Development is not on hold. We have been focused on doing Q/A to get feedback building up what what is most important, besides Droid release.
Here is a list of compiled comments/suggestions so far. Would love to get everyone's feedback on them:
- Water calculations should be tied in with the recipe somehow. There appears to be two different water calculation programs and neither seem to want to integrate into the brew steps.
- I think it would be nice to be able link a specific water adjustment summary to a recipe at least, and have the salt and acid additions listed in the brew steps.
- The strike water temp is not listed in the brew steps as has been mentioned.
- I also noticed that when I set up a batch sparge it did not list any of the batch sparge steps, it just says to Vorlauf/Lauter as necessary. I think it would be handy to have the sparge water volume and temperature for batch sparging from the mash calculator tab. I mean it's not hard to remember to drain the kettle and add sparge water, but I think it would be handy to have the volume and temp right there on the brew sheet.
- I would also find it handy to have an option to split the batch sparge into 2 steps and have it automatically give the correct volume and temp. I normally do equal sparge volumes. Even BS isn't the greatest at this for some reason. It seems like it would be easy for the software to calculate the volume of sparge water needed, divide by two and calculate the required temp to reach sparge water temp.
- I also agree that it would be *nice* to be able to check/uncheck some of the basic options that go on the brew sheet, or at least have a few different formats to choose from.
- The brewing checklist has more than I need, and yet no strike temperature on there. The dryhopping doesn't show up on the recipe, as least as far as I can see. The mash steps (strike temp, infusion temp) don't show up on the page.
- I sometimes have a laptop in the brewery, but I always have a paper copy (one page) of my brewing steps and recipe. It wasn't easy, but Beersmith has reports you can change, and have just the steps you need (I don't need to be told to turn on my HLT or sanitize my CFC) and the recipe on one page. This seems to require going back and forth, but I haven't used it yet.
- The other weird thing is the water volume, at least in the recipe I entered. I put in my equipment profile, my water volume needed, etc. But the calculator says I need more water than I actually do, and increased my boil volume. It could be user error, as I"m sure there is a learning curve!
- The water tool let me add my water profile, and then add another, but not to use the second as "water B". Again, could be user error. I would love it if I could use that. Right now, I"m using bru'nwater, and then going back into Beersmith. This would incorporate that, and the record of my water chemistry, and I love that function.
- I like to print out a brewsheet that I keep near me when I brew - I don't want a laptop anywhere my brew area. Brewer's Friend has a very nice checklist that you can print, for some reason it did not list the temperature of the strike water addition, only the amount of water. That was odd and made me come back inside my house to look at the computer. I'm looking forward to the iPhone version for this reason. This temperature was also missing under "Tools | Quick Water Measurements".
- No support for decoctions. I don't care myself, but the software explicitly noted this was missing.
- I want a way to save ALL of my recipes locally. If the Brewer's Friend site disappears, I would like to have backed up everything onto my PC. I did not see a way to export ALL of my recipes. If I open a recipe, I can export that specific recipe, but once I get 100 recipes in there, that method won't work.
- You can add custom yeasts to your inventory, but when building a recipe you have to manually type in the name of the yeast in the custom/2nd yeast category. It would be nice if there was a Custom/Other section in the drop down selector.
- To echo some previous posts, I do not like the brew day sheets that you can print out. I don't need/want that many things printed out. Maybe have a couple different options where you can choose the step by step print out or something that has less information. I really like the layout of the Brew Day Sheet if that would print out with relevant brew day information and space to record different stats.
- I haven't used the Brew Sessions/Brew Log part yet (hopefully next week) but conceptually I really like it. However I dont plan on keeping my laptop nearby while brewing so hopefully the iOS app will be a really nice way of keeping track of all that info
- When adding grains to a recipe if you type the number of ounces first, then change the lb switch it from lb to oz, it keeps the weight the same instead of just switching pounds or ounces. For example if I want to add 8 ounces of Munich malt, type '8' then click 'lb' and switch to ounces, it changes 8 to 128. Frankly this is annoying.
- When adding hops from inventory, it will autofill your AA based on what you put into your inventory, but it won't automatically adjust whether it is pellet/leaf/plug/fresh. That info should be stored with the hop in the inventory and it would be helpful if that autofilled too.
- If you build a recipe and make a shopping list (love that idea by the way) it tells you to buy items you have in inventory by default. You shouldn't have to delete the things that the program says you have.
- Wish I could add photos to notes (seriously, seriously wish this!)
- Wish there was a "Mash In" note for noting original strike/mash temp
- Wish there was a "First Runnings" step for taking first runnings gravity by extension, a Sparge step
- Would like to see Beer Style in "Brew Sessions" list
- Water tool would be great if it could estimate PH (similar to EZ Water)
- A "My Hotlist" pane/panel on the site that could be populated with common calcs/links would be helpful
- "Phase" list is clumsy - like the idea of the the phases, but a visual list/indicator of all would be helpful (I had to flip them them all prematurely to see what they were)
- Wish I could turn ingredients "on and off" in recipe view, to see their impact on the numbers
- No Sinamar available in ingredients list
- You can add custom yeasts to your inventory, but when building a recipe you have to manually type in the name of the yeast in the custom/2nd yeast category. It would be nice if there was a Custom/Other section in the drop down selector.
- To echo some previous posts, I do not like the brew day sheets that you can print out. I don't need/want that many things printed out. Maybe have a couple different options where you can choose the step by step print out or something that has less information. I really like the layout of the Brew Day Sheet if that would print out with relevant brew day information and space to record different stats.
- I haven't used the Brew Sessions/Brew Log part yet (hopefully next week) but conceptually I really like it. However I dont plan on keeping my laptop nearby while brewing so hopefully the iOS app will be a really nice way of keeping track of all that info
- When adding grains to a recipe if you type the number of ounces first, then change the lb switch it from lb to oz, it keeps the weight the same instead of just switching pounds or ounces. For example if I want to add 8 ounces of Munich malt, type '8' then click 'lb' and switch to ounces, it changes 8 to 128. Frankly this is annoying.
- When adding hops from inventory, it will autofill your AA based on what you put into your inventory, but it won't automatically adjust whether it is pellet/leaf/plug/fresh. That info should be stored with the hop in the inventory and it would be helpful if that autofilled too.
- If you build a recipe and make a shopping list (love that idea by the way) it tells you to buy items you have in inventory by default. You shouldn't have to delete the things that the program says you have.