BeerAlchemy App Reviews
An app designed to be used on OSX for home brewers. Full of features that any advance brewer loves to have around as well as simple enough for a novice to jump right in. Seems to be updated on a regular basis and looking forward to more updates and features (a scale conversion would be nice for those of us making leaps and bounds in our batch sizes, also a little more control over the mash profiles would be nice (vorlaufing times would be a nice addition)). Otherwise, amazing job, looking forward to getting my recipe pile all centralized in one place. Thanks for the awesome app!
I’m not prone to giving reviews so the simple fact I’m writing this should speak to how much I like this app. I have been homebrewing for a couple years and always wanted someplace I can capture my craft. Love how this program converts measurements automatically! For instance .25 pounds will convert to ounces auto-magically. Very handy. I’ve also put in a bunch of clone recipes I’ve found on the net. Now I have a backlog of bres I want to try my hand at creating, which is a good problem to have! Great job on this program, keep up the good work.
Looks great until you get in it and try to move around. Entering inventory is impossible to figure out, lists of grains & hops in inventory are basic and apparently can’t be modified. That’s as far as I got. The frustration over trying to enter my inventory turned me off. The support doc doesn’t explain anything. Would love a refund...
I am a big fan of both this program and BeerSmith, in fact for the first several years that I used brewing software I used BeerSmith. I have firmly switched to Beer Alchemy, even though it is not as feature-rich as BeerSmith. Why? Despite not having as many features Beer Alchemy has all of the features I use regularly, recipie editing, inventory management, and calculators. It has what I need and isnt bogged down with a bunch of other features I don’t need. Also, BeerSmith has a design scheme that is for those people who wax nostalgic about mid-90s Windows programs. I’m ready for something cleaner-looking and easier to use. The UI of Beer Alchemy is easily the key thing that keeps me using it. There are some areas for improvement: mainly cloud sync instead of just wifi sync, its a great program.
I used to use BeerAlchemy exclusively, but have moved on to BeerSmith because even when I have asked the folks at Kent Place Software to improve the product and make it more usable for me they don’t think the change I want is important. Every scale I own weighs in decimals and I don’t want to have to convert it to ounces. Is it that hard to make the software so that I can have my recipe read 1.125 pounds instead of 1 pound 2 ounces? BeerSmith gives you the option to do it either way. Other than this BeerAlchemy is great.
We have started using this app for managing our production at a nano-brewery because we like the way inventory management works. However, my partner and I need to be sharing this data day to day, and are not always both at the brewery at the same time to sync over wi-fi. If this app had cloud syncing via dropbox it would make our lives so much easier. Other than that, the interface is a little weird, but once you get the hang of it, the app works really well and is great for tweaking recipes on the fly.
Super helpful and pretty comprehensive. Batch fields are a little confusing in terms of how they auto-adjust, but I probably just need more practice. Needs 3 things IMO to put it over the top: more options for boil addiitons (e.g. whirfloc, moss, etc. at time); more detail on ferment schedules-how long in each fermenter, when to add flavorings, etc.; and more unit measure options, especially for flavorings and other ingredients— cup/tsp/tbsp, counts (e.g. 1 chile peper).