# Anyone Using Brewfather?



## ABG

I'm in the process of looking at brewing apps/programs. I've been using Beersmith for a while now and with BS3 just out, it's time to look at what's available.

On the Beersmith3 thread, someone posted about Brewfather. I had a look at it the other night and really liked the interface - something I hate with BS (it really looks dated and is clunky to use). I've imported a recipe into Brewfather and am going to give it a test run over the weekend.

@fungrel informed me of the following bugs on the BS thread:

In the Profiles section, there is no way to delete an equipment profile, or fermentation profile etc. There should be a delete option.
I also think a folder structure is required for the recipes to better organise them. Tags is all well and good and very 'modern' but folders are more effective.
Is it possible to use unit grams (g) to calculate water correction (instead of just ml) instead?

Another minor bug, when I set a yeast starter to 1L, I see 0.26L as the starter volume on the brewing page.

Inventory seems to sometimes indicate there is not enough, even when there is. I suspect it's related to using pounds and ounces as units and some rounding issues. If I set to more than the amount in the recipe it's fine. See Maris Otter and Mosaic below.

With the latest update my sparge water acid additions have started to behave weird sporadically. I have yet to figure out if it is changing the target profile or pressing the auto button that makes the sparge acid amount drop to 0 and no matter what I set the sparge water volume to it just stays at 0 

Not sure what I'm doing wrong, but Brewfather seems to suggest I do a no sparge setup, however, it seems to calculate water additions for some amount of sparge. It seems like setting the Water/Grain ratio in the equipment profile would let Brewfather calculate the amount of strike water and then also sparge water (I batch sparge).
None of these are deal breakers for me and from what I hear/read, the developer is pretty quick to fix bugs anyway. 

I figured it would be cleaner to start a new thread about Brewfather and not derail the BS thread. Is anyone here using Brewfather? What are your thoughts? Looking forward to hearing from Brewfather users.


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## chesl73

How were you able to import a recipe? You need premium - have you already bought it?
I’ve been using it a bit as well recently. My thoughts are:
- It is very easy to use and intuitive
- The main thing I like is the web based aspect that allows me to tinker with recipes whether I’m at home, at work, on the train etc.
- The logic is pretty much the same as BeerSmith, ie, setup your equipment profile, your mash profile then create a recipe so easy to use
- The water and salt adjustements are very easy to use and integrated well into the recipe and the PH estimates seem reasonable (compared to BrunWater)
- There are some bugs but as you say, they aren’t show stoppers

- I think given the tool is officially in Beta that it is expensive 
- I already own BeerSmith 2, there is nothing in BeerSmith 3 that is worth me paying for
- Overall it’s good and if I didn’t own any brew software then I’d probably license it
- My problem is that at the end of the day, it just does the same thing that BeerSmith does, yes it’s prettier and web based but it just does the same thing so therefore I might as well just keep using BeerSmith 2


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## S.E

chesl73 said:


> How were you able to import a recipe? You need premium - have you already bought it?


Just had a look at the website https://docs.brewfather.app/ .

Says “Brewfather can be *used for free as long as you want* with a few limitations. New users are granted a free 24-day membership of Brewfather Premium with no limitations”.


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## ABG

chesl73 said:


> How were you able to import a recipe? You need premium - have you already bought it?



Thanks for the feedback. As @S.E said above, “Brewfather can be *used for free as long as you want* with a few limitations. New users are granted a free 24-day membership of Brewfather Premium with no limitations”.


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## chesl73

It can be used ‘for free’ yes but you can’t import/export and you can only have 10 recipes so not practical long term.


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## ABG

I imported a recipe no worries. The free version isn't practical long term - that's precisely why I'm asking others what they think of Brewfather. I'm thinking of pulling the pin and subscribing, but want to hear some first hand accounts from guys already using it.


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## EalingDrop

chesl73 said:


> It can be used ‘for free’ yes but you can’t import/export and you can only have 10 recipes so not practical long term.


Try 'Wort' , it's free and you can create, import/export as many recipes as you like.


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## ABG

EalingDrop said:


> Try 'Wort' , it's free and you can create, import/export as many recipes as you like.


Cheers mate. I'll have a look at that for next week's brew. Have you used Brewfather? How does Wort compare?


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## EalingDrop

Had a play with Brewfather, and it's ok, but I prefer an actual app on my phone on brew day.

I like simple interface and I like to keep records which helps me refine my skills over the years. I've got all my recipes backup to my Dropbox right from the beginning, it's got a notes section for esoteric observations of the brewday which helps me refine my system and impressions on the beers.


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## ABG

EalingDrop said:


> Had a play with Brewfather, and it's ok, but I prefer an actual app on my phone on brew day.
> 
> I like simple interface and I like to keep records which helps me refine my skills over the years. I've got all my recipes backup to my Dropbox right from the beginning, it's got a notes section for esoteric observations of the brewday which helps me refine my system and impressions on the beers.



I thought Brewfather can work on a phone, but not sure. I use an iPad.

Like you, I keep all my old notes as reference for future improvements. The only difference is to date, I've been using Evernote in conjunction with Brewsmith. Brewfather looks like it _might_ be able to manage all that for me, but I haven't pressure tested it on brew day yet. Tomorrow is its first outing...


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## Milhouse

EalingDrop said:


> Try 'Wort' , it's free and you can create, import/export as many recipes as you like.



I agree Wort is fantastic for a free app. I too like having the app on my phone on brew day and being fairly new to using brewing software I like the simplicity.


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## f00b4r

Brewfather works on a phone and offline as it gets cached. 
I posted some more info on the Beersmith thread and am a happy user but have never used Wort. I would give each a run and see what your think.


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## ABG

Cheers @f00b4r . I'll give it a trial run tomorrow and see how it goes.


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## ABG

@lonte I read your post on the BS3 thread. Care to comment where you think Brewfather is lacking compared to BS3? I'd really appreciate your thoughts.


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## chesl73

I had a brief look at Wort... It looked more like a loose collection of brewing calc tools rather than proper integrated brewing software


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## Milhouse

chesl73 said:


> I had a brief look at Wort... It looked more like a loose collection of brewing calc tools rather than proper integrated brewing software



I think this is a pretty apt description. Good for building recipes and getting estimates (colour, ibu's, og etc) and comparing to style guidelines.

For me and potentially others it was a great introduction of the capabilities of brewing software, without functionality that some wouldn't use/find confusing, a big bonus being that it's free. 

For this purpose I would highly recommend recommend it. I wouldnt recommend it for someone who is used to using beersmith or the like.


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## lonte

ABG said:


> @lonte I read your post on the BS3 thread. Care to comment where you think Brewfather is lacking compared to BS3? I'd really appreciate your thoughts.



Shopping list
Folders (or more flexibility with tags)
Calendar View (or better, Google Cal integration - which I know BS doesn't have either)
Ability to enter field values in other units
Maybe some other stuff if I thought long and hard
Not much really - I've used it exclusively for the last seven brews so it is not lacking in the essentials.


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## ABG

lonte said:


> Shopping list
> Folders (or more flexibility with tags)
> Calendar View (or better, Google Cal integration - which I know BS doesn't have either)
> Ability to enter field values in other units
> Maybe some other stuff if I thought long and hard
> Not much really - I've used it exclusively for the last seven brews so it is not lacking in the essentials.



Thanks @lonte. I used it for the first time in anger today during a brew day and was really impressed. It took me a little while to work out how it all functions, but by the end of the day I was pretty confident using it. Brewsmith on the other hand took me about 4 or 5 brew days to feel like I was comfortable. I'm still sitting on the fence here, but will give Brewfather another run during next week's brew.


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## Black Devil Dog

I heard about Brewfather a couple of weeks ago, around the same time that I was trialling Beersmith 3 with the intention of most likely upgrading from BS2 to BS3. 

I'd always found BS2 to be rather clunky and bloated and some Add-Ons and inputs didn't really seem to do anything and the water profile tool was pretty much useless. What I was hoping for with BS3 was a bit of a re-design. A new interface, more user friendly, more intuitive, etc but from my brief trial of it, that hasn't happened. Even though the changes seem to be a vast improvement on BS2.

So far my experience with Brewfather is that it has a cleaner, more intuitive interface, it's not as cluttered or bloated as BS. Being a new programme, there will no doubt be a few bugs to iron out and the designers, ( from Finland I think) are keen to get feedback from users if there are any issues, so that they can fix them straight away.

I'm really looking forward doing a few batches using it and possibly flicking BS.


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## chesl73

So I've been trialing Brewfather the last few weeks for a couple of brews alongside my copy of Beersmith. 
I've found Brewfather to be really good software, a great implementation and very easy to use. Having it available and easy to use on everything from a laptop to a mobile phone and it all syncing has been brilliant. I've been tinkering with recipes at work and it just looks like I'm on any old website 
I joined the Brewfather facebook group and had a few conversations/questions directly with the developer who was responsive and helpful. And of course the beauty of it being a web application is he's constantly improving features, fixing bugs and putting out newer versions/releases which you just can't do with a Windows based application.
So today I paid my money and upgraded to the premium version and have now ditched Beersmith. It's a shame in a way because Beersmith started with me on my brewing journey but as someone else said previously, it's so far had very little competition but now with Brewfather I think it has a real challenge on its hands as Beersmith now is dated and clunky and the Windows/thick client nature of its deployment inherently makes it slow and unresponsive to improvements and changes. 
So I'm moving on with Brewfather. 

Cheers


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## Kenf

I decided to look at Brewfather, as I needed a simple way of converting recipes. It seems ok, very simple to import recipes and it seems easy to use!
I have BeerSmith 2 & 3 and to be honest I don’t use it to its full potential!
But I do find it more “clunky” to use.


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## ABG

Kenf said:


> But I do find it more “clunky” to use.



Beersmith or Brewfather?

I find Brewfather *much* simpler to use and ended up buying a year subscription. Very happy with my decision too.


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## Kenf

Sorry Beersmith, I found Brewfather far easier


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## HamoAus

Does Brewfather have Tilt integration?

Cheers


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## chesl73

Yes, it has Tilt integration and I have an iSpindel and it integrates really well with that also. You can see a chart of gravity and temperature for your brew in Brewfather for your current fermenting batch, very cool. Never in a million years would you get this with Beersmith.


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## portsparky

I am a novice all grain Brewer, and was looking for software to design and track my brews. I played with a couple, including Beersmith which looked like it was from the '90's and didn't sync across all my devices as well as I'd like.

I tried Brewfather on the weekend. I like it. The author appears to be active and engages regularly with users on his Facebook page, providing advice and taking on suggestions.

I've paid for the premium subscription, and this will be my software.


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## FarsideOfCrazy

I'm looking forward to see if the brewfather software will support the smart pid. Davide from smart pid is working on integrating it. Once the recipe had been created you then send then mash profile and hop schedule to the smartcpid and it's programmed.

If this happens I'll definitely switch to brewfather.


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## DU99

will have look at..got (Free)brewers friend and not liking it wants heaps of info before you start...and not very australia (grain)


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## portsparky

DU99 said:


> will have look at..got (Free)brewers friend and not liking it wants heaps of info before you start...and not very australia (grain)


Yep, I found exact the same thing. I'm a novice so I'm still trying to figure out all the types of grain and it's a bit confusing for me. Brewers Friend didn't have the grain I could get locally. Brewfather has Joe White, which I can get at my LHBS, so that was another thing that supported my decision to go with it.


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## Black Devil Dog

I've been using Brewfather for a few months now after having used Beersmith for several years and there's no way I'll be going back to Beersmith. I really like the layout, it's much more user friendly and also like being able to easily adjust recipes on my phone during brew day without having to pay extra.

For anyone who is thinking of upgrading to premium, which is pretty cheap at the regular rate, they've got 20% off until the end of December.


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## Milhouse

Is there a way to change it to a no chill batch? I.e. Recalculate ibus based on extended times above isomerisatiin temps?

Does any brewing software offer this?


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## fungrel

Milhouse said:


> Is there a way to change it to a no chill batch? I.e. Recalculate ibus based on extended times above isomerisatiin temps?
> 
> Does any brewing software offer this?


Brewersfriend and I think Beersmith?


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## Wobbly74

Milhouse said:


> Is there a way to change it to a no chill batch? I.e. Recalculate ibus based on extended times above isomerisatiin temps?


Yes - adding a hopstand addition will recalculate your boil additions ibu's based on the length of the hopstand. If you cube hop then use an approximation (I tried a hs addition at 80C for 20 minutes which seemed ok with my system). If you don't then you probably need to fudge it by adding a dummy addition of 0.1g or a custom 0 AA hop for the same or similar temp / duration to trigger this calculation and indicate how quickly/what temperature you dump to the cube.


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## Milhouse

Awesome, sounds good will mess around with it...


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## ferretlegs

I had a fiddle around with Brewfather yesterday to see what it was all about. Seems generally pretty good but I could not find a way to add 'top up water' to my equipment profile. I have a grainfather (and a robo brew) that I use for slightly concentrated batches. Between the two I get around 53L into my ferm and I topup with 6L water for a 59L combined batch. In beersmith there is a section for topup water so that the software takes into account the final 'watered down' batch size and adjusts my hops calc to ensure target IBU will still be reached after dilution. In Brewfather I can turn off 'auto calc boil size' and put 'batch size into ferm' value but I'm not sure this is correctly compensating. Feeding in my standard recipe the IBU value comes out 24IBU in Brewfather but was 22.2 in Beersmith. Has anyone used Brewfather with this requirement? Apart from that, Brewfather seems very simple and easy to use for the reasonably basic recipes that I make. Certainly worth checking out.


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## portsparky

ferretlegs said:


> I had a fiddle around with Brewfather yesterday to see what it was all about. Seems generally pretty good but I could not find a way to add 'top up water' to my equipment profile. I have a grainfather (and a robo brew) that I use for slightly concentrated batches. Between the two I get around 53L into my ferm and I topup with 6L water for a 59L combined batch. In beersmith there is a section for topup water so that the software takes into account the final 'watered down' batch size and adjusts my hops calc to ensure target IBU will still be reached after dilution. In Brewfather I can turn off 'auto calc boil size' and put 'batch size into ferm' value but I'm not sure this is correctly compensating. Feeding in my standard recipe the IBU value comes out 24IBU in Brewfather but was 22.2 in Beersmith. Has anyone used Brewfather with this requirement? Apart from that, Brewfather seems very simple and easy to use for the reasonably basic recipes that I make. Certainly worth checking out.


In your recipe, go to Edit Equipment, then try adjusting the Mash Volume Limit (Max), and also the Sparge Water Limit. After you do that, go back into your recipe, scroll to the bottom and have a look at the way it changes the volumes in the Water section.

I'm no expert, but see how that goes.


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## JDW81

Milhouse said:


> Is there a way to change it to a no chill batch? I.e. Recalculate ibus based on extended times above isomerisatiin temps?
> 
> Does any brewing software offer this?



Calculating late additions for no chill is a bit of a dark art, and hard to get from brewing software as there are a lot of variables (cube volume, wort temp, type of hops, ambient temp etc). 

Best way is a bit of trial and error to work it out for you're gear and cube sizes.

Most people calculate the IBUs added from cube hops/late hops as somewhere between a 10-20 minute addition. 

FWIW, when I make a hoppy beer I put in a bittering addition at 60 minutes (with about 20-30% of the total IBUs), then put a huge cube hop addition to make up the rest of the IBUs + the flavour. I calculate it as a 15 minute addition, and it works brilliantly for my setup (old 17L fresh wort kit cubes). Great smooth bitterness and amazing late hop character.

The other option is do a mini boil with about 5-10L of wort and use that for your late hops (search for Argon's method). You can rapidly chill the wort in a sink of iced water, the strain the cooled wort into a fermenter with the rest of the cubed wort. 

You should be able to nail down what works for you in no more than 2-3 brews. 

JD


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## mongey

Sounds interesting. Hope they release an offline app. I like brewers friend for its simplicity but more local grain options would be good. Some of brewers friend yeast attenuation numbers are a bit whacko too. 

I do allot of my tinkering on my commute where there is no phone coverage for a long while. Online only is a bust for me.


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## ferretlegs

portsparky said:


> In your recipe, go to Edit Equipment, then try adjusting the Mash Volume Limit (Max), and also the Sparge Water Limit. After you do that, go back into your recipe, scroll to the bottom and have a look at the way it changes the volumes in the Water section.
> 
> I'm no expert, but see how that goes.
> View attachment 114602
> View attachment 114603



Thanks for the suggestion. I gave this a go but I'm not sure if it really achieving the purpose. When I try this it simply uses the largest mash volume possible, plus max sparge and then whatever is left becomes top up water. It does not seem to affect IBU calculation and it feels a bit 'hard wired'. What I was looking for was for the software to still advise the correct mash volume, sparge volume etc for the recipe, but understanding that my final batch size is larger than max values of my equipment and so to put the rest as top up water and calculate IBU accordingly. Using the hardwired method it was suggesting I use a 27L mash for about 4.5Kg of grain.
I did play around with this in quite a few ways, but I could not get a result where it seemed to be utilising the concept correctly as it does in Beersmith. I do appreciate you going to the trouble of providing screenshots etc, but with my fiddling around I haven't been able to get it to play ball.

My scenario if anyone is interested was just a basic recipe of 4kg trad malt, 200gm crystal and 200gm light munich - all joe white. I know from Beersmith that if I add 18gm Superpride @13.9%AA that I should get 22.3 IBU in a 29L batch using grainfather as equipment, set with 3L fermenter topup in profile. That is with 15L mash and 18.5L sparge suggested from bsmith. In this scenario the top up water would be 3L. I do this with a robobrew also so total top-up for both in the final 58L batch becomes 6L.


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## portsparky

ferretlegs said:


> Thanks for the suggestion. I gave this a go but I'm not sure if it really achieving the purpose. When I try this it simply uses the largest mash volume possible, plus max sparge and then whatever is left becomes top up water. It does not seem to affect IBU calculation and it feels a bit 'hard wired'. What I was looking for was for the software to still advise the correct mash volume, sparge volume etc for the recipe, but understanding that my final batch size is larger than max values of my equipment and so to put the rest as top up water and calculate IBU accordingly. Using the hardwired method it was suggesting I use a 27L mash for about 4.5Kg of grain.
> I did play around with this in quite a few ways, but I could not get a result where it seemed to be utilising the concept correctly as it does in Beersmith. I do appreciate you going to the trouble of providing screenshots etc, but with my fiddling around I haven't been able to get it to play ball.
> 
> My scenario if anyone is interested was just a basic recipe of 4kg trad malt, 200gm crystal and 200gm light munich - all joe white. I know from Beersmith that if I add 18gm Superpride @13.9%AA that I should get 22.3 IBU in a 29L batch using grainfather as equipment, set with 3L fermenter topup in profile. That is with 15L mash and 18.5L sparge suggested from bsmith. In this scenario the top up water would be 3L. I do this with a robobrew also so total top-up for both in the final 58L batch becomes 6L.


No worries, I'm still new to pretty much everything, so I'm not 100% sure of everything it's telling me.

Try asking the Dev (Facebook link below). He seems fairly responsive.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/brewfather/?ref=share


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## Milhouse

JDW81 said:


> Calculating late additions for no chill is a bit of a dark art, and hard to get from brewing software as there are a lot of variables (cube volume, wort temp, type of hops, ambient temp etc).
> 
> Best way is a bit of trial and error to work it out for you're gear and cube sizes.
> 
> Most people calculate the IBUs added from cube hops/late hops as somewhere between a 10-20 minute addition.
> 
> FWIW, when I make a hoppy beer I put in a bittering addition at 60 minutes (with about 20-30% of the total IBUs), then put a huge cube hop addition to make up the rest of the IBUs + the flavour. I calculate it as a 15 minute addition, and it works brilliantly for my setup (old 17L fresh wort kit cubes). Great smooth bitterness and amazing late hop character.
> 
> The other option is do a mini boil with about 5-10L of wort and use that for your late hops (search for Argon's method). You can rapidly chill the wort in a sink of iced water, the strain the cooled wort into a fermenter with the rest of the cubed wort.
> 
> You should be able to nail down what works for you in no more than 2-3 brews.
> 
> JD



Yeah I did a fair bit of reading on the subject and came to the conclusion a 0 minute no chill addition is about equivalent to a 15 minute addition. 

When I first moved to no chill recently i just moved my 10 min addition to the cube and 0 min to a dry hop. I pretty much fluked a good method for the American Pales and Ambers I usually brew. It ended up with similar bitterness, a bit less but counteracted with a bit more hops in the cube addition.

I guess like a lot of brewing its a bit trial and error. However it takes the accuracy of brewing software and makes it much more seat of the pants. Calculated IBU's are already somewhat questionable and this just makes it more so.

However the time and water savings from no chilling have been more than worth it for me. Next time I do an IPA or similar with multiple hop additions at different times I will probably do a tradition rapid chill however.


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## chesl73

mongey said:


> Sounds interesting. Hope they release an offline app. I like brewers friend for its simplicity but more local grain options would be good. Some of brewers friend yeast attenuation numbers are a bit whacko too.
> 
> I do allot of my tinkering on my commute where there is no phone coverage for a long while. Online only is a bust for me.


Brewfather works offline, it isn't online only. I believe you can make changes offline and then it will sync them back when you are online.


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## ThomasG

Hello everyone. 

I am the developer of Brewfather, let me know if you have any questions

Brewfather works offline after you load it the first time. It is a web app, not a traditional website. 

Fermenter topup is something i will look into.


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## Milhouse

Hi Thomas,

Welcome to the forum. 

Earlier in the thread I asked about no chilling. Another member suggested adding a 20 minute hopstand at 80C to approximate hops in the no chill cube. Would you say this method is fairly accurate? It seems so to me, small drop in IBU's which corresponds with a bit less bitterness from what i had tasted after moving to this method (and swapping 10 min additions to the cube and 0 min to dry hop).

Is there another way to calculate no chill hop additions or plans to include this functionality at a later date?

Thanks 

Milhouse


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## chesl73

Millhouse, I don't believe there has been much proper study done with regards no chill and additional IBUs, it's all guesswork so I think it's anyone's guess whether it is 'fairly accurate' and therefore hard for any software to incorporate. I think you just need to change the recipe yourself.


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## wide eyed and legless

Agree with above, definitely not enough study gone into no chill hopping schedule, from what I have read it is mainly guess work. To get as close as possible for myself I have been happy with the Argon method.


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## malt and barley blues

+1 for the argon method.


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## hezzer

I’m in the trial period on Brewfather and cannot see how to incorporate the starter SG and volume into the final calcs. eg last test brew was 1053 /21.7L into the fermenter, then 2.6L of starter at I don’t know what final SG was added. The iTilt reported total fermenter SG now 1045. 
How can this all be reflected in the Brewfather batch data?
PS I’m changing from BS2, mainly due to the iTilt data link in Brewfather.


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## Kenf

Well after using, BeerSmith V3, Brewfather and the online recipe creator by Grainfather - both to a)convert recipes & b) develop recipes and send to the Grainfather Connect, Brewfather wins!
Mainly because I use Coopers Malts which are not in any of the software - but it was easiest to add to Brewfather. The Grainfather software is good for making last minute changes, but I found BeerSmith far too “busy” on an a IPad (I don’t use a desktop at home, it just sits in the corner and stores my music library). I guess if I did some more study - I would understand BeerSmith better. But right now Brewfather it is!
Cheers


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## Black Devil Dog

Just saw this review of Brewfather on Facebook. It covers some technical stuff that is well beyond my level of comprehension, but the reviewer is rightly full of praise for it. I must say the support from the developer of Brewfather for all users who have a question or an issue is like nothing I've seen before. He responds promptly and is constantly seeking to make improvements.

https://deanhume.com/brewfather-progressive-app-review/


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## nosco

Got my Smartpid working with Grainfather. Im hoping to do the first brew with it tomorrow night. It looks very promising. I really like the layout of Brewfather.


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## ThomasG

nosco said:


> Got my Smartpid working with Grainfather. Im hoping to do the first brew with it tomorrow night. It looks very promising. I really like the layout of Brewfather.



Awesome, let me know how it goes. 

Sorry for not being so active in this tread, but i really appreciate your feedback. The best place to reach me is e-mail from the app or the facebook group/chat


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## nosco

My first brew went very smoothly. I made a simple Bitter with Challanger hops. The whole brew from atart to clean up took 4.5 hours wcich is a new record. I over shot the mash temp at the start which is maybe because of the Smartpid. No big deal. I have noticed that the stike temp in Brewfather is 4.5deg higher than my mash temp. I normally go 3 deg higher but I cant see how to adjust it in Brewfather?

Anyone know how to adjust the strike temp?


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## FarsideOfCrazy

Under tools there's a strike water calculater tool. Try adjusting the values in there too get it to where you want it. Otherwise you might have to add some cold water to get the 'mash in' temp down to override the smart pid. 

This happened to me last brew as well, but I had the temp manually set to 70c and once I'd mashed in the temp was still at 68.3c. It took about 5 min to get the temp down to 66c with the recirc on.


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## KegLand-com-au

Kenf said:


> Well after using, BeerSmith V3, Brewfather and the online recipe creator by Grainfather - both to a)convert recipes & b) develop recipes and send to the Grainfather Connect, Brewfather wins!
> Mainly because I use Coopers Malts which are not in any of the software - but it was easiest to add to Brewfather. The Grainfather software is good for making last minute changes, but I found BeerSmith far too “busy” on an a IPad (I don’t use a desktop at home, it just sits in the corner and stores my music library). I guess if I did some more study - I would understand BeerSmith better. But right now Brewfather it is!
> Cheers



Would have to agree with you. The Brewfather software is really exceptional and we are switching over ourselves too. Highly recommended and our staff have been using the software for a number of weeks now. We used to use BeerSmith but we honestly I would recommend the Brewfather Software. Have to take our hat off to Thomas Gansoy. He has really done some awesome work here and he seems to be frequently updating the software. Every time I open the app up it seems to have more features added. Top work mate!


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## Kenf

KegLand-com-au said:


> Would have to agree with you. The Brewfather software is really exceptional and we are switching over ourselves too. Highly recommended and our staff have been using the software for a number of weeks now. We used to use BeerSmith but we honestly I would recommend the Brewfather Software. Have to take our hat off to Thomas Gansoy. He has really done some awesome work here and he seems to be frequently updating the software. Every time I open the app up it seems to have more features added. Top work mate!


Agree with everything that was said! And it works with the Digiboil I modified!


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## Kenf

The digiboil ( with Brewzilla bits) HLT and smartpid


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## Nullnvoid

I also solely now use Brew Father. I let my Beersmith subscription lapse a couple months ago and haven't regretted it for a second. The development that is going into BF is amazing.

BS just seems to be asking for money without actually doing anything to enhance or change the software.


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## Half-baked

Kenf said:


> Agree with everything that was said! And it works with the Digiboil I modified!



Hey, @Kenf, do you have any pics you can share of the wiring to modify your digiboil? 

Looking to do the same for a Craftbeer Pi. 

What did you do with the thermal switch? Just disconnect?

Thanks 
HB


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## ThomasG

KegLand-com-au said:


> Would have to agree with you. The Brewfather software is really exceptional and we are switching over ourselves too. Highly recommended and our staff have been using the software for a number of weeks now. We used to use BeerSmith but we honestly I would recommend the Brewfather Software. Have to take our hat off to Thomas Gansoy. He has really done some awesome work here and he seems to be frequently updating the software. Every time I open the app up it seems to have more features added. Top work mate!



Thanks alot  and to everyone else for your support towards Brewfather


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## Kenf

Half-baked said:


> Hey, @Kenf, do you have any pics you can share of the wiring to modify your digiboil?
> 
> Looking to do the same for a Craftbeer Pi.
> 
> What did you do with the thermal switch? Just disconnect?
> 
> Thanks
> HB


Actually the mods were quite simple, because it’s a Digiboil the pump is external. So I wired it basically like the Grainfather (but without the thermal cut out). Power lead to the main power switch, twin feeds to the two power switches, seperate feeds to the heaters and finally leads back to the power lead. The complicated bit of course is if you want the switches to glow then you have to run neutral wires to each.
I will see if I can get some photos but it was pretty simple


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## Pijiuhouzi

Just finished my second brew with Brewfather after using BS3. I love being able to link in my Tilt directly to Brewfather.

Looking forward to see how the new recipe library goes. I have already got some inspiration for the next few brews out of it.


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## Half-baked

Thanks Kenf, got one the other day and have only quickly opened it up for a look. 

Yes, at first glance seemed fairly simple but good to be able to validate what I’m planning. 

Tbh I’m surprised there isn’t already this info out there (at least that I could find). I already have the controller and pump, so have bought the boiler, malt pipe and other accessories for what should be better than a robobrew at a saving over $150


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## Kenf

Half-baked said:


> Thanks Kenf, got one the other day and have only quickly opened it up for a look.
> 
> Yes, at first glance seemed fairly simple but good to be able to validate what I’m planning.
> 
> Tbh I’m surprised there isn’t already this info out there (at least that I could find). I already have the controller and pump, so have bought the boiler, malt pipe and other accessories for what should be better than a robobrew at a saving over $150


Mate that is exactly what I did (after killing my Grainfather). There actually is a wiring diagram for the Klarstein on the Smartpid website (it’s the Guten in some overseas markets in case you didn’t know) it’s a bit confusing because the wire colours are not correct. But basically that’s what I copied, only difference is my controller is seperate to the boiler.
Also if I want I can run the Digiboil using my Grainfather Connect! 
Anyway I’m thinking of wiring in the thermal overload, just in case - so I will get photos but it might not be until latter in the week!
Good luck with it! Cheers


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## Half-baked

Thanks mate. Will move this to a new thread, didn’t mean to take this off on a tangent. 

FWIW, I use Brewfather and it’s awesome... one of the many BS converts


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## feralbass

Hi Thomas
Do you reckon you can add Voyager malts to the program, especially after the last malt bulk buy, cheers, John


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## tramsjoe

+1 to this!


feralbass said:


> Hi Thomas
> Do you reckon you can add Voyager malts to the program, especially after the last malt bulk buy, cheers, John


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## FarsideOfCrazy

@feralbass It can be quicker to go to the issue tracker page here, https://gitlab.com/warpkode/public/brewfather/-/boards and create a new issue. Thomas is very quick to check these out and respond.


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## ThomasG

A case in the gitlab board would be great, also inlcude datasheets or URL to them is helpfull.


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## KegLand-com-au

Kenf said:


> The digiboil ( with Brewzilla bits) HLT and smartpid



How do you find the smartPID? We have not seen anyone use this with a digiboil as far as I am aware but it would be good to get your opinion on this. Have not had the chance to try the smartPID myself.


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## FarsideOfCrazy

KegLand-com-au said:


> How do you find the smartPID? We have not seen anyone use this with a digiboil as far as I am aware but it would be good to get your opinion on this. Have not had the chance to try the smartPID myself.


I've got one in my guten, there's a retro fit kit for these sv brew vessels. The unit works very well. I had trouble keeping my mash temp close to the set point, 2-3c either side, now it's .2-.3c either side.

I like the wifi as well, as my brew area is not near the house and with a quick look at the app on my phone I can see exactly what's going on. Next brew I will have it setup so brewfather can send the mash and boil profile straight to the smart pid. Thomas and Davide have got it working quite well.


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## splitice

Brewfather looks really nice.

My only gripe with it as a Software Developer is that it's not open source


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## sp0rk

splitice said:


> Brewfather looks really nice.
> 
> My only gripe with it as a Software Developer is that it's not open source


As a former software developer, not everything needs to be open source...


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## FarsideOfCrazy

There's a free version if you don't want to spend any money.


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## boodah3004

portsparky said:


> In your recipe, go to Edit Equipment, then try adjusting the Mash Volume Limit (Max), and also the Sparge Water Limit. After you do that, go back into your recipe, scroll to the bottom and have a look at the way it changes the volumes in the Water section.
> 
> I'm no expert, but see how that goes.
> View attachment 114602
> View attachment 114603




Hey Portsparky do you mind sharing you Little Creatures recipe please?
Cheers!


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## chesl73

splitice said:


> Brewfather looks really nice.
> 
> My only gripe with it as a Software Developer is that it's not open source


People should be rewarded for their good work, don't be a tight arse and support it.


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## jibba02

chesl73 said:


> People should be rewarded for their good work, don't be a tight arse and support it.


Maybe you're a little confused between free and open source software.


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## peteru

Brewfather is delivered as a complete service, with access to features being determined by payment of a subscription fee. Presumably the software design is such that the access control is enforced in the back-end. Whether the software is open source or not, the subscription model would still apply and in order to get access to the service, subscribers would still have to pay. The alternative would be to provide your own infrastructure to host the service and that would certainly be more expensive than just paying for the subscription in the first place.


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## chesl73

jibba02 said:


> Maybe you're a little confused between free and open source software.


Not really. I like the way you frame it as just a developer wanting to share in the development effort etc. It just happens to be free that way as well though doesn't it so you don't have to pay. End result of the same, you don't have to pay. 
"As a software developer I'd like it to be open source " = " As a tight arse I'd rather not pay for the software and reward the hard work of others"


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## chesl73

peteru said:


> Brewfather is delivered as a complete service, with access to features being determined by payment of a subscription fee. Presumably the software design is such that the access control is enforced in the back-end. Whether the software is open source or not, the subscription model would still apply and in order to get access to the service, subscribers would still have to pay. The alternative would be to provide your own infrastructure to host the service and that would certainly be more expensive than just paying for the subscription in the first place.


Do you currently subscribe to Brewfather?


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## Moad

FarsideOfCrazy said:


> Next brew I will have it setup so brewfather can send the mash and boil profile straight to the smart pid. Thomas and Davide have got it working quite well.



It would be great to "push" from BrewFather to the smart PID and other controllers but I assume you mean export and import? How did it go? I am considering buying the smart PID for my robo35.

Cheers


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## Kenf

KegLand-com-au said:


> How do you find the smartPID? We have not seen anyone use this with a digiboil as far as I am aware but it would be good to get your opinion on this. Have not had the chance to try the smartPID myself.


It works Fantastic! However people really need to read the instructions and it does need a bit of customising. But not the level of programming the other devices like Raspberry PI need cheers


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## Kenf

FarsideOfCrazy said:


> I've got one in my guten, there's a retro fit kit for these sv brew vessels. The unit works very well. I had trouble keeping my mash temp close to the set point, 2-3c either side, now it's .2-.3c either side.
> 
> I like the wifi as well, as my brew area is not near the house and with a quick look at the app on my phone I can see exactly what's going on. Next brew I will have it setup so brewfather can send the mash and boil profile straight to the smart pid. Thomas and Davide have got it working quite well.


It works very well - I have them on my 3 v system as well. I had similar problem to you and discovered that you have to manually adjust the parameters to stop it overshooting or not reaching temperature.
I use that auto loading the recipe function all the time and it works great!
Also I discovered that you can delete the redundant mash steps in the recipe without causing harm! Thx Thomas!
And finally adding Whirlpool hops and all of that are covered as well!
Pretty cool that you can then hand the recipe over to a SmartPID controlled fermentation chamber and load the correct fermentation profile as well!
The Brewfather/SmartPID combo is far more cleverer than I 
It is really good stuff if you read and understand it all first.
Thx Davide & Thomas!


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## Moad

Just had a quick read about the integration, it looks great! I think I’ll grab a smart PID...


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## Kenf

On their FB site SmartPID have made public the wiring diagram for using a single SmartPID to control a 3 vessel system.
I used this diagram after asking Davide about wiring two Smartpids together.
Pretty cool if you want to use the automation in Brewfather!
So for about $200 au you can control a 3 vessel system from a tablet!


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## Tilz

Moad said:


> It would be great to "push" from BrewFather to the smart PID and other controllers but I assume you mean export and import? How did it go? I am considering buying the smart PID for my robo35.
> 
> Cheers



I’m running the SmartPID on my Robobrew and I love it.

I often set up the day before so when I finish work I can start the recipe from my phone via Brewfather and it is ready to mash in when I get home. Once I mash in I can be doing other things and monitor it on my phone.


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## frosty3

Have just started to play around with Brewfather and I seem to be getting different mash pH estimates between brewfather and Bru N Water. Has anyone else noticed this or have I missed something?


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## Kea

Tilz said:


> I’m running the SmartPID on my Robobrew and I love it.
> 
> I often set up the day before so when I finish work I can start the recipe from my phone via Brewfather and it is ready to mash in when I get home. Once I mash in I can be doing other things and monitor it on my phone.



Hey @Tilz - any chance you could give me some more info on how you set up the smartPID with the Robobrew and how this benefits your brews? I’ve been considering doing the exact same thing but don’t know
a) how difficult it will be to set up
b) whether it is actually worth it
PM me if you like - don’t want to derail this thread unnecessarily.
Cheers for your help!


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## HaveFun

Does the brewfather works with the grainfather controller?

Is there a current coupon for the premium version?


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## hidara

deleted


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## aJackTar

I have the premium and I like it, in saying that it is the only one I've used so I have nothing to compare it to. Others have already mentioned the syncing but I just wanted to say thos can not be over stated, I use quite a few devices, laptop, tablet and phone and if I have it open on my laptop make a few changes to a recipe but leave it open as soon as I open another device it is exactly as I left it on the last one, I think that is awesome.


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## Manxnorton

after BS, i give Brewfather a go.
Really impressed the operation compared to the old looking BS format.
so i bought it, & now use it on pc, iphone ipad etc. 
i don’t think i’ll go back to BS.
Bri


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