Best Homebrew (Beer Recipe) Software
One of the key aspects of homebrew is recipe formulation and management. Creating a tasty brew that meets the characteristics of its target style is no easy task, involving many calculations and variables (color, bitterness, specific gravity, etc). So it's not surprising that there are several homebrew software programs available to assist with these crucial tasks, including: BeerSmith, CyberBrau, DrewBrew, ProMash,QBrew, Strangebrew, and SUDS.
After reviewing all of these programs, three are recommended. Probably the most feature rich is BeerSmith. Unfortunately it is shareware nor freeware but it is so good that it must be mentioned.
It has an integrated recipe database for formulating and tracking recipes. It also has a user-friendly interface, an integrated ingredient management system, shopping list, and many other tools; including water profiles, mash profiles, hop bitterness and aging calculator, hydrometer correction, various unit converters, and much more! BeerSmith will create a detailed brewing instruction sheet based on the recipe, equipment profile, mash profile, efficiency rating, and other options selected. To top it all off, it is one of only two homebrew recipe programs that support the BeerXML standard that allows users to easily share recipes and associated information.
For an excellent freeware homebrew recipe program, QBrew is the only, but very deserving, choice. It has an intuitive and simple interface and is excellent for formulating recipes quickly (about half the time as BeerSmith). Recipe entry and ingredient database management is extremely simple. Each recipe is stored in a separate file and can be exported in BeerXML format for sharing and/or importing into other BeerXML-enabled applications such as BeerSmith. The summary pane also lists the maximum and minimum gravity, bitterness, and color levels according to standardized style definitions published by the Beer Judge Certification Program. This is useful if you're brewing for a competition, or targetting a particular style.
QBrew's recipe calculations seem to be more accurate than BeerSmith's, but don't accept that as a guarantee! Home brewing systems vary in efficiency and the calculation results are serve as guidelines. Both BeerSmith and QBrew can be extracted from the installation archive and run from a USB flash drive.
For those interested in a web-based beer recipe application for a personal web site and then accessed from anywhere, CyberBrau is very appealing. It features recipe formulation and management, batch tracking, a reviewing system, and other useful utilities. It also supports multiple users and is great for sharing recipes, tracking batches through the entire process, and sharing comments on recipes.
Many thanks to Craig Vollmar for preparing the original review on which this item is based.
BeerSmith
Website: http://www.beersmith.com/
Author: BeerSmith BrewingCommunity
Date: November 18, 2007
Download File size: 2.94MB
License: Shareware(21-day trial)
Operating systems supported: Windows98-Vista
64 Bit Capable: No
Other languages supported: Unknown
Additional Software Required: None
QBrew
Website: http://www.usermode.org/code.html
Author: UserMode
Date: September 25, 2007
Download File size: 4.2MB
License: FreeOpen Source
Operating systems supported: Windows98-XP, Mac OSX, Linux, Unix
64 Bit Capable: No
Other languages supported: Unknown
Additional Software Required: None
CyberBrau
Website: http://cyberbrau.sourceforge.net/
Author: CyberBrau
Date: November 2, 2006
Download File size: 1.4MB
License: Free Open Source
Operating systems supported: Windows (IIS 5+ or Apache), Linux (Apache)
64 Bit Capable: No
Other languages supported: Unknown
Additional Software Required: PHP 4+ and MySQL
Delicious
Digg
Technorati
Any home still/spirit making software?
You missed a bunch of software. Did you try Beertools? In my opinion this is the top software package. It is the only right now that is still really developing new products and features actively
Is it freeware?
A few other sites that may be of interest:
Beer Calculator - http://leebrewery.com/beermath.htm
BeerXML - http://www.beerxml.com/
BrewMaxer - http://www.brewmaxer.com/
Microbrew packaging - http://www.brewpack.com/
RCB Equipment - http://rcbequip.com/
U.K. Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) - http://www.camra.org.uk/
Real Beer - http://realbeer.com/
Homebrew Digest - http://hbd.org/
Home Distillation - http://www.moonshine-still.com
Bartender’s Companion - http://www.bartenderscompanion.com/
If you live in Silicon Valley you may find these sites interesting:
Silicon Valley Sudzers - http://www.sudzers.org/
Brewing Supplies in San Jose, CA - http://www.beerandwinemakers.com/
Brewing Supplies in Los Altos, CA - http://www.fermentationfrenzy.com/
Brewing Supplies in Santa Cruz, CA - http://www.breworganic.com/
I'd like to see this expanded to include home wine-making software
Post new comment