Brewmate V Beersmith

[Glot]

I use Brewmate to adapt other's recipes.
I find the grain options a bit basic. That's okay as it is shareware.
Does Beersmith offer more to make it worth swapping to?
Is it actually more useful than Brewmate or just more bells and whistles?

 

[bum]

21 day free trial of Beersmith: http://beersmith.com/download-beersmith/

Beermate isn't shareware, incidentally. Don't suppose that matters though.

 

[SimoB]

Beersmith is great, i bought both the PC and mobile version... I pretty much only use it on computer now. I find it easier and faster

 

[Truman42]

Brewmate is simple and it works. Beersmith is a lot more complicated and takes awhile to get around it but offers a lot more features than brewmate.

If your just doing standard BIAB, single stepped mash etc then Brewmate is ideal for you. But if you want the ability to add stepped mashes and use the timer features to tell you when your step is finished then go with beersmith.

I recently switched to beersmith after using brewmate for a few years. Heres what i like about it..

Beersmith
Pros: Equipment profiles, Add stepped mash with timers, Inventory control to deduct ingredients from your stock levels, You can use beersmith mobile to create recipes on your tablet etc when away from home.
water profiles, the print out of the recipes looks cool. Add on packs allow you to update your grain, hops, recipes etc

Cons: Steep learning curve, costs money.

Brewmate
Pros: Free, easy to use, basic features and good for single stepped mash.

Cons: none really, it isnt as fancy as beersmith but some prefer that.

BTW You can add more grain options to Brewmate. I actually had a fellow brewer send me the file that contained the list of grains from his brewmate folder as he had a lot of supplier specific grain types setup in his. I openend his and mine in notepad ++ so I could merge them together and added that to my brewmate folder. I think I posted a tutorial on here somewhere on how to do it.

 

[Glot]

Very helpful Truman. I will look at adding grains. That was my only real issue at this level of brewing. I had to guess replacements for the calculations.
Brewmate accepts encourages donations so in my book that makes it shareware rather than freeware.

 

[indica86]

Beersmith does not take anything more than basic computer navigation competence. And its good.
And it has a timer, which helps when you are drinking and cooking dinner 'cos it's LOUD when it goes off.

 

[Truman42]

Very helpful Truman. I will look at adding grains. That was my only real issue at this level of brewing. I had to guess replacements for the calculations.
Brewmate accepts encourages donations so in my book that makes it shareware rather than freeware.

PM me your email and I will send you my BMData.xml file which contains all the popular available malt suppliers in Australia, and their products.

 

[zeggie]

I started with brewmate but find beersmith much better. Got it via craftbrewer, think it was a few bucks cheaper

 

[Truman42]

Beersmith does not take anything more than basic computer navigation competence. And its good.
And it has a timer, which helps when you are drinking and cooking dinner 'cos it's LOUD when it goes off.

Actually that's the one thing about beersmith I don't like. It's timers only ring for 10 seconds or so then stop. If your away from your brewery you mightn't hear it. Brewmate timers ring non stop until you click on okay.

 

[indica86]

For me that is no issue as I have music playing through the computer, it wakes the neighbor's neighbors up and I never miss it.

 

[dubbadan]

Actually that's the one thing about beersmith I don't like. It's timers only ring for 10 seconds or so then stop.

+1
Even when I use the mobile app with my phone in my pocket I still sometimes miss a timer alarm.