Maverick33 Posted December 30, 2022 Report Share Posted December 30, 2022 Hi guys and gals, I just got my droid for Xmas and am looking forward to brewing my first beer (Irish Red Ale). I have heard great things about Brewfather and am interested in using it in conjunction with the droid. Is anyone using Brewfather with Brewprints? If so, how are you inputting the ingredients? I would like to do this because I will likely move to all-grain or at least custom Brewprints in the future and the more detailed info I have, the better decisions I will make when developing my own recipes. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thagomizer Posted January 1, 2023 Report Share Posted January 1, 2023 Geno, Again, welcome to the forum. I have not used Brewfather, but I have Beersmith. These programs can help you design a batch using whole grain (mashing) or partial whole grain (steeping only). The important thing is to design for a 10L volume. The droid will then handle the process by sensing the status of the wort with daily tests, using the temperature profile settings you entered if you chose a custom program or adopted the basic ale or lager pre-sets. However, I do not believe you can actually link the Brewfather software to the BeerDroid. It seems to be a planning and design tool. Once your brew is started, the droid will keep you posted on its progress. Last week I was about 200 miles from home and one of my droids messaged me that it was time to dry hop. Usually, I just use the BrewPrints as designed by BrewArt but with my own pellet hops instead of the hops included in the BrewPrint. (This means I have to order the specific elements, enhancers and yeasts individually.) When I want to get creative, I steep some prepared grains in my GigaWort device, cool the wort and pour it into the BeerDroid. Here, a program such as Beersmith or perhaps Brewfather can be helpful on the design. Then, the droid does its magic by controlling the temperature. You will love it. Happy brewing. 😀 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick33 Posted January 1, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2023 @Thagomizer I should have been more specific in my original post. I was thinking of using Brewfather as a way for me to keep track of my brews as well as calculate my water chemistry for each brew. Now that I see you mentioning it, have you experience better results buying your own pellet hops? I have been wary of liquid hops because I have never used them before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thagomizer Posted January 1, 2023 Report Share Posted January 1, 2023 (edited) Geno, I think you are right on track with your intended uses of your software. Unfortunately, I have no specific advice on its use. On the use of hops: The quality of BrewArt hops is excellent - but they come in pre-packaged quantities - both liquid and pellet hops. I buy bulk hops (8 oz. or 250g) packages in pellet form and choose the amount that I want. This provides me with great flexibility on the type and quantity of hops that I want to use. I stock about a dozen different hop types. Be sure to at least refrigerate (if not freeze) the (dry) hops until you use them. My only regret about BrewArt's liquid (or pellet) hops is that the dosage is fixed. You can decrease, but not increase the amount for a brew. Otherwise, they are fine if you like the recipe. I have had great results just using the BrewPrints as they are. Happy brewing. 😀 Edited January 1, 2023 by Thagomizer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick33 Posted January 1, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2023 Got it. Thanks Thagomizer! 🤙 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazza_wantsbeer Posted January 2, 2023 Report Share Posted January 2, 2023 Hi @Geno Thompson, I use Brewfather for all my brews in my Droid but I moved on from BrewPrints to All Grain. However, yes you can definitely use BrewFather to build and track your brews using BrewPrints. In the Fermentable section, if you type in Extract you will see a dropdown with 30-40 or more different liquid and dry extracts. The BrewPrints are effectively a DME = Dry Malt Extract. So you can chose a DME that best represents once of the Elements or Enhancers. X5 is the easiest to find as it's just 250g of dextrose. Interestingly, just checking in Brewfather now as I write this, 250g of Golden Light DME by Briess gives 2% alcohol and it is a rule of thumb that each Element and Enhancer gives 1% alcohol so just keep that in mind. There are some good posts on this forum which give a breakdown and details about each Element and Enhancer which will give you an approximation for the various DME in Brewfather. Also key as @Thagomizer pointed out is to make sure your batch volume is 10 or even 11l (to account for trub loss and hop absorption). It's also great for planning which hops to use and their usage and how it may impact your beer in terms of IBUs. A hint, make sure you update the alpha acid for each hop from the default to the actual. If using palletised hops, the actual AA content will be on the package. As you pointed out, Brewfather is excellent for playing with water chemistry. Two keys to this, first is knowing the profile of the water you are using, i.e. is it RO or distilled or tap water. The second is the type of beer you are brewing and the best water profile that suits that brew. If using tap water, knowing what is the water chemistry of that water is important. I'm using tap water for the most part and the frustration is that my local water supplier only updates that profile quarterly so I know that it's very likely the water I'm using today doesn't quite match the profile. Worse, that profile is always late to update and is usually released about a month into the next quarter. Otherwise, I'd definitely say it's a great tool to use and the more you use it, the more familiar and better you will get with it. Last, a hint, always number your brews in the Name so that way you can see how many you've done and track them easier. Also, I make extensive use of the note section during a brew day, helps keep track of things which always happen during an all grain brew day. Good luck and good brewing! 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick33 Posted January 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2023 Hey @Wazza_wantsbeer! This was exactly what I was looking for! I know a lot of the stuff won’t apply until I go all-grain but I wanted to start documenting with Brewfather now to gain familiarity and have all my notes on one platform. Good to know I can still use now with the pre-programmed extracts. Cheers 🍻 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazza_wantsbeer Posted January 3, 2023 Report Share Posted January 3, 2023 3 hours ago, Maverick33 said: Hey @Wazza_wantsbeer! This was exactly what I was looking for! I know a lot of the stuff won’t apply until I go all-grain but I wanted to start documenting with Brewfather now to gain familiarity and have all my notes on one platform. Good to know I can still use now with the pre-programmed extracts. Cheers 🍻 Glad to help @Maverick33 Any questions, please feel free to ask. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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