What Brewing Software Do You Use And Why?

[townsville]

Something everyone forgets

Promash is a 16 bit program AND WONT WORK in 64 bit mode in Windows 7.

something to consider if you upgrade your computer

Craftbrewer

 

[Ray_Mills]

Hi
I have been using Beertools for some time now and its a very good programme, got some great features and will be around for the long run.
One of the things I like is you can download any recipe from thier site, (10,000 there i think) and change to suite your enviroment.
Most Australian malts are on the database and if your brewing to style its very accurate.
Cheers
Ray

 

[Yeastie Beastie]

thats easy fixed come join us

I will admitt a MAC would be handy

 

[Jazman]

promash works well under wine in ubuntu(linux) havent tried under win 7 but i spos u set the properties to run in win xp compat used in vista but then i hardly use win these days

 

[randyrob]

Hey Yeasty Beasty,

If you are still in the market, I'd be happy to flick you a beta verison of the software i have been working on see what you think?

BrewMate

Rob.

 

[Peteoz77]

Something everyone forgets

Promash is a 16 bit program AND WONT WORK in 64 bit mode in Windows 7.

something to consider if you upgrade your computer

Craftbrewer

What's Windoze 7? Is that like Mac OS9?

 

[Yeastie Beastie]

Hey Yeasty Beasty,

If you are still in the market, I'd be happy to flick you a beta verison of the software i have been working on see what you think?

BrewMate

Rob.

Hey I would be MORE than happy to give that a go. From the screenshot it actually looks great and more than anything user friendly.

 

[Gout]

i have promash and its working on windows 7(x64), vista (x64), xp etc so you might need to try again. I dont recall i did anything smart to get it working - I just had a look and i didnt even ask it to run in previous version of windows compatibility mode

good luck

 

[townsville]

i have promash and its working on windows 7(x64), vista (x64), xp etc so you might need to try again. I dont recall i did anything smart to get it working - I just had a look and i didnt even ask it to run in previous version of windows compatibility mode

good luck

I'll give it another go and see. Could have been a bad install, who knows.

Craftbrewer
Graham Sanders
skype "Craftbrewer"
http://radio.craftbrewer.org
organisor of the Great Chinese Hop Buy

 

[kirem]

Kirem,

How do I do that?

cheers

Darren

http://www.promash.com/Users/userhelp.html

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[RussTaylor]

I used to use Promash and swapped to Beersmith about 2 years ago. The main thing I miss is the differentiation between a recipe and a session. Also the bottle carbonation area in Beersmith is a little basic as it assumes you bottle your full batch size rather than taking into consideration losses during fermentation and conditioning. Promash allows you to enter any figure for the amount you've bottled AND kegged. Beersmith only allows bottled OR kegged not both. Basically Promash allows a more accurate recording of your brewing session. In Beersmith you have to record all these things in the notes.

The main reason why I switched is because Beersmith has a more active development and support team/community.

 

[Bribie G]

Personally, I just make beer and don't see the point of software. I know what 30g of POR is going to do or what I'm going to get with 4k of Galaxy and 500 of Polenta, or 20 Challenger, 20 EKG and a plug of Styrians into the keg, or what sort of beer to expect with 5000 of Golden Promise, 68 degree mash and half a k of sugaz in the fermenter. I can almost taste it as I plan it. Don't need a program to tell me.

I don't expect the Coopers family had promash.

 

[np1962]

Personally, I just make beer and don't see the point of software. I know what 30g of POR is going to do or what I'm going to get with 4k of Galaxy and 500 of Polenta, or 20 Challenger, 20 EKG and a plug of Styrians into the keg, or what sort of beer to expect with 5000 of Golden Promise, 68 degree mash and half a k of sugaz in the fermenter. I can almost taste it as I plan it. Don't need a program to tell me.

I don't expect the Coopers family had promash.

Bribie, you have an advantage,

You were born a Yorkshireman!

By the way, congrats on 5000 posts

Cheers
Nige

 

[matthendry]

Personally, I just make beer and don't see the point of software. I know what 30g of POR is going to do or what I'm going to get with 4k of Galaxy and 500 of Polenta, or 20 Challenger, 20 EKG and a plug of Styrians into the keg, or what sort of beer to expect with 5000 of Golden Promise, 68 degree mash and half a k of sugaz in the fermenter. I can almost taste it as I plan it. Don't need a program to tell me.

I don't expect the Coopers family had promash.

The Coopers family uses Siemens Braumat Software

http://www.automation.siemens.com/MCMS/FOO...es/Default.aspx

 

[townsville]

Tell you after using Beersmith for a year, I am soooo pleased to be again on Promash. While each to me is as much as muchly as a program goes, I just like the feel of Promash.

AND to support the brewing industry, and all those Craftbrewers, I have yet again put my self out.

The trouble with Promash is it hasn't been updated for some time (well neither has Beersmith as well). Thats because simply brewing is a simple chemical process, and once you nail the formulas in a program like these, there is nothing more left to do.

EXCEPT update the receipe, malt, yeast, style guidelines database.

Well this is where you think Promash has let you down. BUT NO!!!!!!! he cries. Craftbrewers like me have been secretly updating these things, and they are fully available.

If you want an update of these data bases to put on your Promash give me a bell, happy to share these files.

Nothing better than to share things at Christmas.

Craftbrewer
Graham Sanders
skype "Craftbrewer"
http://radio.craftbrewer.org
organisor of the Great Chinese Hop Buy

 

[MHB]

None of the above
I have all of them and a couple that havent got a mention yet like The Master Brewers Tool Box available through the MBAA and Beer Tools Pro.
In short if you know whats going on with your system and have a basic knowledge of the brewing process you should be able to work out your grain bill and hop additions very easily doing so increases your understanding of both the processes and ingredients you use.

A lot of peoples approach to brewing software is a bit like giving your kid a calculator and thinking they can do maths, wrong, they might get an answer, it might even be the right answer, but if they dont understand the basic principles used to get the answer they cant apply the processes to different or changing circumstances.

The other issue I have with brewing software is that it leads to false expectations; the answer is going to lie in a range rather than be a discrete right answer.
Just looking at bitterness; the classic example is the great HBD Palexperiment all the brewing software gave answers that were up to 30% out, and the outcomes from the same ingredients gave results that varied over a 20% range. Were the brewers who got higher or lower than average results wrong?

For me doing the work myself and comparing results with expectations is part of learning to brew better.
MHB

 

[Smashin]

I used promash for a few years, I'm a bit perplexed with comment Re: being more complicated to use. I found Promash is very simple and intuitive. Upgrading data base is no secret nor complicated, just import them using the "import button. data bases are widely available from many sources, good on you graham for sharing databases that you have updated. About a year ago i started using beer smith for one main reason, that being the very clunky method of reviewing brewdays and recipes.

...once you nail the formulas in a program like these, there is nothing more left to do....

not quite, heres a few points where promash could be updated imo. others may want to comment or add to it.

-updated to provide the more userfriendly reviewing interface for recipes and brew days (similar to beersmith).
-the "yeast and water " & "Extras and notes" buttons on the recipe page seam useless, just display the info and allow the window to be enlarged.
-add a fermentation temperature profile (similar to the mash schedule page).
-hop age degradation calculation built into the recipe page once accessed through the brewday.


Similar could be said for Beersmith.
i.e.
- hydrometer button on the main recipe page.
- allow the ingredients box to auto widen so theres no need to scroll side ways.

Again my preference is for promash, yet once or two functions drew be back to beersmith. I'd vote for new version of promash.

 

[browndog]

Good to see you supporting the industry Graham <_<

Edit... & to keep on topic - I prefer & use Beersmith.

Cheers Ross

SNAP !

I agree with the beersmith users, it is very easy to use and if you know the specs of the hop/malt/adjunct/whatever you can easily update the database with it yourself. Infact I just added chinese hops and citra to the hop database in the last few days.

cheers

Browndog

 

[goomboogo]

Tell you after using Beersmith for a year, I am soooo pleased to be again on Promash. While each to me is as much as muchly as a program goes, I just like the feel of Promash.

AND to support the brewing industry, and all those Craftbrewers, I have yet again put my self out.

The trouble with Promash is it hasn't been updated for some time (well neither has Beersmith as well). Thats because simply brewing is a simple chemical process, and once you nail the formulas in a program like these, there is nothing more left to do.

EXCEPT update the receipe, malt, yeast, style guidelines database.

Well this is where you think Promash has let you down. BUT NO!!!!!!! he cries. Craftbrewers like me have been secretly updating these things, and they are fully available.

If you want an update of these data bases to put on your Promash give me a bell, happy to share these files.

Nothing better than to share things at Christmas.

Craftbrewer
Graham Sanders
skype "Craftbrewer"
http://radio.craftbrewer.org
organisor of the Great Chinese Hop Buy

I think Ross was referring to your admission that you were too tight to purchase the software yet still use it.

 

[Adamt]

Graham L Sanders, the Robin Hood of Townsville forest.