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Brewfather 2.0

 
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johnpbuckles




Joined: 18 May 2020
Posts: 11
Location: Denver, CO

Drinking: Juicy J NEIPA


PostLink    Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 4:12 am    Post subject: Brewfather 2.0 Reply with quote


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I only saw one other post touching on Brewfather, so I wanted to share my thoughts. I personally think Brewfather is the most detailed and comprehensive brewing software available to home brewers today. It is user friendly, has a modern interface, and (in my experience) is very accurate.
https://brewfather.app

There is an app for both Android and iPhone, as well as a web-based app. All are fully integrated; you can add a hop addition in a recipe on your iPhone and it will immediately show on the web app on your PC.

The head programmer/creator is a Norwegian named Thomas Gangsøy. He is very talented and responsive to his customers through a fully integrated gitlab project space https://gitlab.com/warpkode/public/brewfather
He has already integrated one of my requests to display grain color in degrees Lovibond (uncommon outside North America). It was live after about 5 months and works great!

Here's a screenshot of my most recent recipe, a NEIPA
https://flic.kr/p/2j3Ra6E

You can define all the usual equipment profile settings for your brewery. I have found them to be very accurate for me, although I am only brewing on a Grainfather for now.
https://flic.kr/p/2j3Qv3k

One of my favorite features is an integrated water profile calculator. You set your source water (from your city's report, RO, distilled, etc) and select a target profile.
There are many accurate preset style water profiles to choose from, or you can define your own. It automatically takes into account your grain bill, and accurately calculates the amount of each salt to add - to both mash and sparge water if you choose. The pH is estimated (room temp), and you can choose to have Brewfather adjust with acids if you want.
https://flic.kr/p/2j3NLNg

There is also a fully integrated yeast starter calculator, based on either the no-stir (Chris White) method, or the sitr plate (Braukaiser) method.
https://flic.kr/p/2j3Qj5Z

It integrates seamlessly with my Tilt hydrometer, using a custom web URL. The graphs are great to monitor your fermentation!
Many other devices are supported, most of which I have never even heard of!
Note: I had already cold-crashed and kegged when I took this screenshot.
https://flic.kr/p/2j3P4co

There are all the BJCP and Brewers Association style profiles to choose from, and your recipe will show the range of each category you are within for the style you select.
https://flic.kr/p/2j3LiH5

There are many settings to customize your experience
https://flic.kr/p/2j3NLNb

You can choose to share a recipe publicly, and browse other's public recipes
https://flic.kr/p/2j3Qj5t

Brewfather is free for 30 days, and then only $20/year. I would highly recommend it!

Cheers!


Last edited by johnpbuckles on Wed May 20, 2020 5:06 pm; edited 2 times in total
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 12:21 pm    Post subject: Re: Brewfather 2.0 Reply with quote

johnpbuckles wrote:
The pH is predicted (and accurate), and you can choose to adjust with acids if you want.

How do you know the predicted pH is accurate? Do you measure it every time with a pH meter? My experience over the last ~10 years with pH predictors as they calculate and I then measure is that they can sometimes get you close but aren't always as accurate as actually measuring.

Note: Brewfather doesn't indicate if the predicted pH is at mash temp or at room temp but their documentation states it's always room temp, so make sure to always cool down a sample before measuring if you want to compare (pH measures differently at room temp vs mash temp).

Mash is only one of many places we measure, so I recommended a meter anyway. More info: https://shop.theelectricbrewery.com/pages/measuring-ph

Cheers!

Kal

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johnpbuckles




Joined: 18 May 2020
Posts: 11
Location: Denver, CO

Drinking: Juicy J NEIPA


PostLink    Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I measure with pH paper. Not super accurate, and certainly not nearly as accurate as a digital pH meter. My strips always indicate between 5-6. The resolution of the strips is outside what a temperature correction would warrant, so I just stick them in the hot mash.
Sorry, I didn't mean to claim that Brewfather's prediction was that accurate. I edited my original post to remove that statement. It's a useful feature for me to know that my grain bill and water profile will naturally create a mash with a pH in the correct (general) range for conversion. I rarely add acid to my mash.

If you want to get as accurate as possible, and tweak your mash to the 0.1 pH level, you are correct - you would need a pH meter, account for temperature, add acids, etc.

Brewfather has a few options in the water calculator to indicate the type of grain, which it uses to estimate the mash pH (room temp). For example, my Hefeweizen recipe was too high in pH, so I added acidulated malt to lower the pH. I simply find this automated estimation to be useful. https://flic.kr/p/2j3ZGiU

Brewfather documentation on pH calculation: https://docs.brewfather.app/recipes/water-calculator#locate-the-water-calculator
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 5:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

johnpbuckles wrote:
It's a useful feature for me to know that my grain bill and water profile will naturally create a mash with a pH in the correct (general) range for conversion. I rarely add acid to my mash.

It actually happens pretty well just naturally without adding anything at all. Brewers have been successfully making beer for thousands of years and adjusting pH is a fairly new concept. It wasn't until it was well understood that brewers were (are) able to make just about any beer perfectly anywhere in the world. Before this certain regions of the world were only able to brew and market certain beer styles successfully. This was due to the specific water composition of the region and how the naturally occurring minerals affected the flavour and reacted with the grain bill to alter the mash pH. Trying to brew different styles still made "beer" of course, but the product simply wasn't as good and the beer did not sell well. Various regions were forced to stick to styles that worked best for them. I'm quoting my water adjustment guide here Wink - for more details see: https://shop.theelectricbrewery.com/pages/water-adjustment

Kal

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Our new shop with over 150 new products: shop.TheElectricBrewery.com
We ship worldwide and support our products and customers for life.
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My basement/bar/brewery build 2.0
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