Laptop software for all grain brewing

Still small time as far as all grain brewing. Wondering if there is any free downloadable software out there to help with conversions, water volume/boil volume??? :mrgreen:

www.brewersfriend.com is free and can be access from any computer with an internet connection.

Gotta highjack… sorry! Anyone using Beersmith 2 on a mac? I’ve been using free online software like Hopville and now Brewtoad. It’s ok, but I’d like to use something a little better and more robust. We’re a MAC household so I’m looking for something that is OSX compatible and something with an app would be awesome too!

Again sorry to highjack, but seemed like a good fit.

[quote=“dobe12”]Gotta highjack… sorry! Anyone using Beersmith 2 on a mac? I’ve been using free online software like Hopville and now Brewtoad. It’s ok, but I’d like to use something a little better and more robust. We’re a MAC household so I’m looking for something that is OSX compatible and something with an app would be awesome too!

Again sorry to highjack, but seemed like a good fit.[/quote]
I’ve only ever used Beer Alchemy (now BA 2). I tried the BeerSmith demo but didn’t like the interface as well.

kentplacesoftware.com

brewmate is a nice free recipe designer. Have been using it for 3 years and find it easy to work with.

[quote=“airlocksniffer”][quote=“dobe12”]Gotta highjack… sorry! Anyone using Beersmith 2 on a mac? I’ve been using free online software like Hopville and now Brewtoad. It’s ok, but I’d like to use something a little better and more robust. We’re a MAC household so I’m looking for something that is OSX compatible and something with an app would be awesome too!

Again sorry to highjack, but seemed like a good fit.[/quote]
I’ve only ever used Beer Alchemy (now BA 2). I tried the BeerSmith demo but didn’t like the interface as well.

kentplacesoftware.com[/quote]

Ditto here. Beer Alchemy is great, and Beersmith doesn’t even come close with regard to intuitive interface and ease of use. I’ve found it to remarkably accurate too with regard to it’s calculation abilities.

[quote=“dobe12”]Gotta highjack… sorry! Anyone using Beersmith 2 on a mac? I’ve been using free online software like Hopville and now Brewtoad. It’s ok, but I’d like to use something a little better and more robust. We’re a MAC household so I’m looking for something that is OSX compatible and something with an app would be awesome too!

Again sorry to highjack, but seemed like a good fit.[/quote]

I use it on a MBP and it works great. The new version they just put out is much faster.

[quote=“GarretD”][quote=“dobe12”]Gotta highjack… sorry! Anyone using Beersmith 2 on a mac? I’ve been using free online software like Hopville and now Brewtoad. It’s ok, but I’d like to use something a little better and more robust. We’re a MAC household so I’m looking for something that is OSX compatible and something with an app would be awesome too!

Again sorry to highjack, but seemed like a good fit.[/quote]

I use it on a MBP and it works great. The new version they just put out is much faster.[/quote]
Same here. I find the UI’s learning curve to be a bit frustrating, but once you find where stuff is, it’s pretty cool.

Thanks brewers !! :mrgreen:

Yes, thanks! Sounds like I may give Beer Alchemy a try. Being a MAC guy, I don’t like big clunky interfaces… which I’ve read about Beersmith.

[quote=“The Professor”][quote=“airlocksniffer”][quote=“dobe12”]Gotta highjack… sorry! Anyone using Beersmith 2 on a mac? I’ve been using free online software like Hopville and now Brewtoad. It’s ok, but I’d like to use something a little better and more robust. We’re a MAC household so I’m looking for something that is OSX compatible and something with an app would be awesome too!

Again sorry to highjack, but seemed like a good fit.[/quote]
I’ve only ever used Beer Alchemy (now BA 2). I tried the BeerSmith demo but didn’t like the interface as well.

kentplacesoftware.com[/quote]
Ditto here. Beer Alchemy is great, and Beersmith doesn’t even come close with regard to intuitive interface and ease of use. I’ve found it to remarkably accurate too with regard to it’s calculation abilities.[/quote]
I prefer Beer Alchemy too, started on it when it was the only real choice for Mac but I’ve stuck with it. I’ve tried BeerSmith and it seems to work well but there were several small things where I prefer BA (and I already knew how to use it). It does sync well with my iPhone and iPad which is what I use in the garage. (very nice to be able to check my inventory or a recipe on my phone when I’m away from home)

beersmith 2 on a mac and pc, tried them all and that works the best for me. And is probably the best with customer service and updates

http://www.brewmate.net/ http://www.brewmate.net/release/BrewMateSetup.exe

It is easy and cheap(free), and totally gets the job done for me.

Not a big deal for everyone but the area that Beer Alchemy stands out for me is the inventory management. I buy almost all my hops by the pound and I keep a fairly large inventory of grains around. Might have changed but I struggled with BeerSmith because I couldn’t get it to work with an inventory of different batches of hops with different AA’s. (eg - it didn’t deal well with the fact I have 3 lbs of Amarillo, 2 lbs of it being leaf with each at a different AA and then a pound of pellets with yet another AA) Beer Alchemy makes that all really easy and then when you create a ‘batch’ from a recipe it adjust the quantities of hops needed in that batch to keep the IBU contribution from each addition consistent with what you had in the recipe by taking the AA of the hops you have in stock and doing it all the adjustments automatically. Certainly a minor deal for some but I like how it all works.

I’m a big fan of BrewToad.com
http://www.brewtoad.com