your yeast and grace for your grain.

 

[944play]

Something that would be great for people like me would be a software that you can enter the ingredients you have on hand and it would five you a list of recipes using those ingredients.

BeerAlchemy does this, kinda. Suggest-A-Beer button tells you which recipes in your database match what's in your inventory, and also which ones require an extra ingredient or two. This is useful only if you fully use the inventory feature -- I only use it for hops, and I decrement it manually rather than have software do it upon creating a New Batch.

 

[cimirie]

For what it's worth BrewPal for iPhone has pretty darned good brew day uses. Good notes section, timers for every step... I actually really like it. The biggest problem with it is that it's so disjointed to change settings. There are almost secret buttons to go to different settings (efficiency, attenuation, etc) but then a "settings" menu for other things.

What I want out of brewing software is...

-simple and straight up input
-integration with home computer for archiving and recipe formulation (with an option to formulate on the phone)
-naked women (let's face it: no brew software currently has that).

 

[shafferpilot]

I LOVE the suggested recipes based on ingredients onhand idea... in fact, I need one for mixed drinks. I always have a table full of random liquor from previous parties, but rarely have any idea what I can make with it during the next party. Anyways, please continue...

 

[MikeYoung]

In a word: Workflow.

BeerSmith is OK for many things, but doesn't adequately fit a workflow. It has a pile of tools or screens that cover many of things I want to do, but it doesn't really work with me on what I'm doing.

What am I doing?

* I'm editing recipes;
* or planning a brew;
* or actively brewing and checking process times or making notes of
** temps,
** time,
** gravity;
* or reviewing what's in the fermenters and how much longer;
* or looking for notes on previous brews.
* I'm shopping prices on ingredients, and cooperating vendors might want to make current price lists available in a process-friendly format.
* At any given time, I want to know what I have on hand; find recipes that I can make this moment entirely from stock on hand; or highlight the ingredients in recipes that I have on hand as I scan them. And then fetch current prices for the stuff I don't have. I would like the shopping cart to know which are tentative, since I'm considering more than one recipe as I do this.

In short, it wants to be a brewer's tool, something that understands brewing, rather than simply a box of tools that almost work for the things you might want to do (such as BS2 is in its current state).

 

[rhamilton]

Thanks for the feedback guys -- while I'm working on the app as a personal project, I'll release versions with certain features as they come available.

I think I'll start with the yeast starter tool since I'll be needing it in a few weeks and it should be relativity easy. I'll build out from there.

 

[JerseyBrewer]

Something that would be great for people like me would be a software that you can enter the ingredients you have on hand and it would five you a list of recipes using those ingredients. I seem to get things given to me alot and have to brew with what i have instead of buying what i need per a recipe or style guidline. if you know of something.......... some one let me know. I have the makings of a mutant franken-beer........... bless your yeast and grace for your grain.

+1 on this idea! While my beloved Eagles were busy puking on the field this afternoon, I spent my afternoon doing an inventory of brewing ingredients. I seem to have a bunch of odd lots of different grains. It would be really nice to be able to have it suggest what possible styles I could brew. Challenging programming too!

 

[ISLAGI]

My .02...

I would love to be able to enter pounds and ozs. when I am building a recipe in BeerSmith. The 2 place decimal limit doesn't allow me to easily enter ingredients to a 1 or 2 oz. precision.

Enjoy!

 

[JerseyBrewer]

My .02...

I would love to be able to enter pounds and ozs. when I am building a recipe in BeerSmith. The 2 place decimal limit doesn't allow me to easily enter ingredients to a 1 or 2 oz. precision.

Enjoy!

I use BeerSmith(v2) too. It'll convert it for you. You can enter "10 lbs 3 oz" into the text box and it'll convert it to "10.19" lbs. I think there's a way for you to set the preference to show the lbs, oz in the display too...

 

[DarkPhyre]

as others have said.
I would like it to keep each brew. Not only the recipe for that brew but a "brew record" if you will. Where you could keep notes on that brew, record your readings and the like. Then you could on the main recipe page have "real" averages of past brews - per recipe.
Have a start/plan brew button, that subtracts inventory and creates shopping list for missing items. (show values of "on hand" and "needed", to ensure user kept accurate records)
Also creates a brew day printable sheet that has brew day details plus brew process check offs & spots to record values (pH, Gravity readings, temps, etc) that the user can input after the brew.
I would like that feature because I forget all the data that can be collected, if you have it on a list in order on a brew day sheet you can make sure not to forget those readings. Some aren't important but are nice to have. especially if you can keep an averages record.