Brewing Software

[kmar92]

I am guessing that a lot of you do not use software when designing your brews? I am a bit of a nerd/fool when it comes to software, I love stuff like that.

Anyway I find myself having subscriptions to both Brewsmith and Brewfather and I really like both of them, but as my Beersmith subscription is about to fall due I am wondering if I need both. I am actually finding lately that I tend towards Brewfather, it seems to have better ease of use.

Please tell me what you guys prefer, Brewsmith v Brewfather.

[Tone boy]

I use Brewfather but that’s the only software I’ve tried. I only have the free version because I’m a tight wad. 
I like it but it did take me a while to work out how to plug in data for partial mashes. 
Handy for ibu calculations and estimating OG

[Shamus O'Sean]

2 hours ago, kmar92 said:

Please tell me what you guys prefer, Brewsmith v Brewfather.

BrewFather for me.  Paid subscription.  I have about 90 recipes in it that have turned into about 40 batches.  I used to have a Beersmith subscription too.  But I stopped it before the previous year fell due.

I find BrewFather more intuitive for me.  Like you, I like to tinker with ingredients to see what happens.

[mrchino73]

Started using brewfather since started All Grain. Find it very intuitive, and easy to add amounts and other stuff. The calculations for water (for mash, sparge and boil) are very accurate. Still have the free account,but think I will pay the year subscription!

Regards

[Popo the Reprobate]

I used to use Beersmith and found that pretty good.

I have the free version of the Brewfather app and found it good also. I used this once for my brew day and the volumes were all wrong - my own error I am assuming. I should give it another go as it is easy to use.

I still had to put the batch into the Grainfather app for both though. I find myself using that most of the time.

[ozdevil]

I have both Beersmith and brewfather

personelly i like brewfather  for ease of use  and doesnt look overly to complicated to use

beersmith  i really do not like it and pretty well complicated and will not be renewing my subscription 
as i always revert back to brewfather


I have paid subs to both at the moment

Whats the difference between  brewfather and brewfather premium

Brewfather Premium

 

Exclusive Premium Features Include:

•  

  Unlimited number of recipes
•  

  Unlimited number of batches
•  

  Import and export features
•  

  PDF print of recipe, batch, inventory and ingredients
•  

  Integrate with Tilt, iSpindel, Brewpiless, MyBrewbot, Plaato Airlock/Keg, SmartPID, Custom Stream and more...
•  

  API access
•  

  Create your public profile and add recipes to the recipe library
•  

  Inventory stock tracking
•  

  Ingredient cost tracking
•  

  Custom style guidelines
•  

  Ability to restore deleted recipes and batches
•  

  Add manual readings for fermentation chart
•  

  Advanced configuration for Final Gravity estimation
•  

  Access to experimental features
  
  Brewfather  Non-Premium

  
  Brewfather can be used for free as long as you want with a few limitations. New users are granted a free 30-day membership of Brewfather Premium with no limitations.

  Any of the tools and calculators can be used for free with no limitations as long as you want.

  As a Free user your are limited to a maximum of 10 recipes/batches, and no import or export. If you exceed these limitations you are free to delete any of your recipes or batches, or sign up for Brewfather Premium.

  If you exceed 10 recipes and/or batches in your free Premium trial, you will not lose any data when the trial runs out, but your recipes and/or batches will become read-only. You are allowed to delete so you go under the limit again. When under the limit, Brewfather will work as normal.
  
  
  Guys these programs are just not for all grain brewing even though there is aot of All grain recipes it can be also used for extract brewing as well
  there is a whole lot of recipes you can find in these apps that others around the world have shared  
  
   

[Disco Stu]

I have a paid subscription to Brewfather which I have used since switching to all grain 2 years ago. Have not used Beersmith so cannot comment but I find Brewfather very easy to use.

[DavidM]

I'm new but looked at a few apps.

As I only brew K&K (at the moment) it all seemed to complicated for the little I did.

"Brew Tracker" is a simple app. more suited to My needs, it tracks what I've done. All I need for now.

Simple!

 

[ozdevil]

1 hour ago, DavidM said:

I'm new but looked at a few apps.

As I only brew K&K (at the moment) it all seemed to complicated for the little I did.

"Brew Tracker" is a simple app. more suited to My needs, it tracks what I've done. All I need for now.

Simple!

 

yes can look very complicated  at first and understanding these advanced brewing software.

youtube is your friend with learning these  software   

however beersmith and brewfather while they can be for the kit and kilo  extract  its more directed at A.G

brewfather and beersmith is a huge over kill with extract

but if you want to start designing your own extract recipes you can  


 

[Hairy]

I am a Brewfather user. 
 

But you have used both so just run with the one you like to use the most.

[ben 10]

Beersmith for me.

I used a coaster the other day when my computer was at the holiday house.

Beers worked out well.

[Pale Man]

16 hours ago, kmar92 said:

I am guessing that a lot of you do not use software when designing your brews? 

I couldn't design brews without it. I use Brewfather subscription. Always been pretty accurate. 

[Aussiekraut]

I have a BeerSmith subscription and am quite happy with the software but there are a few things I don't like about it much but more later. I never looked at any others but from what I hear, they all don't give each other too much. What I like is that I usually spot on hit the numbers BS estimates, so I must be doing something right  The problem is as usual, once you are locked into one software, it is somewhere between hard and impossible to change. ATM my main issue with BeerSmith is of an optical nature. On macOS, when using a dark system theme, none of the BeerSmith themes offered work, besides the default and that has issues with displaying the cursor in the notes panel for example. Using some themes, you can't read anything. There is apparently a new version out but I am not convinced it will fix the issue. And no, I will not move one of my two licences to Windows because I prefer the Mac and if I pay for software, I expect it to work properly on all platforms offered. It's all about lazy developers and useless/non-existent quality control. The second thing is that it doesn't seem to take into account that even the 60 minute hop additions still have some impact on the wort during a hop stand. It has an option but appears to ignore it.

If somebody has a way to ex- and import my recipes from BS to Brew Father, I may actually give it a go. If it works better for me, I am more than happy to try it.

Edited November 27, 2021 by Aussiekraut

[kmar92]

Interesting comments @Aussiekraut, I have never had the problem that you describe with the themes of Brewsmith, I am using a Windows based system though. Your 60 minute hop additions problems are also of interest to me.

I have no idea if you can move your recipes from Beersmith to Brewfather but you can use Brewfather for free if you want to try it, it is fully functional with the free version and just has a limit on the number of recipes that you can have.

My thanks to everyone for your comments on brewing software, it has been very helpfull.

[ozdevil]

48 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

If somebody has a way to ex- and import my recipes from BS to Brew Father, I may actually give it a go. If it works better for me, I am more than happy to try it.

 

Import from Beersmith to brewfather

1. 1.

   Export all of your recipes in one go by selecting the folders you want to export, right click and select "Export Selected".

 

Export recipes from Beersmith

2. Select BeerXML as the filetype when saving the exported file

3. In the Recipes page of Brewfather, click the import icon top right

 

Click import on the recipes page

4. Select BeerXML as import format

 

Select BeerXML

5. Choose the BeerXML file you exported. It will then start importing all the recipes in the file. You will be promted to add a tag to the imported recipes if there is more than one in the file.

[kmar92]

Wow, you are the man @ozdevil!

[Shamus O'Sean]

Like @Popo, I have a Grainfather.  Although I create my recipes in Brewfather, I export a .xml file and import into the Grainfather app.  The Grainfather app works really well with my system on brew day.  Brewfather has integration with Grainfather.  However, when I have used it to brew on the Grainfather, it does not seem to give me the same control as the Grainfather app does.

[Shamus O'Sean]

@DavidM, I also used Brew Tracker up until brew 90.  For most of my earlier kit based brews it was perfectly fine.  Not recipe builder software.  More just a place to record your ingredients for future reference.  I still access it for notes about brews in that era.

[iBooz2]

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