NEW Brew Software

[DML]

Hi all

I'm thinking of making an open source multiplatform brewing software.

So what I need is Ideas, what it should have, how it should be layed out, sugestion, whatever you can think to make it better and suitable for everyone.

Being open source the filetype to be used will be BeerXML. It will be written in JAVA because off multiplatform.

I have two purpose in making this. 1 - Making a software for everyone and every OS. 2 - I need to learn JAVA for BsC Work.

Thanks
Daniel

[Dr. Dextrin]

You should probably Google "Strangebrew Java" to see what others have done in a similar vein.

[Naich]

You don't want to finish off mine, do you? I started it almost a year ago, got about 80% of the way through and haven't had the time to finish it. It's multiplatform in that it's browser-based so it doesn't care what it runs on. It's not Java though, being written mainly in JS with a spot of PHP at the server end. http://beerforge.com

[DML]

@Dr - In vein because they didn't finish? My point is to do an easy software for all type of brewers!

@Naich - Sorry my point is using JAVA... I already now other languages.. And i don't want it to run on the browser..

Still i didnt got much feedback.... I will make something i could use...

But i hope some ideas... If you have one, please share it!

[EccentricDyslexic]

One thing missing in all brewing software is some form of stages of brew. ie if i were to design a program it would have distinct stages- 1,design 2,brewday 3,ferment, 4,mature, 5,drink it just makes sence to me! rather than just presenting you with a pile of tools! The program would prompt you with and for information at each stage ie design would be like most progs are now with all the tools needed to design your brew available. brewday would prompt you with the ingredients you need on the day and you enter in what you actually did in real life. ferment-more prompting and entering of info and so on. you would have these stages on each brew you design and you could lock for example the design stage once you have committed to brew...stuff like that.

Steve

[Naich]

That's a cracking idea Steve, sort of object-oriented brewing. If I ever get the time I might give it a go.

[TheMumbler]

Most of what I have seen is recipe oriented. So only steps 1 and 2 in eccentricdyslexic's scheme. In free software steps 3-5 are less well represented.

It might be useful to have something that prompts you to check gravity, warm condition, cool condition etc. Something to track fermentation temperatures might be handy too, i would guess that breweries do that automatically but a daily read with a thermometer would tell you something I suppose.

As I said, recipe formulation is well covered. I tend to use qbrew as it is free and native to linux but lots of people use BeerEngine both of which basically help you with recipe calculations and offer a print out for the brewday. There are some that that you pay for like brewpal or beeralchemy but I don't know what features that they have as I don't use them. If you are after a programming exercise it would be worth looking at those for features and interface.

Perhaps some sort of stock tracking would be useful so that you know what you have to play with when formulating a recipe. I suppose you could include a suggest a recipe feature based on that. I wouldn't be surprised if this sort of thing is already in the pay for software.

[gregorach]

It might be useful to have something that prompts you to check gravity, warm condition, cool condition etc. Something to track fermentation temperatures might be handy too, i would guess that breweries do that automatically but a daily read with a thermometer would tell you something I suppose.

For tracking fermentation progress, you really want to be recording temperature, gravity (ideally with the option to convert a refractometer reading in brix, using the OG to compensate for the alcohol) and pH. I record fermentation temperature at 12 hour intervals, and gravity and pH at 24 hour intervals.

I'm guessing hardly anybody does wort stability, limit of attenuation, or diacetyl force tests... Yet more reasons why I record all the important stuff by hand.

[TheMumbler]

For tracking fermentation progress, you really want to be recording temperature, gravity (ideally with the option to convert a refractometer reading in brix, using the OG to compensate for the alcohol) and pH. I record fermentation temperature at 12 hour intervals, and gravity and pH at 24 hour intervals.

I'm guessing hardly anybody does wort stability, limit of attenuation, or diacetyl force tests... Yet more reasons why I record all the important stuff by hand.

I think you probably have rather more attention to detail than most homebrewers. I certainly don't do any of that at the moment, although I would like to improve my process and reliability, so I guess that will mean more tests and book keeping. Too much work and life stuff going on at the moment to get too much into it right now though...

[gregorach]

I think you probably have rather more attention to detail than most homebrewers.

I'm sure you're right... But the OP was looking for suggestions. If the feature's there, you don't have to use it.

All I'm saying is that any bit of software that doesn't allow me to track all these variables means I'm still having to record stuff elsewhere. And as long as I'm having to record stuff elsewhere anyway, I'm going to keep on recording everything by hand in my own format and not bother with some bit of software that only does half of what I want.

What I'd really like would be to be able to easily track and compare these variables across multiple brews of the same recipe (but not exactly the same recipe, if you see what I mean). At the moment, I keep having to manually go through my log book to compare the current fermentation to previous runs.

[TheMumbler]

I didn't mean to criticise, just making an observation. tbh I'd rather not see another (almost certainly imperfect) recipe formulation tool. I'm really glad to have free formulation tools but there is no shortage of ones that basically do the job. What the OP will do will depend on what they want out of their time I guess. Seems like it is mainly an excercise in programming with java.

I'm guessing a lot of software started out with the intention of doing the maths for you rather than being primarily a record keeper. A really good book keeping aid might be useful and perhaps EccentricDyslexic is on to something with a more process oriented approach

[DML]

Hi all!

Thanks for all the replys, it was really helpfull!

I will think it over based on the feedback.

Cheers
Daniel

[EccentricDyslexic]

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but has anyone noticed any process oriented brewing software out there recently? I am pulling my autobrew out of hibernation and looking to restart brewing. Event though I have beer smith etc, I preferred to use beer engine as it was simple and straightforward.

Steve

[chris2012]

I think the idea of using distinct stages for '1,design 2,brewday 3,ferment, 4,mature, 5,drink' is a brilliant idea.

I've started working on a cross-platform brewing program in Rust, I think that's something I'll definitely try and implement.

Heres a _very_ incomplete screenshot:


The idea is to have a library of your recipes which you can easily search through, and edit etc.

[EccentricDyslexic]

Brilliant! You could have the brew stages marked on each individual brew's icon too. So at a glance you will see what recipes you have brewed, that still need work before brewing and if they were brewed, how many times, if it won awards etc. ie I have three recipes I am working on, one which is likely to be my next brew.

It will be nice to see a piece of software that is built ground up from a Brewers perspective of actually brewing a rather than a ton of tools, tabs and settings for an enormous range of brewing setups.

Steve