BeerAlchemy was the first complete homebrewing software package that I tried. I first started using it in 2006 and was most impressed by the responsiveness of the developer, Kent Place Software. I have had a few conversations over the years with Steve Flack who appears to run Kent Place Software.
BeerAlchemy aims to make creating great beers easier. It offers recipe formulation tools that give the brewer immediate feedback on how changes they make will affect theirfinished beers. The program supports all-grain, partial mash and extract brewing as well as bothfly and batch sparging. 5.0% Crisp Pale Chocolate. 2.7% Simpsons Double Roasted Crystal. 2.3% Crisp Brown Malt. 2.3% Honey Malt. 1.3% Carafa III. 1.3% Black Malt (Optional - increase Black Malt to 3-5% for a roaster version of this recipe) Other. 2.5% Maltodextrin. Cacao nibs: toast 1oz/gallon cacao nibs at 300F until your oven starts smelling really. BeerTools ® Pro 2.0. The new BeerTools ® Pro is here. Now with online recipe storage features, BeerTools ® Pro recipes can easily be shared with other BeerTools.com members. The new companion web app allows easy viewing of recipes while on the go.
BeerAlchemy underwent a major revision in 2012. BeerAlchemy 2 offered an integrated desktop and iOS experience with Wi-Fi syncing across devices. As of this writing, BeerAlchemy 2 is available for the Mac as well as a Universal iOS app.
Posts on the Kent Place Software blog have slowed down considerably in the last year. Steve Flack is quite active on Twitter, however. According to the Mac App Store both the desktop and iOS versions were last updated in January 2014, as of this writing. Currently the desktop version costs $29.99, and the iOS version costs $19.99 (covers both an iPhone and iPad version). These are, theoretically, one-time costs and are not cheap compared to pencil and paper equivalents. But for 50 bucks you can get quite a lot of functionality.
BeerAlchemy 2 for Mac and iOS
BeerAlchemy offers recipe creation, inventory management, mash profile creation, shopping list creation, and a host of calculators.
Of all the homebrewing software packages I’ve seen, BeerAlchemy excels in one clear way: aesthetics. The icons in the left side drawer are clear, colorful and eye-popping. There is almost no need to read the labels next to them to know what you’re dealing with.
Both the Mac and iOS versions use the same design (not surprising since they are native Mac developed applications). The layout of the desktop version is well-maintained in the iOS version. The mouse and touch navigation feel seamless with the MacOS and iOS interface. Nothing is too clunky here.
What Works
BeerAlchemy uses a Recipe/Batch system that allows you to create (or import) a recipe. When brew day comes around you take your recipe and generate a “batch” from it. The batch specifics can be changed without affecting the parent recipe. Recipes and batches are grouped together in a hierarchical relationship so you can find all your batches for any given recipe. Contacts journal crm 1 7. If you’ve tweaked a recipe enough over several batches that your latest batch really represents a whole new recipe, you can “promote” that batch to a recipe if you would like.
The “Suggest-a-beer” feature is pretty neat. This feature scans your inventory and your recipes and determines what beers you can brew with your current inventory. If you don’t have all the ingredients for a recipe, it tells you what you need to brew it. This is kinda cool if you’ve got a bunch of ingredients sitting around and don’t know what you want to do with them.
What Doesn’t
I applaud BeerAlchemy’s attempt at syncing, and WiFi syncing is certainly better than nothing. Realtime syncing (i.e. via iCloud) frees the home brewer to use a laptop for recipe formulation, and a tablet or phone during the brew day to take notes and record measurements. Without realtime syncing there is always the question of where you did your last update. If it wasn’t on the device you’re currently using, it may or may not be convenient to get those updates on your current available device.
Disk drill pro enterprise 2 4 441 download free. Also I like the ability to create “orders” and mark them as “placed” or “delivered,” but the current BeerAlchemy method for doing this is a bit awkward to use and you can easily end up with incorrect inventory.
Scaling recipes is possible, but convoluted in BeerAlchemy. If you create a profile for a 5-gallon setup, and create a recipe with it, you can scale it up to, for instance, a 10-gallon setup by creating a profile for a 10-gallon setup and changing the recipe to use that. It’s not clear at first that this scales the recipe, but it does. This may be a case of the functionality being so simple, it’s easy to overlook.
What’s Missing
As much as the brew day instructions from BeerAlchemy are good, there are no builtin brew day timers like there are in other software packages.
In addition you can’t export batches as beerXML files for display and I can’t understand why that is. You can export batches as PDFs and HTML, but not as portable beerXML files.
Finally, there is no builtin recipe search like in other software packages. You can search recipes in your library, but not a central shared repository. You can import both ProMash and beerXML files as recipes.
Got a question about BeerAlchemy? Leave it in the comments below!
Screenshots: BeerAlchemy 2 for Mac
Editing a fermentable in a recipe.
Many predefined mash schedules and you can create you own.
Checking the inventory.
Suggesting beers you could brew today.
See what ingredients you use most to plan your supplies.
Screenshots: BeerAlchemy 2 Touch for iPhone
Where do you want to go?
Editing a recipe.
Suggesting beers you could brew today.
A range of quick calculators.
Screenshots: BeerAlchemy 2 Touch for iPad
Where do you want to go?
Editing a recipe.
Suggesting beers you could brew today.
A range of quick calculators.
BeerSmith 3.1 is Here!
The BeerSmith 3.1 update is here – enjoy a free 21 day trial version you can run side by side with your existing BeerSmith 2, or buy a license today! If you already purchased BeerSmith 3, download and install it from here and activate it after installing.
Windows Download – 3.1.8
BeerSmith 3.1 Installer for Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7. Download BeerSmith 3.1 for Windows
Macintosh Download – 3.1.8
BeerSmith 3.1 Installer for Macintosh OSX – Yosemite or Higher Recommended Download BeerSmith 3.1 for the Mac
Ubuntu 20.04 Debian File: BeerSmith for Ubuntu 20.04
Ubuntu 18.04 Debian File: BeerSmith for Ubuntu 18.04
Note – if you have install problems run “sudo dpkg -i BeerSmith*.deb”
This release does not support Ubuntu screen scaling above 100%, and does not handle “dark mode” well.
Mobile Versions for iPhone and Android
BeerSmith Mobile 3 is on the iTunes, Amazon and Google Play app stores. You can purchase a copy of the mobile app there – just look for “BeerSmith Mobile”.
Additional Downloads and Language Files
BeerSmith 3.1 Features and Release Notes
Language Files – Download these to your computer, and go to Options->Brewing and click on Set Language XML File near the bottom of the dialog to install these in 3.1