Brewer's Friend Website ?

[Cervantes]

I recently stumbled across the Brewer's Friend website.

It looks like a good online alternative to Beersmith etc.

I was wondering if anyone else used it and had any comments or feedback before I go signing up?

 

[droid]

it's good, I have the 5 free recipes and a couple of brew sessions and then just edit my recipes for current batches but yeah I've been thinking of getting the whole business
knock yourself out

 

[mattfos01]

Dunno about the other stuff but the pitch rate and starter calculator in their tool section is my go to.

 

[Brew Forky]

It's my goto for the calculators.

 

[Cervantes]

I've been playing with this website a bit. As mentioned above, some of the calculators are fantastic, but the recipe design element, whilst showing promise, isn't as fully featured as Beersmith.

If they could add Mash, Water and Fermentation Profiles that could be pre-filled and then selected when designing a recipe, I'd consider switching.

But at the moment, I'll be using some of the calculators there (The water calculator is great) but will stick with Beersmith for designing recipes and record keeping.

 

[Bribie G]

It's also on another thread. It's owned by the same mob who bought BrewMate, actually either owned or managed by Austin. Small world hey.

I do the ten bucks annual subscription and get all the features. Great application, I can design recipes on the PC and take the tablet out to the brewery as it's all synced in real time via the cloood.

Beersmith, which I also own, is way too overpowering for what I need software for.

 

[takai]

It is what i use as well. BeerSmith's interface on the mac just annoyed me, and the lack of a tablet option was a pain. Hence going with BrewersFriend when i went digital.

 

[mosto]

I was playing with the free version for a while before going for the annual subscription last week. My brew day last weekend was the first I've run solely off Brewer's Friend. Very happy with it. Still learning all the tools and tricks of the website, only gripe so far is something's are little hard to find until you know where they are.

As Bribie said, it appears the mob who bought out AHB also bought out Brewmate, as Austin is an admin on the forum.

 

[Bribie G]

The forum is interesting, It's refreshing to have one's question answered by a guy from the Ozarks but the regular forum member really need to be upgraded to metric, I was trying to assist some guy, but didn't post in the end because his five gallon mash at 151 with six quarts or roods or something of two row was doing my head in.

Great system, with heaps of information about all the ingredients only a click away. And with the pro version you can create your own ingredients lists specific to Australia.

With Brewmate I would design a recipe on the PC, print it out on a4, take it out to the brewhouse where it would inevitably get scribbled over with edits then have beer spilled on it. With BF it's all there on my tablet and I can make changes there and then and check out the results, for example if I find I've run out of a certain hop that I was convinced I had heaps of :blink:

 

[nala]

The forum is interesting, It's refreshing to have one's question answered by a guy from the Ozarks but the regular forum member really need to be upgraded to metric, I was trying to assist some guy, but didn't post in the end because his five gallon mash at 151 with six quarts or roods or something of two row was doing my head in.

Great system, with heaps of information about all the ingredients only a click away. And with the pro version you can create your own ingredients lists specific to Australia.

With Brewmate I would design a recipe on the PC, print it out on a4, take it out to the brewhouse where it would inevitably get scribbled over with edits then have beer spilled on it. With BF it's all there on my tablet and I can make changes there and then and check out the results, for example if I find I've run out of a certain hop that I was convinced I had heaps of :blink:

Michael, I'm not convinced that it is as good as Brewmate.
I have paid for a one year subscription but will not be renewing.
I think that Brewmates simplicity and no chill facility is better than anything else for me.
I also have Beersmith, never use it for recipe generation.
Hate Brewersfriend forum,and also the ingredients listed by country...who needs that rubish ?

 

[Mall]

Yep, I subscribe and use a lot. Suits all my AG needs and very accurate for water amounts etc...

 

[Mr B]

The forum is interesting, It's refreshing to have one's question answered by a guy from the Ozarks but the regular forum member really need to be upgraded to metric, I was trying to assist some guy, but didn't post in the end because his five gallon mash at 151 with six quarts or roods or something of two row was doing my head in.

Great system, with heaps of information about all the ingredients only a click away. And with the pro version you can create your own ingredients lists specific to Australia.

With Brewmate I would design a recipe on the PC, print it out on a4, take it out to the brewhouse where it would inevitably get scribbled over with edits then have beer spilled on it. With BF it's all there on my tablet and I can make changes there and then and check out the results, for example if I find I've run out of a certain hop that I was convinced I had heaps of :blink:

Water (Beer) proof tablet?

I use Brewmate, transcribe into a paper book, using pen or sometimes even pencil, usually having to kick the kids off the PC inside to check a few things as I adjust ingredients for reasons you have mentioned, get their damn songs they are playing in my head, then head out to the garage to brew and listen to my music in hopeful relative peace. Get in and out so you don't get stuck heh

Invariably there is something urgent we need to go to so I finish in scant time to drain into cubes and leave, coming home later to do the cleanup.

Its a nice relaxing hobby,,,

 

[ivars]

I have just made a very healthy starter of WLP540 but according to Brewer's Friend Pitch Rate Calculator that should not have been possible since the MFG date was 5 Jul '16 and the BB date 31 Dec 16. According to Brewer's Friend "Yeast is 195 days old, the viability is estimated at 0%." This is clearly wrong or am I not understanding something?
BeerSmith seems to give viability at a more believable 49%. Could someone please explain what is going on here?

In order to calculate what my starter was growing I manipulated the Brewer's Friend MFG date to reflect the BeerSmith viability number and built the starter accordingly. Any comments on that? Thanks.

 

[Bribie G]

Clearly wrong. I regularly resurrect liquid yeasts that are up to two years old. I think with yeast viability it's more a question of how long is a piece of string. Canadian guy who used to post a lot once accidentally left a Wyeast under his car seat for a couple of years and it fired up.
I once accidentally froze a Wyeast and found it at the bottom of a hop tupperware in the chestie months later. Fired up great.

Since my earlier posts I have gone back to using BrewMate, by the way.

 

[kalbo777]

Has anyone used Beer Tools? If so how does it compare to Beersmith, Brewer's Friend etc?

 

[fungrel]

I have just made a very healthy starter of WLP540 but according to Brewer's Friend Pitch Rate Calculator that should not have been possible since the MFG date was 5 Jul '16 and the BB date 31 Dec 16. According to Brewer's Friend "Yeast is 195 days old, the viability is estimated at 0%." This is clearly wrong or am I not understanding something?
BeerSmith seems to give viability at a more believable 49%. Could someone please explain what is going on here?

In order to calculate what my starter was growing I manipulated the Brewer's Friend MFG date to reflect the BeerSmith viability number and built the starter accordingly. Any comments on that? Thanks.

It's pretty much an educated guess as to how viable the yeast is. There is no way to factor in as many variables as you can imagine there could be when yeast is stored for that long.
I always assume that the viability is closer to 0% when a yeast like yours is 195 days old. That way, you can build multiple step starters that are small enough to build a small colony back to correct pitching rate. I would be more cautious of the 49% number than the 0% number. E

ither of the numbers are probably incorrect.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I have had a 500 g packet of s04 packaged in 2012 best before date 2015 I have been using the amount projected by Brewers Friend for my last 6 brews and each has fermented out spot on, though I am mindful of the viability of yeast, I think a lot has to do with how it is stored.

 

[yankinoz]

I use their mash pH calculator, which the knowledgeable Martin Brungard wrote, and the results are good, spot on if the pH is then measured. I stopped using their strike water temp calculator because with my methods it overestimates heat loss to the vessel. I BIAB and after adding water transfer the pot to a box lined with earthwool. If you mash in an Esky, you might find that calculator is accurate. I've used their beer colour calculator twice and got some underestimation of colour, but that could be because I entered the midrange of the maltster's specifications and the grain might well have been a little darker.

 

[Peter80]

Why did you go back to brewers mate Bribie? Just wondering as I am currently using it but want to switch to a cloud based system.

 

[Bribie G]

I found Brewers Friend to be too cumbersome, silly layout of malts into nationalities and very hard to edit the list. I found that if I added ingredients, next time I did a recipe they had disappeared.