iOS: ibrewmaster 2 vs beersmith 2. Glitches and features

[bingggo]

Howdy,

I've been brewing kits and grains for a year, and now easing myself into small-batch BIAB, and have been checking out these apps on my iPad and reading various posts here and elsewhere.

But I haven't found much comparing the two recent versions of iBrewmaster 2 and Beersmith 2, or commenting on the odd glitches I've found on both. I'm not sure which to invest my time into learning and setting up.

iBrewmaster 2 is attractive to me with its inventory and calendar features; but in the first weeks of using it, it's wiped my custom recipes once and done other odd things. It also seems to have less intuitive equipment setup than Beersmith (which seems to come with good BIAB profiles).

Beersmith 2 also has odd glitches at times, mainly around remembering certain settings. For example, it seems to sometimes list a grain as added after boil when it is not marked as such under the checkbox, or vice versa; and needs you to open the grain again and redo the checkbox. I'm also a bit unclear as to whether it keeps track of your different notes when you brew a recipe multiple times.

I guess I'm most interested in whether people have persevered with iBrewmaster 2 and find its extra features useful. Or whether Beersmith is definitely the way to go. Maybe I should use the desktop Beersmith for the inventory side.

Also, do either have an easy way to convert all-grain to extract and vice versa?

Cheers,
B

 

[elcarter]

I'd recommend beer smith.

I run it on a windows pc and have had zero issues. Often use the cloud feature for storage of recipes as well.

The android app has less features but useful just on brew day if you want to use the timer function for hops, mash schedule ect. Not sure I'd bother making recipes on the mobile version it would take twice as long and could end up with similar check box issues you described.

Ultimately I print out a brew day sheet form beer smith and run with that on the day. I keep it on the ferment fridge for notes ect and then re-type into the recipe database afterwards. Helps with recipe development.

Another good thing about beer smith is thee youtube vids that help you get familiar with the software.

So apart from not being on the same OS, computer architecture or having used Ibrew most of my recommendations are mute but if you have a desktp and a printer that would be the way I'd go. Also not a fan of pro mash.

I can see someone having a 20 min Ipad addition to the boil at some stage.

 

[heyhey]

I'm running Beersmith 2 on Mac and the only issue I've had is it sometimes forgets my default equipment setup

 

[hoppinmad]

IMO... ibrewmaster kicks beersmith's ass when it comes to use on iphones and ipads. Beersmith is great on a pc but when it comes to use on a mobile device it is totally different and the two just don't compare. Not sure why ibrewmaster would have wiped your recipe. Its never done that to me so you got unlucky.

 

[Mardoo]

I can't imagine being tied to only the Beersmith iOS version. I use it for recipe mockup and the brew day timers, but the rest is on laptop. If there are other options I'd give them a go. I used to use BeerAlchemy on iOS and quite liked it, but haven't used it since they upgraded.