Interest in Online Home Brewing Software?

[dennydeaton]

I’ve been using Beersmith for a while and overall like it. It has its quirks but all of the other home brewing software I’ve tried does too. I’ve tried Promash, Beer Alchemy, BeerTools and a few iPhone-based apps. I’ve also played around with hopville and a few other online recipe tools but each left something to be desired.

Beyond the desire for an overall interface improvement and a more streamlined recipe creation process, I’d like to be able to manage my recipes and information from any computer or device, not just the one I have the software installed on. This could be solved by a web-based application which would only require a browser.

I’m an application developer and also I have a bit of experience with UI design. I’ve also been home brewing for over 9 years and have a good understanding of the underlying calculations/conversions and overall needs for such a tool.

I’m considering building a site that would serve as an all-in-one recipe and brew day tool. I’m still in the brainstorming process, but here are the core features I have in mind.

• Recipe creation tool (with a preloaded ingredients based, which would also configurable). I’d also like i to have a place to keep general notes for each recipe.
• Recipe Manager
• Brew Day (a page that you could load your recipes up in a “brew day” style, listing out the important information in order of need throughout the brewing process).
• Common Tools
• Conversion/Unit Tools
• Base profile (brewhouse setup, water configuration, batch size, etc)

I’d like to keep the feature list short and sweet at first. Another problem I have with other tools I’ve used is that they have features and data that I never use. I want to revisit every single function and data point before including it in the tool.

I’m interested to know if this is something that more brewers are seeking or would use? If so, is it something you’d pay for, and how much (annually)? What other features would you like to see, if any?

It’s a big endeavor and there are associated hosting costs for such an application, but I think it might greatly benefit the home brewing community.

Thanks in advance for the feedback. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

[denny]

Personally, it wouldn’t work for me because I don’t have internet access in my brewhouse (garage).

[dennydeaton]

Hi Denny! (always nice to meet another one)

As with other software, you could still print your recipes or save them locally to your computer for use.

I’d also consider developing a mobile version so that you could easily access recipes and keep notes during a brew session from a mobile device (phone, iPod, iPad).

[grainbelt]

I really dont see anything different, if you want to make something to your own prefferences and try to sell it go for it.
I have used most apps, on mac and pc and I use beersmith now for the most part and can do everything with that you have listed

[dennydeaton]

Hi grainbelt,

There is nothing wrong with Beersmith or the other software available. I’ve benefitted greatly from many of them.

The primary differences with my idea would be the accessibility from any computer (online vs. on your computer) and a better interface. These features may not be all that important to most people though, which is why I feeling it out on the forum.

Thank you for your feedback.

[grainbelt]

[quote=“dennydeaton”]Hi grainbelt,

There is nothing wrong with Beersmith or the other software available. I’ve benefitted greatly from many of them.

The primary differences with my idea would be the accessibility from any computer (online vs. on your computer) and a better interface. These features may not be all that important to most people though, which is why I feeling it out on the forum.

Thank you for your feedback.[/quote]

I guess I do not actually access the software itself but I do access my final recipes from any computer/phone from beersmith from an export, and make changes to the recipe file after the brew session is done if there were any changes.
I

[porterman]

Have you checked out hopville.com?