Curious what people are using these days.
I have a Beersmith 3 license but haven't used it in two years. I switched to Brewfather and haven't looked back.
Love that I can use the software on my phone and brewery PC. The software just works and is a modern update to brewing.
Beersmith 2. I don't need much these days (not to mention my lack of brewing) and I already own it, so I'm hard pressed to change.
I'd go to an excel spreadsheet before buying anything new.
Hard core spreadsheet! :headbang: Don't want the "modern" BS 4.0 that is rumored around the corner?
Also using a self-made spreadsheet. Was very interested in the math at the beginning of my brewing career and have been using the spreadsheet ever since.
Beer smith 2.
What I want to know is what information everyone uses. I'm using Beersmith 3 and it feels like there is an overload of information that I don't always use. Now that I have a refractometer I like knowing what my gravity should be at certain points but other than that its the basics for me (ABV and IBU really)
I use to just do a very simple approach to brew day. I'd tweak a recipe in BeerSmith or older software and write all my steps into a notepad and then record a few things along the way like mash temp, OG/FG, weather, date, time. It actually worked really well but I found that I didn't go back into my notebook to look for changes and get that into Beersmith.
My current process is to use Brewfather, Tilt hydrometers, I do a much better job at capturing notes about when I pitch yeast, I can see what the fermentation profile looked like, when I added dry hops, how long the batch was on tap, etc. I also started to heavily rely on the inventory functions.
Here's the first imperial stout I've brewed. Going to likely split this into two secondaries and do something different to them. Thinking Cacao Nibs and Coconut in one and maybe coffee or vanilla and Cacao Nibs in the other.
https://web.brewfather.app/share/auK81Bu0E3PBRY
The public facing "share" link doesn't include all my notes, measurements, etc but still fun to share with others.
Of course I missed my OG on a beer this big, didn't worry too much about that and just rolled with it.
I just use a simple spreadsheet that I've recently simplified to make it more amenable to google sheets. Check it out if you wish, this is NicJohn's and mine last cookie crisp stout.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WXp5HH_q9tGGkAfgwkvkJLfc1RRV0TxWEo1SWkk-krc/edit?usp=drivesdk (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WXp5HH_q9tGGkAfgwkvkJLfc1RRV0TxWEo1SWkk-krc/edit?usp=drivesdk)
Thanks for sharing, that is pretty slick! Do you create a new sheet for every batch? Do you use something like Bru-n-water for water / ph calculations?
Being a recovering engineer I'd have to switch the it to metric but I could see myself being able to use something like that.