Brewing/Beer Apps

[Guido]

I joined the 21st century and got an iPhone. Anyone know of any good homebrewing or beer Apps that I should have. I'm sure whatever I get will be more useful than the fart Apps my wife got for her iPhone.

[12stones]

I use iBrewmaster for the iPad and love it. I found the price tag off-putting at first, but wish I wouldn't have wasted the time or money on the cheaper apps. The developer is very attentive to feedback and has a lot of great additions in the works as well. Just my $0.02.

[CRBrewHound]

Here is the list of ones that I have in my brewing and beer folder:

BeerAlchemy - full brewing software (excellent program)
iBrewMaster - full brewing software (excellent program)
MrMalty YC - Jamil's starter calculator (not need as you can access on web, but is handy)
BrewTimer - Brewing Timer (ok program not really need)
Brewing Alarm - Brewing Timer (ok program not really need)
GetHoppy - Hop utility that gives hop data (Program is out of date and does not have a lot of the hops on the market)
BJCPStyles - the BJCP for the iPhone (free, is a must have)
Rate Beer - Rate Beer app (good program)
Pintley - Good program to get beer suggestions and take notes on beers
Find Beer - Great app to find local beer bars, breweries, homebrew shops, brew pubs

[ZZ]

Here is the list of ones that I have in my brewing and beer folder:

BeerAlchemy - full brewing software (excellent program)
iBrewMaster - full brewing software (excellent program)
MrMalty YC - Jamil's starter calculator (not need as you can access on web, but is handy)
BrewTimer - Brewing Timer (ok program not really need)
Brewing Alarm - Brewing Timer (ok program not really need)
GetHoppy - Hop utility that gives hop data (Program is out of date and does not have a lot of the hops on the market)
BJCPStyles - the BJCP for the iPhone (free, is a must have)
Rate Beer - Rate Beer app (good program)
Pintley - Good program to get beer suggestions and take notes on beers
Find Beer - Great app to find local beer bars, breweries, homebrew shops, brew pubs

Good list. I have a beer finder called "Find Craft Beer" that is excellent!

[CRBrewHound]

Here is the list of ones that I have in my brewing and beer folder:

BeerAlchemy - full brewing software (excellent program)
iBrewMaster - full brewing software (excellent program)
MrMalty YC - Jamil's starter calculator (not need as you can access on web, but is handy)
BrewTimer - Brewing Timer (ok program not really need)
Brewing Alarm - Brewing Timer (ok program not really need)
GetHoppy - Hop utility that gives hop data (Program is out of date and does not have a lot of the hops on the market)
BJCPStyles - the BJCP for the iPhone (free, is a must have)
Rate Beer - Rate Beer app (good program)
Pintley - Good program to get beer suggestions and take notes on beers
Find Beer - Great app to find local beer bars, breweries, homebrew shops, brew pubs

Good list. I have a beer finder called "Find Craft Beer" that is excellent!

Good call that is the program that I use as well "Find Craft Beer" shows in my folder as "Find...Beer", it is a good program and I have used it a lot find find the best watering holes when out of town.

[adamK]

Here is the list of ones that I have in my brewing and beer folder:

BeerAlchemy - full brewing software (excellent program)
iBrewMaster - full brewing software (excellent program)

Excellent list. Do you have a preference between the BA and iBrewMaster? Have you tried BeerAlchemy2 (BA2) yet? I am a bit frustrated (though I understand where they are coming from) with BeerAlchemy upgrading and not supporting users of the old versions.

My experience with Beer Alchemy: I have been using BeerAlchemy for the past year or two. I like it OK, but it lacks some of the ingredients I use (the hops are often out of date and the specifics of UK malts are lacking) and it does not easily allow for more than one specific form of batch sparging (I sometimes nosparge which it doesn't directly allow). These are easy to work around, though, and it has never seemed worth spending money to change.
My laptop harddrive failed and I decided to use fresh install of everything instead of just using my backup. In attempting to reinstall BA1, I found that they are now pushing BA2 and not supporting or giving access to BA1 for OSX or iOS. There is not cross compatibility between BA1 and BA2 versions (iOS or OSX) (I would have to buy the new version of both the iPhone software and OSX software). I got a quick and polite reply from the developer when I inquired about the upgrade and the costs, but the response was effectively tough shit, we are done with most things BA1. Transferring my data from BA1 to BA2 (the free trial version) was also not seamless (although I did only give it a few minutes). In other words, my cheap ass has decided to just write my own program tailored to my system (read not robust) instead of having to worry about future compatibility and support, though it won't have iOS sync capabilities or look pretty. The problems I have had, though, are somewhat minor and likely not limited to just this program, but all brewing applications in general.

[maxwell]

Is RateBeer the same as RateBeer Places? I have RBP and it's pretty useful if you're traveling and want to know whether there's a bar or bottle shop nearby. Also:

Untappd - social drinking app.

[CRBrewHound]

Here is the list of ones that I have in my brewing and beer folder:

BeerAlchemy - full brewing software (excellent program)
iBrewMaster - full brewing software (excellent program)

Excellent list. Do you have a preference between the BA and iBrewMaster? Have you tried BeerAlchemy2 (BA2) yet? I am a bit frustrated (though I understand where they are coming from) with BeerAlchemy upgrading and not supporting users of the old versions.

My experience with Beer Alchemy: I have been using BeerAlchemy for the past year or two. I like it OK, but it lacks some of the ingredients I use (the hops are often out of date and the specifics of UK malts are lacking) and it does not easily allow for more than one specific form of batch sparging (I sometimes nosparge which it doesn't directly allow). These are easy to work around, though, and it has never seemed worth spending money to change.
My laptop harddrive failed and I decided to use fresh install of everything instead of just using my backup. In attempting to reinstall BA1, I found that they are now pushing BA2 and not supporting or giving access to BA1 for OSX or iOS. There is not cross compatibility between BA1 and BA2 versions (iOS or OSX) (I would have to buy the new version of both the iPhone software and OSX software). I got a quick and polite reply from the developer when I inquired about the upgrade and the costs, but the response was effectively tough shit, we are done with most things BA1. Transferring my data from BA1 to BA2 (the free trial version) was also not seamless (although I did only give it a few minutes). In other words, my cheap ass has decided to just write my own program tailored to my system (read not robust) instead of having to worry about future compatibility and support, though it won't have iOS sync capabilities or look pretty. The problems I have had, though, are somewhat minor and likely not limited to just this program, but all brewing applications in general.

I prefer the BeerAlchemy, it is not necessarily a better program, I just like the layout and flow a little better, I like the concept of "batches" versus recipes. This allows for tweaking without spinning out new copies of the recipes each time. Also like the inventory system and it shows me when I spin up a new batch of something what I have sufficient inventory for and what I am short on.

The biggest downside is that the developer of BeerAlchemy does not update very often like the iBrewMaster and is none responsive to requests just as you found out. They also charge to much for the iPhone app itself. I also don't like the way it handles mash schedules and having to make the complete profile instead of just using steps.

I was unawary of BA2, will have to look into that.

You did know that you can add new ingrediants right?