Brewing software evaluataion

[RichK]

Currently using Brewfather & occasionally Wort (Android). Former is online only, latter can be offline. Happy with either as a basic recipe creator. I've previously used BrewTarget (Windows) again that was fine. I've produced drinkable beers using all of these.

Ultimately, any of these will give get you in the zone for a recipe. None will tell you if the you'll like the resulting output. You just have to try it & see. I've just given my best mate a big box of mixed beer & told him about 3 that I don't like. He might think they're great (which is why I left them in).

 

[An Ankoù]

Never used recipe-formulation software, computers weren't really in every home in the seventies and I learnt to formulate through experience and some very reliable "rules of thumb". Played with the one on Brewer's friend and quickly got fed up with looking for the closest grain match in their long list.
On the other hand, I use the hydrometer correction for temperature. and the abv calculator as a matter of course. I usually consult the carbonation calculator, too, although I find it fairly unreliable.

 

[Hoddy]

I’m another BS3 user. I moved from BS2 and I’ve found BS3 really good to use. Once I’ve dialled in the settings to my brewhouse and the utilisations I find it to be pretty close.

admitedly some of the calculations for whirlpool IBU’s I don’t think you can totally rely on. But you can’t with any software. Once you have worked your way through it I find it an invaluable piece of software.

but i do agree, the recipe versioning doesn’t work how I would expect/at all either.

 

[LeeH]

Currently using Brewfather & occasionally Wort (Android). Former is online only, latter can be offline. Happy with either as a basic recipe creator. I've previously used BrewTarget (Windows) again that was fine. I've produced drinkable beers using all of these.

Ultimately, any of these will give get you in the zone for a recipe. None will tell you if the you'll like the resulting output. You just have to try it & see. I've just given my best mate a big box of mixed beer & told him about 3 that I don't like. He might think they're great (which is why I left them in).

Brewfather is also offline, well it is on iOS. An app was released recently.

 

[nickjdavis]

To address two of the OP's questions...

1) To set the BIAB absorption rate in BS3 you click on Tools - Options - Advanced and there you can set the BIAB absorption rate. Its really simple and you are wrong to say there is no easy way of changing it (I don't even do BIAB and it took me only a minute or so to find). As for it being in fluid ounces per ounce....its not Beersmiths fault that you don't know what these are....but luckily 1 fluid ounce per ounce is pretty much the same as 1 gram per millilitre. (1 fluid ounce is 29.57g mL and one ounce is 28.35g....so although its not exactly the same its within 4%, which given the variablity in how much you might squeeze your bag, is pretty much close enough to be considered the same)

2) With regards to adjusting ingredient profiles on the fly "within the recipe", you may not be explaining your issue correctly....because it is really easy to do....in the "design" workspace you can double click on any ingredient in your recipe and a new window opens which allows you to adjust the colour of fermentables, the AA% of hops and other variables.

The issue I have with Beersmith is that your inventory and equipment profiles don't have a cloud based storage...if you run BS across multiple devices then you need to make sure that you set up these in each device, instead of having one device defined as the "master" from which the other devices get their profiles/inventory. Other than that I find it pretty intuitive...I'm sure I don't use many of the features and functionality...but its certainly not difficult to use.

 

[Drunkula]

The issue I have with Beersmith is that your inventory and equipment profiles don't have a cloud based storage...if you run BS across multiple devices then you need to make sure that you set up these in each device, instead of having one device defined as the "master" from which the other devices get their profiles/inventory.

If you run the save directory inside Dropbox you have cloud storage - it's what I do.

 

[nickjdavis]

If you run the save directory inside Dropbox you have cloud storage - it's what I do.

Sorry...are you saying....select FILE - CHANGE DOCUMENTS DIRECTORY and choose an online cloud based storage?

...and this saves your recipes and your equipment profiles and your inventory?

 

[Drunkula]

...and this saves your recipes and your equipment profiles and your inventory?

Yep. Everything.

I'd run a backup first. Set up the same directory within Dropbox for each computer then if you have to wipe the dropbox recipe and then restore. You might end up with conflicts at first but just rub them out and make sure you've restored from the latest version.

 

[uDicko]

Brewfather user here.

Brew day tracker is a bit pants
Inventory was a learning curve (don't know why)

Very easy to make a recipe and freestyle it play about with your ingredients.
Integrate with ispindel (which I have) and tracks fermentation progress.
Saves the 'in flight' recipe amendments made in brewday so you can track your variables.
Continues to get regular updates and has done for the year I have had subscription.
Can share my recipes with mates for criticism.

Ive used Brewers friend (pretty cool), BS (was not as easy as BFather) can't comment on other apps.

 

[Multigrain]

Thank you guys for all the replies! Was interesting to read.
I think I will make a jump to Brewfather, I have activated a trial and played around with it a bit. Imported my recipies from BS etc.
The features I have been looking at in Brewfather has been layed out as i expected more or less. I like how easy it is to see summaries listings of your brew day, such as if you are above or below your estimated values. And ALL the values are listed, such as bitterness ratio and other things that you dont easily get from bs.
The fact that the program is developed by at least part by a team in Norway is indicating a few things. To Develop software in Norway is expensive (I am a swede living in Norway working in tech), so if you develop a sub par product you are dead basically. The Brew father fee is almost the same as for BS but with an (assumed) much much smaller client pool, yet they have implemented so many more things that I am missing in BS.
For starters their inventory of product is much bigger than BS, I found it easy to find exactly the products I wanted to use. The fact that you can use a custom end points for IOT devices are a big selling point for me who tinker with programming and micro controllers. I am already developing a beer app for tracking various things myself, and but the custom end points I can easily integrate it to brewfather. I really like how they allow for integration. Maybe I will regret myself, but I cannot see how Beer Smith anytime soon will allow you too integrate with the world outside beersmith. I mean they have even developed a proprietary file type for their recipes instead of just using a simple xml as default that all other vendors can use, you know because brewers collaborate.....

 

[Brew_DD2]

Thank you guys for all the replies! Was interesting to read.
I think I will make a jump to Brewfather, I have activated a trial and played around with it a bit. Imported my recipies from BS etc.
The features I have been looking at in Brewfather has been layed out as i expected more or less. I like how easy it is to see summaries listings of your brew day, such as if you are above or below your estimated values. And ALL the values are listed, such as bitterness ratio and other things that you dont easily get from bs.
The fact that the program is developed by at least part by a team in Norway is indicating a few things. To Develop software in Norway is expensive (I am a swede living in Norway working in tech), so if you develop a sub par product you are dead basically. The Brew father fee is almost the same as for BS but with an (assumed) much much smaller client pool, yet they have implemented so many more things that I am missing in BS.
For starters their inventory of product is much bigger than BS, I found it easy to find exactly the products I wanted to use. The fact that you can use a custom end points for IOT devices are a big selling point for me who tinker with programming and micro controllers. I am already developing a beer app for tracking various things myself, and but the custom end points I can easily integrate it to brewfather. I really like how they allow for integration. Maybe I will regret myself, but I cannot see how Beer Smith anytime soon will allow you too integrate with the world outside beersmith. I mean they have even developed a proprietary file type for their recipes instead of just using a simple xml as default that all other vendors can use, you know because brewers collaborate.....

After suggesting it in this thread, I have also made the jump to Brewfather. It's basically Beers with if it had received proper updates to its GUI in the past decade. It just works. Very intuitive too.

 

[GerritT]

Subscription based: not my preference.

 

[Brew_DD2]

I think these days if you are expecting regular updates it's a price we'll likely all have to pay. Or you can store 10 recipes and go free.

 

[LeeH]

Subscription or not, it’s not expensive is it for a product that is updated weekly?

 

[marshbrewer]

I've set up one of my BrewersFriend recipes in Brewfather. It gives different values, but I suspect I haven't got my equipment set up the same. I'm going to give it a spin tomorrow on brew day to see how I get on with it.