The Ultimate Home Brew Calculator

Posted by Wink

February 18, 2008

I’m a home brewer, not an engineer. Seriously, my background is in philosophy and social science, not chemistry. So usually when I find brewing applications online, I’m overwhelmed by the technicalness (I don’t think that’s even a word). I once downloaded StrangeBrew, which is a really useful little program, but I quickly realized it far exceeded my needs and my patience-level.

All that has changed. Today, as I was digging around for a stout recipe (I have some Northern Brewer dark extract I need to use) I found BeerCalculus. It sounds technical, but in fact it is the most useful online brewing tool I’ve found so far. Just a few selections from a drop-down menu and bam! You have your O.G., S.G., Mash Efficiency, HBUs, IBUs, and balance ratio. The output is enough to make me feel smart, but not so much as to show me how dumb I really am.

If you’re a competitive brewer, then maybe you’ll find BeerCalculus too pedestrian. But I love it. If I ever run into Todd Gehman, damnit, I’m buying him a pint.

Home Brew