It has been a little while since Brewtoad took over Hopville and I am just curious what folks think. Is Brewtoad as good or better than Hopville? And, why?
Beersmith is also available as long as the computer turns on properly, no internet required. Where I brew is out in the woods with no internet, so this is important.
It's come a long way, but I still prefer Hopville. The ingredient selection interface on brewtoad is cumbersome. Every time you want to add something, you have to go to another page? Screw that.
I'm in the exact opposite situation -- I always have internet but am not always on the same device. I want to be able to switch among three different laptops (with various operating systems) and my phone, so a web-based solution is best for me. I used Hopville for a bit but wasn't impressed, and Brewtoad didn't seem any better, so I switched to Brewer's Friend (it's not free, but $10 to try it for a year isn't bad). So far I'm quite happy with it. I don't think they match the feature set of native applications like BeerSmith, but they're constantly improving and adding new features. Edit: I just saw that BeerSmith can store recipes in the "cloud" and presumably sync across multiple devices; I might give it a try sometime in the future. For now, though, I'm happy with Brewer's Friend.
Hopville was great when I was on break at work and wanted to make up a recipe. Brewtoad just doesn't seem to update its ingredients as awesome. I used Brewpal or something on my iTouch for a long time, but they were even worse about updating. Now I just use Excel spreadsheets mostly.
If you want to use a free online brew calculator, try Brewology 101. Very easy to use. Comparably to brewers friend and Beersmith although not as advanced....and it's free. I use it when I am not at home and do t have access to my Beersmith.
Beersmith does require some doing to get the exact same results on two different machines - you gotta make sure all the parameters are the same on both machines. Bit of a PITA, but no biggie. The degree of control over your beer and the parameters of brewing is quite good with brewsmith, but it's not perfect. I haven't made much use of the cloud yet, but probably will at some point. No one solution is yet "perfect" in my view, but certainly you can make great beer with a purely online solution too. A lot of the discussion in these threads is just haggling over the small stuff. But then again, I do like to hear myself talk...
I love brewtoad, they keep adding stuff. I like the brew logs, while imperfect they are a way better way of keeping data than hopville. Yes, some things are limited & cumbersome, but that's the price we pay for FREE. IMHO it's the best free brewing software now.
Brewtoad cannot do any calculations except for single infusion mashes which is a giant negative for me. Ingredients are just as cumbersome but in a different way; Hopville's lists were super long but Brewtoad lacks a lot of common ingredients and even some Maltsters. I do like the brew logs though...
I just found www.brewgr.com Another free site. Seems pretty user friendly, although it still needs some ingredients added. Cheers to another site that will aid me in my downtime at work.
I have come to the conclusion that they both suck ass. slow, full of bugs, prone to crashing. recipes have disappeared for no known reason. not intuitive, really cumbersome. slow. ingredients list appears to be 50% accurate, 25% bizarre and the rest is just inexplicable. but, still, being el-cheapo, I use brewtoad to formulate recipes. then I just brew, stay sober and try to recall the variables for future reference. a lot like when I brewed with my copy of the NCJoHB at my side. I could do without I suppose but brewtoad offers some quick and dirty calcs all in one place and that is enough for me. beersmith is great but too much like work imo. Cheers.
