Free recipe calculators

General Homebrew Discussion
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@Megary - Absolutely - it is just a series of formulas that gets you to where you want to be.

@Village Taphouse and HEUBrewer regarding brewtarget - It is not perfect, but it is what I’ve been using for about 12+ years now. The possible downsides with it are:

  1. I have always found the IBU levels to be hard to nail down, obviously it’s -externally assigned IBU value vs. my perception of it within a beer that may have a different water profile, grist etc - but that is still the thing I try to consider most carefully, and tbh within the past few years I still have ended up with some beers where I thought that they did not have the bitterness level I anticipated and wanted.
  2. saving/backing up the recipes is a funny file format and you can accidentally delete your recipes or double them somewhat easily IMHO
  3. Maybe it’s just me but I never got the mash feature to work well, so it’s really something I write down in the individual note files of my brewlog, a lot of the features like this just require a lot of tinkering, ie. they arent as default/automatic as some newer brewing software might be.

It’s free, and I have spent hundreds of hours messing around in it over the years and I love it though.

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22

Regarding backing up databases had it not been for time capsule I would have been screwed. So I made a copy of the database rename with_old. Then I use the regular database for recipe development and save. I then have a copy of the previous database and my new one. Next time I use it I do the same thing. Cop the current database and make that “old” and create a new recipe with the current database. It sounds cumbersome but I got use to it.

I have luck with the mash wizard. I aim for > 1 qt/lb and adjust so that mash water is in 1/2 qt increments. For example a batch I am working with now I am using 1.05 qt/lb to get 3.25 gal of water. I don’t batch sparge so I fly sprage with 1/2 gal per pound subtract that off the batch sparge amount and that is my top off water.
So yes it is not perfect but as you said I got it to work. I have not noticed the bitterness being off but that could be my taste buds. For the donation I think it is worth it

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