Mac Brewing Software

[pokolbinguy]

Alrighty so I have downloaded the trials for beersmith and promash and run on windows (on my mac) to see what they are like and wondering what the mac native options are available. I know there are options out there but can't remember what they are called and searching has not turned up any results.

So working out what is better.....running BS or PM under windows or running what ever is available under mac.

Any mac users with experience that wish to comment?

Cheers, Pok

 

[justsomeguy]

I'm using BeerTools Pro at the moment. Unfortunately you can't get a trial version though you may be able to find a discount code in a copy of BYO to get it a little cheaper. The latest version, 1.5, is a lot better than earlier versions. It has a steepish learning curve but really is pretty good.

I've tried both BeerSmith and Promash. Didn't like Promash at all. Very clunky software to use but a lot of people like it. I liked Beersmith though. Pretty easy to use.

There is also Beer Alchemy as well. Tried it but wasn't really fussed either way with it.

gary

 

[kook]

I use Beeralchemy now. I've purchased Beersmith, Promash and Beeralchemy and tried them all over the past two years or so. Beeralchemy has been the best to use for recipe formulation and inventory management.

Only thing I find it lacks is an easy way of exporting a recipe to text. But that is something I'm happy to work around

 

[barls]

I use Beeralchemy now. I've purchased Beersmith, Promash and Beeralchemy and tried them all over the past two years or so. Beeralchemy has been the best to use for recipe formulation and inventory management.

Only thing I find it lacks is an easy way of exporting a recipe to text. But that is something I'm happy to work around

plus 1

 

[Cocko]

+ 1 Beeralchemy

 

[trevc]

Tried the two Mac options, still ended up paying for Beersmith and running it in VMware. It seems to be the de-facto standard among most brewers, and it's nice to be able to exchange recipes. Although the interface is a bit cluttered, I still find Beersmith far more intuitive than other software.

Beer Tools Pro was nice for recipe formulation, but not much else. It seemed to be unnecessarily complicated, especially when it came to mash schedules.

There's a Mac version of Beersmith in the works. That's another reason I decided to put up with running VMware for now.

 

[NickB]

+1 for BeerAlchemy - find it very intuitive to use and well laid out.

Cheers

 

[roger mellie]

Tried the two Mac options, still ended up paying for Beersmith and running it in VMware. It seems to be the de-facto standard among most brewers, and it's nice to be able to exchange recipes. Although the interface is a bit cluttered, I still find Beersmith far more intuitive than other software.

Beer Tools Pro was nice for recipe formulation, but not much else. It seemed to be unnecessarily complicated, especially when it came to mash schedules.

There's a Mac version of Beersmith in the works. That's another reason I decided to put up with running VMware for now.

+1 - Beersmith on XP via VM Fusion

Will try the Apple version wen it comes out

RM

 

[RobW]

I've been having a play with Beeralchemy but can't find the water volumes required for step mashes.
I can define the temps and times but not the volumes for each addition.
Am I missing something?

 

[kook]

I've been having a play with Beeralchemy but can't find the water volumes required for step mashes.
I can define the temps and times but not the volumes for each addition.
Am I missing something?

They should be worked out automatically when you create a batch, as they'll change depending on the batch size.

edit: Just checked and thats correct. If you select a step mash in the recipe, it'll set everything up based on batch size when you create a batch. The instructions will include decoction volumes or water additions etc.

 

[RobW]

They should be worked out automatically when you create a batch, as they'll change depending on the batch size.

edit: Just checked and thats correct. If you select a step mash in the recipe, it'll set everything up based on batch size when you create a batch. The instructions will include decoction volumes or water additions etc.

Yeah that's what I was expecting but it just gives me temp and time - no volume.
It's an eval version not registered but there's no mention of any function loss I could see.

 

[revdrjbob]

Stupid question, but where does one get a Mac copy of BeerAlchemy from? And the VMware?

TIM

 

[trevc]

Stupid question, but where does one get a Mac copy of BeerAlchemy from? And the VMware?

Did you try asking the almighty Google? he knows these things.

 

[revdrjbob]

Did you try asking the almighty Google? he knows these things.

Yarp,
downloading a trial now! :icon_cheers:

 

[roger mellie]

Stupid question, but where does one get a Mac copy of BeerAlchemy from? And the VMware?

TIM

Dont know aboot Alchemy - despite being Mac centric - the version I played around with was a poor cousin to Beermith - or maybe I was missing something.

As for VMfusion - seriously the best 100 bucks I have spent on software in a long time. I will never buy another PC.

RM

 

[Aaron]

+1 - Beersmith on XP via VM Fusion

I have beersmith running under wine in ubuntu on vmware fusion on my mac. I wonder if I could make it more complicated or have more emulation/virtualisation layers. Works flawlessly though.

 

[redbeard]

Another virtual machine software for osx (or linux) is Sun's Virtualbox. Its pretty good and v2 has just been released. Also is $0

 

[trevc]

Also is $0

Yarrrrr... so is VMWare and XP.