Anyone Using Brewfather?

[Milhouse]

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.

 

[chesl73]

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.

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[malt and barley blues]

+1 for the argon method.

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[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/

 

[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.

 

[ThomasG]

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

 

[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?

 

[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.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

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!

 

[Kenf]

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!

 

[Kenf]

The digiboil ( with Brewzilla bits) HLT and smartpid

 

[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.

 

[Half-baked]

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

 

[ThomasG]

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