Just figured it might be time to look at what else out there. Brewer: Daniel Batch Size: 6.08 gal Style: American Pale Ale (18B) Boil Size: 7.40 gal Style Guide: BJCP 2015 Color: 4.9 SRM Equipment: Grainfather Bitterness: 36.4 IBUs Boil Time: 60 min Est OG: 1.048 (11.9° P) Mash Profile: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Light Body Est FG: 1.008 SG (2.0° P) Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage ABV: 5.3 Taste Rating: 30.

I did use the BeerSmith cloud with the app when it first came out and found it a bit clunky and haven't used it in a few years - perhaps it's better now. I do like the cloud based platform for accessibility/mobile reasons. Crystal malt can be substituted with a slightly paler or darker version if your homebrew store doesnt carry the exact color. There will be slight variations between manufacturers. Spent a bit of time with both Brewer's Friend and Brewfather for fun. Find the grain your recipe asks for in the list, hover over it with your mouse and find the replacement same row. Not bailing on BeerSmith yet as I know it well and do like it. When I reopened BeerSmith the recipe is completely gone. Got an error message (don't recall what it was but googled and apparently a few people have had the same message when saving) and BeerSmith froze. 3 days later I double checked that I entered all my measurements and clicked save. Never manually saved or closed the recipe. This time I designed the recipe brew day morning and entered all my measurements from brew day on the Session tab. Recipe creation, experimentation, all are just great fun.I've been fine with BeerSmith for the most part. Wouldn’t it’s the easiest thing in the world but it’s also not that hard once you actually do it and see for yourself. Once mash is complete, vorlauf, collect 5 gallons of sweet wort in a bucket, and pour into kettle. Mash-in, stir to reach mash temp, set timer for 60 minutes. Transfer all water to MLT to pre-heat for 3 minutes. Its all worthwhile to get something out the other end that friends and teammates pine over getting to whenever they can, and that are indistinguishable from beers you'd buy in the store. Microbrewing If you want to know how to brew beer, but don’t know where to start then you came to the right place. Here’s what a typical no-sparge brew day looks like: Heat full volume of brewing water water to 7F above target strike temp. Even if you don't want to dispense from kegs, changing to a process of force carbonation and then gunning into bottles is also good, which I've done with beers I don't want taking up one of my taps for.Īfter that the big jumps came from pressure fermenting and oxygen free transfer.

That works for some styles, but if you're after a good clean beer, that secondary ferment to carb it tends to shift the taste.

Kegging was great for convenience and I hate bottles, and there is a quality aspect to is as well as I find beers that are bottle conditioned tend to taste different. Spent a bit of time with both Brewers Friend and Brewfather for fun.

The move to all grain was one of the biggest and best jumps in brewing good beer.

Brewfather vs beersmith