Which Software to pay for?

[aamcle]

Evening All.

I have notebooks recording my brews scattered about the house and as you can imagine I usually can't find the one I want.

The two best options seem to be BeerSmith and Brewersfriend. Of them BrewersFriend seems better to me as I like the Water Calculator and usualy use CRS/AMS acids. These acids do not seem to be offered in the BeerSmith water calculator.

Are there any killer advantages to BeerSmith I have missed or other software that includes a water calculator that I should consider?

Many Thanks aamcle

 

[kurds_2408]

I've only used BrewFather so I can't compare, but I love it. It includes a water calculator. The calculator has CRS/AMS listed as an option but I don't personally use them.

 

[NSMikeD]

I switched from Beer Smith to BrewFather a few years ago and haven't look back . I kept my Beer Smith subscription current until I was convinced BrewFather was for me . They are both good, the deciding factor however was at the time, Brewfather being newer and cloud based was seamless among my iphone, ipad and macbook - so I could work on the laptop, but use the phone or ipad on brew day leaving the laptop safely away from liquids. A second feature that I preferred was the difference between recipe and batch in BrewFather. so you batch could vary while leaving the original recipe intact. I don't know what updates BeerSmith has done since I switched.

I can't speak first hand for Brewersfriend but the little playing around I did it seems solid and it's part of this website

 

[aamcle]

I'll have a good look at Brewfather

 

[Airborneguy]

I pay for Brewer’s Friend. My only previous experience is with Beer Alchemy (I used a Mac in the past). I vastly prefer Brewer’s Friend over Beer Alchemy.

 

[aamcle]

Brewfather is looking good but even through I have enabled CRS in inventory its choosing lactic or phosphoric every time.
How do I get it to use CRS?

 

[IslandLizard]

Brewfather is looking good but even through I have enabled CRS in inventory its choosing lactic or phosphoric every time.
How do I get it to use CRS?

Just use a conversion formula from Phosphoric or Lactic to AMS/CRS.

 

[aamcle]

I think I have realised how it works and it's the best I have seen

 

[Malticulous]

I've used Brewer’s Friend for few years now. I think it's worth it. Most of the good stuff there is free anyway.

 

[kevin58]

Beersmith is more robust than most others out there. The learning curve is high and the level of user customization confounds some users who expect their software to be plug-and-play. If you don't mind spending the time needed to learn the ins and outs then Beersmith is your best choice. If you want something you can pick up and run with look to something else.

 

[JohnDBrewer]

What's the cost on these various systems? Are the files interchangeable if you wanted to convert somewhere down the line? I used Beersmith since about 2017 and enjoy it. They're now up to version 3 which I am on.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

BeerXML (start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeerXML) is (was?) a standard for moving beer recipes between competing apps.

 

[Broken Crow]

I'm strongly biased because I'm trying to relearn and regrow axons I lost 10 years ago, but my approach is the sort of thing that is recommended for keeping your brain exercised as you age.... Why not gather and consolidate your notebooks:
https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/908848/Office-Depot-Brand-Medium-Duty-Fixed/
https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/208945/Office-Depot-Brand-Durable-View-3/
..and do all the math yourself?

...In the event of a nuclear-apocalypse, your data won't be wiped...maybe incinerated, but if that's the case then you're likely to go with it.

 

[jdauria]

I use BeerSmith, but have dabbled with Brewfather also, just dread moving my hundreds of recipes over, so will probably stick with Beersmith.

 

[YeastFeast]

Really like Brewfather.

 

[passedpawn]

Beersmith. It works fine. I've been using it since Jesus was walking. Likely others are better.

 

[JAReeves]

Brewer's Friend.

 

[IslandLizard]

I'm probably too old-fashioned for today's world, but here it goes...

I hate paying revolving subscriptions, especially for things I'd use once or twice a month. Such as homebrew recipe software.

Since 2011 I've been using BeerSmith 2, and later Beersmith 3, the stand-alone versions of each. No online storage, no online access. Works fine for me.

There's no need for me to whip out a cellphone to look up a recipe, even when at a brew club meeting or during a happy hour with my beer brewing/drinking friends. I remember most of the ingredients and brewing methods of my recipes, especially more recent ones. If more exact details are needed I'll send it when I return home.
A real conversation killer? I don't think so, the opposite could be more true.

 

[Control Freak]

Been using both Beersmith and Bru-N-Water for years and now have everything dialed in so I'll keeping with the status quo since it gets me from point A to B without running off the road.

 

[bwible]

I use BeerTools.

https://www.beertools.com/

Works on mac and PC. Keep your own recipe library and they have a large database. I think its about $25 (the cost of a case of cheap lager) and worth every cent.

I think there is some affiliation with BYO magazine. They say its software for brewers written by brewers.

I think I’ve been using it for about 15+ years. No complaints. I have a seperate free program for water.

 

[MaxStout]

I'm probably too old-fashioned for today's world, but here it goes...

I hate paying revolving subscriptions, especially for things I'd use once or twice a month. Such as homebrew recipe software.

Since 2011 I've been using BeerSmith 2, and later Beersmith 3, the stand-alone versions of each. No online storage, no online access. Works fine for me.

There's no need for me to whip out a cellphone to look up a recipe, even when at a brew club meeting or during a happy hour with my beer brewing/drinking friends. I remember most of the ingredients and brewing methods of my recipes, especially more recent ones. If more exact details are needed I'll send it when I return home.
A real conversation killer? I don't think so, the opposite could be more true.

Kind of the same here. Except I'm still on BS 2, had it for 10+ years and it does everything I want. I don't like renting software.

I don't use the cloud storage, and if I want to keep a remote copy I can save the recipe to pdf and email it to myself and pull it up on my phone. Yeah, old-school.

BS keeps supporting with library updates, email newsletters, etc. How many other programs do that for a decade-plus?

Also use Bru N Water, have the paid version which has a few extras, and I like supporting @mabrungard's efforts.

 

[day_trippr]

I've been using Beersmith since the V1.something days and when Brad came out with V2 and then V3 I was so invested there was no way I wasn't upgrading. But I get the one-time-payment version so no recurring charges, and with V3 I use the BS Cloud to enable moving recipes from my workstation to a tablet to use the Brew Day Timers.

One of the biggest reasons I use Beer Smith is inventory management. Huge feature. I only wish I could upload a copy to the Cloud so I could pull it to my phone if I happen to be in the neighborhood of the last two LHBSs my region...

Cheers!

 

[Dland]

Brewer's Friend seems closely associated with this site, so if into HBT, and on the fence, that might be a good choice.

I don't seem to need softwere to make good beer, I assume I'm not the only one, since there was good beer before softwhere.

I did use an old Brew Smith program for a bit, bought on a CD, when calibrating my rig when I started brewing again, was helpful, but not a game changer from the old ways.

I don't get needing a digital inventory of stuff I can see in my cellar on a wire racks, but maybe I'm missing something. Please let me know if this is so, seriously.

 

[day_trippr]

Well, I don't have wine racks - or any other broad display facilities - for a start

I keep my bags of base malts atop a cabinet that requires a step ladder to fetch. I don't drag them down just to measure them.

All my specialty grains are unseen and packed in a roll-around cart (I don't grind malt where I brew). As of this moment there are 26 packages of malts and adjuncts in that cart, roughly 50 pounds of malts. I also have no fewer than 23 strains of hops in the deep freezer; tracking those would be a bit of a pita as well. And then there are the yeast strains in a fridge, and the salts and acids and enzymes in a cabinet.

Much easier to have a program that I can input additions to inventory, and remove the amounts of ingredients used for a batch from inventory, when it happens. Then I can simply scan the inventory looking for items that will need replenishing, before a short bites me in the rear. And that's another point: when I get the urge to brew something, BeerSmith will indicate if I have enough of every ingredient on hand...

It's a digital world...

Cheers!

 

[passedpawn]

I've been using Beersmith since the V1.something days and when Brad came out with V2 and then V3 I was so invested there was no way I wasn't upgrading. But I get the one-time-payment version so no recurring charges, and with V3 I use the BS Cloud to enable moving recipes from my workstation to a tablet to use the Brew Day Timers.

One of the biggest reasons I use Beer Smith is inventory management. Huge feature. I only wish I could upload a copy to the Cloud so I could pull it to my phone if I happen to be in the neighborhood of the last two LHBSs my region...

Cheers!

Me too. I liked v1.4, but it had some flaws. I still have the installer for that if anybody wants it (I think that version was free).

 

[Broken Crow]

Just sayin' ...

 

[Knightshade]

I started out with BrewersFriend, probably because I saw an ad on this site at some point and have just stuck with it. I've just recently started using the Inventory feature, which has been extremely useful.