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In a few of the meta questions on this site, and in other discussions, the main thing lacking on BrewAdvice.com is the ability to share recipes. While questions about a specific recipe fit very well - such as "Is this enough malt [recipe]" - questions like "Do you like this recipe?" or "Anyone have a good recipe for [style]" do not quite fit this format.

So, my question is two-fold.

  1. What are some sites you like to share / find recipes? What is it that you like about that site? Other feedback, etc.
  2. More generally, what are some things you look for in a recipe site, and more specifically, what are some things you look for in a recipe site that you haven't found yet?

If there is enough lack of features in sites out there today, maybe I'll build a new one. Better mousetrap, if you will.

Thanks!

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    Are we talking about recipe database type sites or recipe generation type sites? The current two answers are one for each. I for one do not like recipe database sites because the recipes are faceless and of unknown origin. Mot younger brewers head to these database sites looking for good recipes, and most of the posted ones are so-so at best. Any one can post a recipe, that doesn't make it good.
    – brewchez
    Commented Feb 23, 2010 at 17:08
  • I meant more of the sharing / database than the generation, but overall recipe information is good. What if people posted recipes and rated them, like voting on this site?
    – hookedonwinter
    Commented Feb 23, 2010 at 20:04
  • Using this sites voting format for a recipe site might be an interting way to parse out good recipes from bad. Maybe on top of voting add an "I tried it and liked it" sort of mark as well. That way its not just people voting to say it looks good. People can do tha but if you were be able to look at 50 IPA recipes and narrow it down the the only 5 that other people had brewed, you would hav emore confidence in chosing that recipe to try yourself, vs. one with just a lot of votes. You know what I am talking about? Nice idea PJ.
    – brewchez
    Commented Feb 24, 2010 at 12:44
  • Ya definitely. "I tried it" is a great idea!
    – hookedonwinter
    Commented Feb 24, 2010 at 14:45

2 Answers 2

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Recipe Sharing

Features Unfound

The single reason that I started writing BrewSession is because every other recipe formulation program or site was ugly & hard to use.

I have a giant list. This is about a quarter of my ongoing brainstorm

Recipe/Session

  • Pre-boil gravity calculation
  • Add ingredients by percent of grainbill rather than weight: 80% maris otter, 10% rye, 8% Munich, 2% chocolate.
  • Add hops by IBU percentage: 60% of IBUs come from first addition, 35% from 20-minute, 5% from 5-minute.
  • Brew-day timeline
  • Multiple gravity readings (with dates)
  • Support for multiple yeasts
  • Recipe templates: User selects American Pale ale. Software suggests grain bill, mash, hop schedule, and so on.
  • All-grain to extract/specialty grain conversion
  • Warnings when you reach the legal yearly brewing limit ;-)
  • Flaw diagnosis tools – pick a flaw out of a list, software tries to find causes
  • Recipe ratings & netflix-style suggestions
  • Recipe matching based on your personal inventory

General

  • Support for some kind of data-portability format like BeerXML
  • A "beer experiment" database. EG: publish a test to see if HSA really affects beer flavor. Have homebrewers do it and report their results.

Calendar

  • Reminders (check gravity, rack, make starter, bottle/keg, etc)
  • Events (club meetings, competitions, conferences)
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  • How is your project coming along?
    – hookedonwinter
    Commented Feb 24, 2010 at 14:46
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The only one I've used so far is http://hbd.org/recipator/

I like the fact that it has a really large database of recipes, concerning all beer styles, and that all of them are sorted by style. The thing that bothers me a bit is that after you choose your beer style, for example "imperial stout" there is no "sort by..." option, so that you can look up, let's say, only the ag beers, or the darkest, strongest, most bitter etc.

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  • I used to use the Recipator a lot, but found the ingredients were getting out of date. Before I bought a copy of beersmith I went to tasty brew. It has a nicer output that the Recipator.
    – brewchez
    Commented Feb 24, 2010 at 12:45

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