Brewing software

[Oggy' Bar]

7 billion people around the world use metric; there is a minority of just 350 million people that are still in the dark-ages: can you possibly explain what you mean by "standard".

They'll be the ones who didn't succomb to Napoleon Bonaparte.....well at least not until the 1960's... .By the way when are we going to introduce his 10hour clock A couple of hours at the pub would be like a lifetime...would at my pub anyway

[Graham]

They'll be the ones who didn't succomb to Napoleon Bonaparte.....well at least not until the 1960's... .By the way when are we going to introduce his 10hour clock A couple of hours at the pub would be like a lifetime...would at my pub anyway

When you get to my age, you'll be running on a ten-hour clock too; it is only a matter of time. (ho-ho)

[boingy]

Way back I evaluated Beersmith and Promash and preferred ProMash. It just seemed to click with me a little better. There was one aspect of Beersmith that really irritated me but I can't remember what it was. It was something to do with entering recipes I thnk.

I love the way ProMash treats recipes and brewdays separately so I can load up one of my recipes, mess with the ingredients then save it as a brewday without changing the original recipe. My typical use for this is to change hops, often to use up what I have left or to experiment. Every brewday I have done since getting the software is stored forever so I can refer back to each one.

Just try each program and stick with the one that does what you want.

[adm]

I love the way ProMash treats recipes and brewdays separately so I can load up one of my recipes, mess with the ingredients then save it as a brewday without changing the original recipe. My typical use for this is to change hops, often to use up what I have left or to experiment. Every brewday I have done since getting the software is stored forever so I can refer back to each one.

That's the way Beer Alchemy works too - you set up a recipe, and then brew individual "batches" from it which can be the same or different. It's a very good way to do it, but it took me a while to figure out that once you'd created a recipe, you actually needed to tell it to create a batch when you actually wanted to brew...

[steve_flack]

That's the way Beer Alchemy works too - you set up a recipe, and then brew individual "batches" from it which can be the same or different. It's a very good way to do it, but it took me a while to figure out that once you'd created a recipe, you actually needed to tell it to create a batch when you actually wanted to brew...

People do seem to miss that and I'm not sure how to make it more obvious. Batches are mentioned in the menus etc so it's not like it's a magic incantation to create one.

[adm]

That's the way Beer Alchemy works too - you set up a recipe, and then brew individual "batches" from it which can be the same or different. It's a very good way to do it, but it took me a while to figure out that once you'd created a recipe, you actually needed to tell it to create a batch when you actually wanted to brew...

People do seem to miss that and I'm not sure how to make it more obvious. Batches are mentioned in the menus etc so it's not like it's a magic incantation to create one.

Maybe a big, obvious, red flashing button somewhere that says "Brew Now", so that people go and click it.... if there isn't a recipe selected, it pops up an error box that says "You need to create or select a recipe to brew from, Dumbass!)

It may just be that many people just look at the buttons at the top of the main window before looking to see what's actually in the menus. I would imagine its a common assumption that the main programme function are all given buttons in the main window - so perhaps just add buttons for "New Recipe" and "New Batch" to the left of the "Calculator"....

[yogester]

That's the way Beer Alchemy works too - you set up a recipe, and then brew individual "batches" from it which can be the same or different. It's a very good way to do it, but it took me a while to figure out that once you'd created a recipe, you actually needed to tell it to create a batch when you actually wanted to brew...

People do seem to miss that and I'm not sure how to make it more obvious. Batches are mentioned in the menus etc so it's not like it's a magic incantation to create one.

+1 here for Beer Alchemy (got a license from my wife for my birthday) but I must admit I never saw the Batches option either... Probably lots of other little things I am missing too!

[Kev75]

+1 BeerEngine - to quote a no-nonesense advert, it does exactly what it says on the tin.
Pre-loaded with sample recipies, loads and loads of details on igredients, editors to add new stuff should you soak weasels in your brew and you can figure out the AA% you can add this too!
Hours of fun. Bit basic front end though.

[Mitchamitri]

I like beer engine because i am a bit thick and it doesnt need a manual, or any intelligence at all to use it

[FlourPower]

Beer Engine, It's free and simple.

I pretty much understood the main bits within 5 minutes of fiddling. The only annoyance is the fixed OG and EBU on start up. I don't want a brew with 0ebu and 0OG! That's water! (or tetley tea)

[flytact]

Best feature of Beersmith: ctrl-e or ctrl-m to switch between metric and standard

7 billion people around the world use metric; there is a minority of just 350 million people that are still in the dark-ages: can you possibly explain what you mean by "standard".

Yes, yes. I was trying to be as inoffensive as possible. When I buy hand tools I buy metric and standard (SAE- Society of Automotive Engineers standard sizes adopted by automotive engineers), except those SAE standards are out the window, even when I climb under my Ford truck
They tried to get us to "go Metric" in the 70's during grade school. Couldn't have cared less then, now I wish we had switched.

[Graham]

except those SAE standards are out the window, even when I climb under my Ford truck
They tried to get us to "go Metric" in the 70's during grade school. Couldn't have cared less then, now I wish we had switched.

Yes, I concur with sympathy. We were in the ridiculous situation in the 70's, when Britain became metric, that it was a matter of law that British industry metricated. This gave freelance draughtsman the ability to write their own cheque, because they went into companies and just added an extra line to the drawings giving the dimensions in metric. The metrication law cost British industry billions as it was, but if you could imagine that if they retooled and replaced all their machinery with metric equivalents, it would have been trillions, but it was expected that these companies replaced all their machinery overnight; - such is the naivety of law that has not been properly thought out. Of course industry didn't do it. We then ended up in the silly situation in the motor industry that American-owned car companies, like Ford UK, used bolts that had a metric head, but the thread was American fine or American coarse, and the British cars likewise but with a Whitworth thread. Even today when a Brit buys plywood, chipboard or carpet, very often they are still in imperial widths - just specified in metric.

The problem with American home brewing, from this side of the Atlantic, is that the US gallon is different, and Americans talk freely in gallons, quarts, pints, and sometimes in fractions of gallons or pints. Even for Americans this must warrant taking the trusty calculator out of its wallet, but in metric one only needs to mentally shift the decimal point.

Nevertheless, sometimes I still talk in inches, feet and yards because I can visualise them better.

[WishboneBrewery]

Nevertheless, sometimes I still talk in inches, feet and yards because I can visualise them better.

From the Engineers perspective, I was used to reading either a metric drawing, then if using an imperial machine converting to imperial, then finally measuring with metric micrometers (and the exact opposite). You get used to thinking 4-thou = 0.1mm etc

That is all well and good for accurate stuff, but if you are working rough-arse with welder and angle iron... ahh! Inches do just fine, we're not to a couple of mill'

[Scooby]

I started my engineering Apprenticeship in the late 60s, all drawings were in metric due to the company producing work for continental companies. All the machines were of course Imperial so all the machinists had the skills pdtnc mentioned. I have always been more comfortable using metric for all weights and measures.

But are we really metricated? I was admitted to hospital a while back, when asked my weight and height said about 83kg and 184cms the nurse had a conversion chart in her hand and she said it was the first time she had not had to use it, I was the first person ever who had answered her in metric. But how many people would relate better to my size if I had said about 13st and 6ft

[flytact]

The problem with American home brewing, from this side of the Atlantic, is that the US gallon is different, and Americans talk freely in gallons, quarts, pints, and sometimes in fractions of gallons or pints. Even for Americans this must warrant taking the trusty calculator out of its wallet, but in metric one only needs to mentally shift the decimal point.

Which is why I love the shortcut keys in Beersmith Much easier to weigh things in grams and measure liquids in quarts.

How I wish when I am in the woodworking shop I could say half of 20cm is 10cm, when now I have to say half of 7 7/8" is 3 15/16ths. I suppose I could buy a metric tape measure and give my brain a rest.