[Haminacan]

   I am new to brewing and am not quite a software developer, in my 40's and 3 classes away from BS Computer Engineering.  I do Java programming for work and embedded systems testing along with some programming of embedded systems.  I was going to start on some software/hardware to track and monitor/datalog brewing with the plan of making it all open/free for anyone to use.  The plan so far is a Java GUI and one of my final classes is Android development so an Android app with wifi enabled ESP8266 for temperature logging of each brew.  What I am looking for is input as to what should be included in the software/hardware.  Drop down boxes for brew type, date stamp for each entry, large note section.  The ability to look up past brews.  What would the brewing community like to see in something like this.  PS, I have not looked much at what software may already exist.  I am doing this partly as a class final project and as a demonstration to prospective employers.  PPS, I had my first cider finish last weekend and it was great.  Currently I have 8 one gallon carboys going with 4 probably ready to rack tomorrow.  3 meads, 2 grape juice wines, 2 more ciders and a cran-raspberry juice thing.

[Drewch]

Brew father and BeerSmith have free/trial versions. You could take a look them for an idea of what's already out there.  They have pretty different interfaces but perform a lot of the same calculations.

Both of them, however, are pretty beer-centric (if you couldn't guess from their names...). If you wanted to differentiate yourself a bit, you could focus on integrating mead, cider, and wine making. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong, but BrewFather, at least, doesn't seem to handle oeno-beer hybrids, graf, braggots, or pyments/melomels very intuitively.

[Bob357]

BeerSmith added mead, cider and wine to the software a couple of years ago. Also, the web version is included, at no additional cost, with any desktop subscription level, starting at $14.95/year. It's been the #1 brewing software for many years, and for good reason. Like any other software, it has a learning curve, but the web site has a ton of videos and articles detailing how to use various features.

[fredthecat]

i believe im alone in this, but i wanted a program for linux and that was free.

i started using brewtarget a decade ago and have kept using it. i dialed it in to how i brew and it works fine for me, its easy and quick to make a new recipe.
i havent compared to any other software though

BeerSmith added mead, cider and wine to the software a couple of years ago. Also, the web version is included, at no additional cost, with any desktop subscription level, starting at $14.95/year. It's been the #1 brewing software for many years, and for good reason. Like any other software, it has a learning curve, but the web site has a ton of videos and articles detailing how to use various features.

i know he put effort into it, but i tend to try to keep my computer based stuff free. i dont pay for an OS, i dont pay for software generally. i am sometimes forced to pay for games, but i rarely buy them. i feel like the internet has increasingly become commercialized and commodified.

a subscription for a piece of fairly utilitarian software?? it doesnt make sense to me.

[Andy Farke]

i believe im alone in this, but i wanted a program for linux and that was free.

i started using brewtarget a decade ago and have kept using it. i dialed it in to how i brew and it works fine for me, its easy and quick to make a new recipe.
i havent compared to any other software though

BeerSmith added mead, cider and wine to the software a couple of years ago. Also, the web version is included, at no additional cost, with any desktop subscription level, starting at $14.95/year. It's been the #1 brewing software for many years, and for good reason. Like any other software, it has a learning curve, but the web site has a ton of videos and articles detailing how to use various features.

i know he put effort into it, but i tend to try to keep my computer based stuff free. i dont pay for an OS, i dont pay for software generally. i am sometimes forced to pay for games, but i rarely buy them. i feel like the internet has increasingly become commercialized and commodified.

a subscription for a piece of fairly utilitarian software?? it doesnt make sense to me.

You can get BeerSmith  as a one-time purchase, also -- the subscription is just if you want some of the extra cloud storage and such. I have much the same philosophy of software that you do (I have run Linux exclusively for over 15 years now!)...BeerSmith is pretty much the only program that I have outright purchased, because it really works best for my work habits. Of course, everyone's needs are different -- and you have clearly found an open source option that works!

[Fire Rooster]

i believe im alone in this, but i wanted a program for linux and that was free.

i started using brewtarget a decade ago and have kept using it. i dialed it in to how i brew and it works fine for me, its easy and quick to make a new recipe.
i havent compared to any other software though

BeerSmith added mead, cider and wine to the software a couple of years ago. Also, the web version is included, at no additional cost, with any desktop subscription level, starting at $14.95/year. It's been the #1 brewing software for many years, and for good reason. Like any other software, it has a learning curve, but the web site has a ton of videos and articles detailing how to use various features.

i know he put effort into it, but i tend to try to keep my computer based stuff free. i dont pay for an OS, i dont pay for software generally. i am sometimes forced to pay for games, but i rarely buy them. i feel like the internet has increasingly become commercialized and commodified.

a subscription for a piece of fairly utilitarian software?? it doesnt make sense to me.

You can get BeerSmith  as a one-time purchase, also -- the subscription is just if you want some of the extra cloud storage and such. I have much the same philosophy of software that you do (I have run Linux exclusively for over 15 years now!)...BeerSmith is pretty much the only program that I have outright purchased, because it really works best for my work habits. Of course, everyone's needs are different -- and you have clearly found an open source option that works!

Beer and Linux, who would of thought.
Where do you guys get your laptops.
My current 17" laptop I bought from Dell, wiped it out to load Ubuntu.
Laptop before that was from https://system76.com/

Where do you guys get your Linux laptops ? Purchased loaded ? or wipe and load yourself ?

Thanks

[Andy Farke]

Beer and Linux, who would of thought.
Where do you guys get your laptops.
My current 17" laptop I bought from Dell, wiped it out to load Ubuntu.
Laptop before that was from https://system76.com/

Where do you guys get your Linux laptops ? Purchased loaded ? or wipe and load yourself ?

Thanks

I previously had a System76, which I liked well enough but found the case a bit flimsy. I currently have a Dell XPS13, which I bought a few years back through Dell's Linux pre-loaded option (the selection is a little more limited, but you know everything will work out of the box). It has been a fantastic machine.

In terms of the original topic, I've found BeerSmith's native Linux version (I run Ubuntu) to be great. Early on, I played with a few other pieces of software, but settled on BeerSmith as the best combo of features for my needs. As noted by BrewBama, it doesn't integrate ongoing data capture, but that's not a huge deal for me because that equipment isn't part of my workflow right now. There is probably a niche out there for a recipe creation+fermentation tracking piece of software.

[Richard]

Some overall thoughts (based upon my own experience with a home-built system)

• Don't reinvent the wheel. Use what is already available where you can. Use common data formats, such as CSV or Excel. If you log to a Google sheet with a graph, then embedding the graph in a multi-platform display is easy.
• Think about how you will get your data, not just how to display it. ESP8266 and such have built-in temperature sensors, but most are not very accurate. If you use an external sensor, what kind and how does it fit into the fermenter hardware? Interfacing with a Tilt would be one idea.
• What can you add that doesn't exist in other systems? Tilt already has mechanisms for logging and displaying data during fermentation. What about during the mash, boil and cooldown? Tilt doesn't do that, but you might be able to integrate that data with Tilt data from fermentation.
• What is actually useful to a brewer and not just cool and intriguing to a techie? Ability to add time-stamped comments (e.g. "Added dry hops") to the log file is useful. Ability to view previous brews is certainly good, perhaps with a search function that would allow you to see/compare all brews that use a particular yeast.
• Have fun! Do the parts you like and use other people's work for the rest. For example, I used the Arduino PID library for my mash controller even though I wrote the rest of the software myself.

[fredthecat]

You can get BeerSmith  as a one-time purchase, also -- the subscription is just if you want some of the extra cloud storage and such. I have much the same philosophy of software that you do (I have run Linux exclusively for over 15 years now!)...BeerSmith is pretty much the only program that I have outright purchased, because it really works best for my work habits. Of course, everyone's needs are different -- and you have clearly found an open source option that works!

nice, a onetime makes more sense, thats what i remember hearing, something like 10$ for a singletime purchase, but that must have been a long time ago.

Beer and Linux, who would of thought.
Where do you guys get your laptops.
My current 17" laptop I bought from Dell, wiped it out to load Ubuntu.
Laptop before that was from https://system76.com/

Where do you guys get your Linux laptops ? Purchased loaded ? or wipe and load yourself ?

Thanks

im unfamiliar with system76, i use my desktop whenever humanly possible, but have a windows laptop for work. ubuntu and mint (and probably other distros) are extremely user friendly now. i always tell people they are more straight-forward and userfriendly than new versions of windows and i believe this statement.

when i build a system though, i do check parts for linux compatibility (mainly if drivers come in linux) before purchasing.

Some overall thoughts (based upon my own experience with a home-built system)

• Don't reinvent the wheel. Use what is already available where you can. Use common data formats, such as CSV or Excel. If you log to a Google sheet with a graph, then embedding the graph in a multi-platform display is easy.
• Think about how you will get your data, not just how to display it. ESP8266 and such have built-in temperature sensors, but most are not very accurate. If you use an external sensor, what kind and how does it fit into the fermenter hardware? Interfacing with a Tilt would be one idea.
• What can you add that doesn't exist in other systems? Tilt already has mechanisms for logging and displaying data during fermentation. What about during the mash, boil and cooldown? Tilt doesn't do that, but you might be able to integrate that data with Tilt data from fermentation.
• What is actually useful to a brewer and not just cool and intriguing to a techie? Ability to add time-stamped comments (e.g. "Added dry hops") to the log file is useful. Ability to view previous brews is certainly good, perhaps with a search function that would allow you to see/compare all brews that use a particular yeast.
• Have fun! Do the parts you like and use other people's work for the rest. For example, I used the Arduino PID library for my mash controller even though I wrote the rest of the software myself.

yeah, i agree with use what is free/already available/simplest. i use brewtarget for theorizing but if i didnt have it i could very easily get by on the .txt files i have made for every beer ive actually brewed.

its as simple as writing "primaried on dec 18. (next line) bottled on jan 15 with 60g of dextrose"

[Bob357]

The one-time purchase doesn't include major upgrades. With all the work and major improvements Brad has been introducing in the last year or so, it may not have been the best option for many. Will it be in the future? As dirty Harry would say, "are you feeling lucky?".

[Haminacan]

Thank you for all the replies!  I should have said from the start that this will be for Mead, wine and cider.  I have 0 experience with making beer and really do not intend to make any.  I like being able to sanitize everything and for the most part just dump it together and wait.  As far as reinventing the wheel, this is a school project/show employers I can do a thing.  I will not be monitoring temps from inside the brew.  A digital IO can work with what ever sensor you build the interface for it to work with.  It can be as accurate as it is decided it needs to be.

[Richard]

Thank you for all the replies!  I should have said from the start that this will be for Mead, wine and cider.  I have 0 experience with making beer and really do not intend to make any.  I like being able to sanitize everything and for the most part just dump it together and wait.  As far as reinventing the wheel, this is a school project/show employers I can do a thing.  I will not be monitoring temps from inside the brew.  A digital IO can work with what ever sensor you build the interface for it to work with.  It can be as accurate as it is decided it needs to be.

Well, if it is just a demo to show off your coding skills, then forget everything I said. It doesn't have to be useful or efficient, it just has to look good. Have a real-time readout of everything you can imagine, along with available logs and graphs of the same variables.

[Haminacan]

I came up with a name for the software.  Fermentation and Brewing Information Organizer or FaBIO.