Beermate Or Brewsmith

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fergi

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dont want to start a war here but i was just messing with brew mate ,

i havent used either as i have only made brews that i have got from guys that have already critiqued the recipes themselves.

brew mate is free v beersmith "pay"
beersmith looks more comprehensive than BM but messing around with BM seems easier for me to use, i did try the free trial of beersmith.

anyone using brewmate and are you happy to use it, is it reliable

fergi
 
Love it! The only small thing I would criticise is that the colour for lighter coloured beers is lighter and darker ones darker. But who gives a rats! It's free.
 
its up to the user. I have known BS and used BS for a while and its changed and I have had to adapt to it. I have used BM but only slightly. Both have got BIAB in the system.

You can add grains, yeast and other things to BS as a ad on so all the aussie malt are not in there by default but you can add them in as a well as alot of others we use in aus that are not in by default.

The grain in BM from memory is default and not brand specific. Not sure if this is the case now but maybe something to look at.
 
I am persevering with beer smith ATM because I paid for it, and trying to get some value out of it. Brew mate was much simpler, just as effective I reckon and had a good timer setup that I really miss. For the basic level of use I give my brewing software I could have stuck with brewmate and been 20 odd bucks better off.
 
Personally, i hate Beersmith. Version 1.whatever, was heaps better than the second generation.

Way to complicated for what most people need and i don't think it's any more accurate.

I'm not saying BS is hard to use, but it's harder than it needs to be. No timers which is a pain in the ass to me.

The new layout is confusing for a lot of brewers and there have been more than a few bugs and innacuracies found.

I use a combination of Brewmate and Beertools Pro. Both have their good points.

BTP is more customizable, has inventory management which i love but is harder to work with than Brewmate and doesn't have alarms.

Brewmate has alarms, is ultra easy to use, very accurate, caters for 3v or BIAB brewers with ease and it's free.

I have owned and paid for Beersmith, Beertools Pro, Brewmate (yes i donated money to Rob for his efforts). I've also tried Brewtarget (shit), and as i own an ipad, i've also got Beeralchemy and iBrewmaster which are both pretty cool.

I love software and apps. I'm not a nerd by any stretch, but if there was one thing that made me close to being one it would be software and app packages....

I regret buying BS (i've actually reinstalled BS Version 1 which is still available for download from the site) and much prefer that to the second generation. However i don't use that any more either.

The one good thing i thought BS had was the brewday printout was very cool. that's about it.

Brewmate or Beertools Pro in my opinion are the best two packages out there at the moment.

BigNath
 
Beersmith vs Brewmate

road_train_truck_02.jpg


ferrari.jpg

If you are popping down to the deli for a loaf and some milk, what would you use.


I've got Beersmith and have paid twice for the kosher version of 1 and 2 but heck life's just too short :icon_cheers:
 
As soon as i saw the title of this thread i thought -

"how long until bribie rocks up with those two photos" :icon_cheers:
 
Second photo is new as I traded in the red one :icon_cheers:
 
good swap mate, i reckon the yellow looks better anyway....
 
I use Beersmith and have since I started brewing.

I can honestly say that I don't feel I have had a smooth session using it this whole time. It does the job I need and it has everything you need to get your recipes in ..... but the layout and constant, CONSTANT repetition of data is doing my head in.


How many times do I need to see what my pre-boil volume is???? Or my estimated post-boil gravity????......have a look, it's asked on almost every bloody screen in the recipe formulation section!

I will still use it mainly because I paid for it ...... but I'm always on the lookout for a better, and possibly simpler option.
 
I've used brewmate from day dot because i found it more visually pleasing. Originally i was just using it to work out how bitterness in extract brews. I had always figured that once i worked out how to brew better i would 'upgrade' to beersmith but i haven't really found anything that brewmate doesn't do. I do know that beersmith has a lot more options, however my brewing is pretty basic (BIAB).

I do like how brewmate has a nichill option, very handy when working out my additions.
 
I've always used brewmate. Once you've used your pot a few times and get an idea of how much trub you're gonna get and evaporation amounts its pretty much spot on every brew.

I've got no complaints, especially as its free. Actually i think its time i donated, I certainly couldn't of got to where I am now without it.
 
I've always used brewmate. Once you've used your pot a few times and get an idea of how much trub you're gonna get and evaporation amounts its pretty much spot on every brew.

I've got no complaints, especially as its free. Actually i think its time i donated, I certainly couldn't of got to where I am now without it.

I've been using Brewmate since i started allgrain last June. I dl'ed the trial of bersmith and it just confused the hell out of me having never done an allgrain brew.

Just went and found the donate button. Figured $20 was the going rate for beersmith, so that would be fair. Thanks for the reminder.

I find it invaluable and it's very rare that i fail to hit a target. :icon_chickcheers:
 
I use BS purely for the stepped mash routines. I find it easy and much prefer to have all the tabs open to be able to see all the different steps in the whole process. I used BM but found it painful to adjust things like AA on the fly.
 
I haven't used Beermate, but have used Beersmith for a while.

I don't find the usability that great, it's a bombardment of info and not logically laid out. I do like the feature of how it shows you a beer profile to match when making recipes. I also find it's calculations accurate, including the amount of heat loss to the mash tun etc. I follow some rules for a mash profile which cannot be setup in the application, so for every recipe I need to manually go into the mash profile and tweak it. Beersmith 2.1 finally has a brew timer. While I'm happy using it, when it comes time to pay to go version 3 (probably not for years) I think I will have a serious look at Beermate. I may even have a good look at Beermate prior as I like the idea of installing it onto a usb stick and having it portable.


QldKev
 
Said it before, I would happily pay for Brewmate if I could use it for step mashing! It's very good but step mashing is not catered for.

Screwy
 
Said it before, I would happily pay for Brewmate if I could use it for step mashing! It's very good but step mashing is not catered for.

Screwy


Ouch, looks like I may not worry about having a play with it. I'll keep an eye out and it the facility is added it will be back on my books.
 
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