BeerXML

[wortnz]

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it would be awesome if the recipes here were posted with a BeerXML file so we could import them into our home-brew app of choice

[Castermmt]

I thought the same way and had asked the same question in the past and the problem is that; not everyone uses the same software and some don't use any at all and not all software being used allows you to save as .xml. However Kal and others have been doing a fantastic job of sharing and posting the percentages of grain and additions. That makes it much easier for anyone to use it with what method suits them best and gets the same results. It only takes a few minutes to enter the data into any software recipe template and your done.

I use both Brewers friend and BeerSmith2 and have no problem transposing the recipes this way.

I hope this explains the issue of why recipes are posted this way. Stay Safe, Castermmt

[kal]

While I like open standards, I prefer that people manually build up their recipes so that they learn each step of the way.

Everyone's efficiency is different as is every hop AA%, so you have to play with the numbers anyway as mentioned above.

As well, often my recipes have information in them that cannot be translated into any brewing software and/or I'd be afraid that the information is lost based on the how the software interprets the XML file. People would load the XML and assume what they see is correct. Entering it by hand makes sure you think about it so that no aspect of the recipe is lost.

For example, there's things that BeerXML probably doesn't allow, or doesn't know what to do with, such as advanced procedures like hop stands (?) I didn't see that anywhere in the spec. So a recipe like our The Electric Hop Stand Pale Ale (batch #154) could not even be done with BeerXML.

Another thing missing it appears is multiple dry hops. Our Pliny the Younger recipe calls for 4 sets of dry hops. There doesn't appear to be any way to do this in BeerXML. You can only give the number of days that the dry hop is used, you can't say dry hop with hop X for 3 days, remove, then dry hop with hop Y for 3 days, remove, etc. Even if you could, how would the software interpret it? It might do it wrong and give you the wrong recipe. The software I use (beer tools pro) has no concept of this so it's part of the recipe I have to write by hand.

So while I like open standards, I really don't see the point of something like BeerXML. It's too restrictive. You might save some time in originally getting 80% of the recipe into your software, but then you have to go through and confirm that it came in correctly / add special information that may have been missed.

Writing out recipes and the process using words is the only way to make sure that it can be used by everyone.

Kal

[kal]

While I like open standards, I prefer that people manually build up their recipes so that they learn each step of the way.

Everyone's efficiency is different as is every hop AA%, so you have to play with the numbers anyway as mentioned above.

As well, often my recipes have information in them that cannot be translated into any brewing software and/or I'd be afraid that the information is lost based on the how the software interprets the XML file. People would load the XML and assume what they see is correct. Entering it by hand makes sure you think about it so that no aspect of the recipe is lost.

For example, there's things that BeerXML probably doesn't allow, or doesn't know what to do with, such as advanced procedures like hop stands (?) I didn't see that anywhere in the spec. So a recipe like our The Electric Hop Stand Pale Ale (batch #154) could not even be done with BeerXML.

Another thing missing it appears is multiple dry hops. Our Pliny the Younger recipe calls for 4 sets of dry hops. There doesn't appear to be any way to do this in BeerXML. You can only give the number of days that the dry hop is used, you can't say dry hop with hop X for 3 days, remove, then dry hop with hop Y for 3 days, remove, etc. Even if you could, how would the software interpret it? It might do it wrong and give you the wrong recipe. The software I use (beer tools pro) has no concept of this so it's part of the recipe I have to write by hand.

So while I like open standards, I really don't see the point of something like BeerXML. It's too restrictive. You might save some time in originally getting 80% of the recipe into your software, but then you have to go through and confirm that it came in correctly / add special information that may have been missed.

Writing out recipes and the process using words is the only way to make sure that it can be used by everyone.

Kal

[wortnz]

I hear ya on the standard not being complete. 80% is good enough for me.

See, I run a much smaller set up than yourself and I am meterically challenged So 80% being improrted into BTP would be useful for converting to metric and then scaling

Will continue has I am