Beer Software

[Gil Breau]

Who uses what here, if any?

I found BrewMate http://www.brewmate.net/ last night and started playing with it. Seems pretty solid for a lightweight program.

[Shawn]

I've been using BeerSmith for about 10 months or so.

[Richard]

I use http://beercalculus.hopville.com -- simple + effective, although it's not got some of the more complicated features.

[Hawoh]

I've been using Strange Brew - I wouldn't say it's anywhere beyond "ok" at best. There are plenty of shortfalls and glitches. I'm thinking of switching to something else.

http://www.strangebrew.ca/

[Dave Savoie]

we should compile a list of what our wants and needs are for brewing software

Simplicity

OG Temp converter to get the true OG  
Mash Temp Calculator
Water to grain ratio for mashing
Recipe generator ( we select the grains and hops we have and it spits out a recipe based on BJCP guidlines)
Recipe formulator (we set the weight of grains and hops to what ever we like)

Now beer tools has most of these features but it lacks the mash temp calculator and Water to grain ratio and also OG temp
Pro mash has all of these but is a very sluggish program its a shame we couldnt find something like Promash but in Beertools format !!!

[Shawn]

I find BeerSmith has pretty much all of that. I mean, it won't spit out a recipe based on your inventory, b/c there's just too many combinations available (not to mention that the simple recipes are usually the best ones), but otherwise it does everything.

[Gil Breau]

Brewmate has all of that minus the generator. Its freeware too.

Its pretty lightweight, store able on a flash drive to carry round if need be. It's got Strike water , Refraction , OG correction, Carbonation, and Boiloff calculators, plus a couple others too.

It's got a features page and screenshots as well if you're interested.

I DLed an android app called Brewzor too, but the functionality of it is wonky still.

[Thomas]

Im starting to get the hang of Beertools now after downloading the trail 2 weeks ago. They even sent me a 10% discount to buy the software, which I likely will. It has a steep learning curve, but it seems like a powerful program. You can even program in all the parameters for your own equipment, which I will be doing this weekend.

[Gil Breau]

How much is it?

I was thinking after I get the hang of this I might upgrade to a more complete program

[Chris Orr]

I use promash.
It has a bit of a learning curve as well.
Help files were very informative.

http://www.promash.com/

[brew]

Has anyone ever seen / used Brewblogger? I downloaded / installed this on a home server, it can operate as a club edition... it seems very cool, keeps track of a lot of things in the process, can export / import beer xml recipes, although I have no experience with AG brewing so I'm not sure if the calculators, etc... are any good...

http://www.brewblogger.net/index.php?page=test_drive

[Richard]

Nice find. I'll get it (the club edition) running on the site later today. Long live free software

Slainte!

[Gil Breau]

Is this the one I PMed you a month or so ago when we talking about inventory management?

I know they were supposed to be including a stock/inventory module soon, dunno if they did it yet.

[brew]

The developer suggested version 2.4 would likely have the inventory module - its been asked for a few times...

From the Todo page:

Upcoming Release Features

The following are in the works for future BrewBlogger releases.

    * Inventory management
          o An entire new section where users can track their brewing inventory from grains, to hops, to yeast cultures.
          o As brewblogs are entered, the inventory tracker will automatically deduct the amount used in the brewblog from the appropriate inventory store.
          o Alerts when inventory gets l
    * Commercial beer/mead/cider tasting review section for "commercial calibration."
          o Will be based upon accepted BJCP judging methodology.
          o Will include a star rating system and comments.
    * Documentation for 3rd party theme development.

[Gil Breau]

So still wokring on it.

Its interesting software for sure, but with that I'd definately want it for use