What software do most brewers use?

Question

Just curious what most brewers are using these days as far as software goes. We are going to have to make a decision in the near future about this.

BeerSmith?
ProMash?
BeerTools?
Any others I haven't heard of?

Answer 1

This is a summary of answers so far. I'll try to keep it updated.

Here are the answers. Below, you'll find who likes them, links, and other relevant data.

• BeerSmith
• BeerTools Pro
• Beer Calculus
• ProMash
• BrewPal
• BrewTarget
• BeerAlchemy

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BeerSmith

beersmith.com

$21.95 • Free Trial • Windows

Who uses it

• topfermented
• frostywalrus
• Tim Weber
• Jimmy
• Steph Weber
• Jack Smith

What they said about it

Jack Smith: I just started using it; I've used it for three recipes. I'm quite happy with it. The few minor annoyances I have found are:

• You have to choose an individual ingredient and amount. Too much clicking. You can't multi-select a handful of malts then go back and edit their amounts.
• You can't have multiple sets of notes on the recipe if you brew it more than once. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. It would be nice to have a single recipe with separate notes from every time you brewed it.
• The priming sugar calculator does not offer table sugar as an option.

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BeerTools Pro

beertools.com

$29.95 • Free Trial • Mac • PC

Who uses it

• PJ

What they said about it

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Beer Calculus

beercalculus.hopville.com

Free • Web Based

Who uses it

• Dean Brundage

What they said about it

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ProMash

promash.com

$24.95 • Free Trial • Windows

Who uses it

Denny Conn and many commercial brewers

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BrewPal

brewpal.infp

$0.99 • iPhone

Who uses it

• Sean Nordquist
• Bryan

What they said about it

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BrewTarget

sourceforge.net/projects/brewtarget

Free (Open Source) • Windows • Mac • Linux

Who uses it

• xchristopherx

What they said about it

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BeerAlchemy

www.kentplacesoftware.com/products/BeerAlchemy.shtml

$29.95 • Free Trial • Mac • iPhone/iPad ($4.99/$9.99)

Who uses it

• arnemart

What they said about it

Pros: Full-featured and relatively user friendly, two-way sync between Mac and i(Phone|Pad)
Cons: Cannot view batches chronologically, cannot view recipe and inventory at the same time

Answer 2

Most calculations I do by hand & keep my recipes in a log book. Yet to see how well that scales. For IBU calculations I use Beer Calculus.

http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe

Answer 3

I use BeerSmith. It has a ton of handy tools (including a recipe scaling feature, PJ). There's a trial version if you want to try it out.

Answer 4

Beersmith here. It does everything I need. The brewday instruction sheet you can print out is nice too. Makes it easier to not forget steps/ingredients.

They all seem to have a bit of a learning curve. You can download a free trial of Beertools, Beersmith and Promash. So try them all and see which one you like best.

Like Steph said, Beersmith has recipe scaling. Seems to work ok for 5>10>20 gallon - no first hand experience with larger size though.

Answer 5

I user BrewersHub - http://brewershub.com. It's free, easy to use, and has a ton of calculators.

Answer 6

I found an iPhone/iPod Touch app called Brew Pal that has been really great. It is very convenient to be able to carry in my pocket and also take with me if I am brewing at a friends house. The timers and calculators have been very helpful to me.

Answer 7

I like using BeerSmith myself. I can't confirm this, but I have heard that some of the other software packages don't update as often. Scaling is pretty nice as well.

Answer 8

If you have an iPhone, there's a $1 app called Brew Pal. It works great for sparge calculations (strike temp and volume), grain bill, hop schedule. You can even calculate the efficiency of your brew system. You can also email the recipe to yourself after you've entered it all into the app. Its great, and portable. -Bryan

Answer 9

I have been using Qbrew. Works for me and it's free.

http://www.usermode.org/code.html

Answer 10

I use Beer Tools Pro. It's sleek, which I appreciate, and it seems to do all that I need right now. Which isn't much. I'd like to hear some opinions.

One thing I'd really like to see is recipe scaling. Going from my 5 gallon to some number with a bbl after it.

Answer 11

I'm using the free open source app called BrewTarget. It works for me.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/brewtarget/

Answer 12

I use a Mac and have used the free (though no longer supported) Homebrew Formulator for a few years. It's simple, straightforward and easy to use.

I've played around with both BeerAlchemy and BeerTools Pro but neither one really grabbed me, much less enough to spend money on the paid version when I'm already pretty comfortable with HBF.

Answer 13

best mac software & inventory editor is beer alchemy by kent place software (30 bucks 4 3 licences)...also beer alchemy reader is free for iphone and beer alchemy touch for iphone is 15 bucks...@ferment_nation also uses it

Answer 14

I've used Promash for nearly 13 years and love it. It's also what most of the commercial brewers I know use. I've worked with Beersmith, too, but far prefer the way Promash works.

Answer 15

Used promash for a few years, then beersmith, both through a windows emulator (on a mac). Currently BeerToolsPro, very happy with it especially since its a native mac program, also available for windows. Able to open .xml and .rec files too.

Answer 16

I've used a ton of different tools, and BeerSmith is the best I've used. It is not only fully featured, but it actually still has a developer working on it (many are unsupported at this point).

Answer 17

I have no complaints with Beersmith. I love the program.

Answer 18

Here's another vote for BeerSmith. As a nerd, I love XML output.

Answer 19

I use a spreadsheet I found, and have since modified, for my brewing. It's a 'good-enough' approach for me.

Answer 20

There is also Strange Brew (strangebrew.ca). I've used it for about 8 years now and it does everything I've needed it to do. You can download a trial version or there is also a free Java version (with less features) available on sourceforge.

The author of it also has a hilarious random beer name generator on his site, check it out.

http://strangebrew.ca/beername.php

Answer 21

BeerSmith user here. Never tried the other pay-apps, so I can't compare. I tried the 30 day free trial, then bought it. $20 well spent. The author is a homebrewer and author as well (blog/book).

Answer 22

I couldn't find a brew day timer I was happy with so I wrote one for iOS which is available for $1.99.

http://brewtimer.appmark.it/

Answer 23

I just started using Brewer's Friend. (I was previously using BeerSmith and BrewTarget.) I like that the software web-based, so I can reference it at homebrew club meetings or brew sessions at a friend's house.

Features:

• Recipe calculator including expected OG and FG, IBUs, SRM color, and other common measures of a beer. (This includes multiple formulas/methods for calculating each.)
• Recipe scaling.
• Water conditioning calculator for areas with regionally variable water supplies.
• Shopping and brewday checklists.
• Batch logs for entering gravity, tasting notes, volume collected, etc.
• Tracker for progress of batch.
• Style guides.

Disadvantages:

• The recipe base is rather scant at this point.
• Unit conversions between imperial and metric (temp, volume, etc) are a little clunky.
• No mobile phone interface.

Advantages:

• Portable. Create a recipe at work, view it at home, brew it at a friend's house.
• Under active development. New features seem to come around frequently.

Disclaimer: I'm a web developer who found this homebrew site through some of the web development siblings on the Stack Exchange network. I appreciate that Brewer's Friend is a small start-up site under active development and that probably colors my view.