Yankee Brew News Archive

Homebrewing Corner: Special Features Set HomeBrewer's Assistant Apart

Originally Published: 08/96

By: Gregg Glaser

The following is the fourth in a series of reviews of homebrew software programs. It was tested on a 486SX, 33-MHz machine with 4 MB of RAM.

HomeBrewer's Assistant, Version 2.2

HomeBrewer's Software, 6617 Wannamaker Lane, Charlotte, NC 28226, 704-544-0137, brewsoft@aol.com, $29.95

HomeBrewer's Assistant is a user-friendly, well-written Windows program for homebrewers. Similar to other homebrew software programs reviewed in past issues, HomeBrewer's Assistant allows you to formulate recipes, maintain brewing logs and calculate gravity, bitterness, color and alcohol content. Two nice added features in Homebrewer's Assistant include a multimedia Reference Guide and a WYSIWIG Label Generator.

Booted-up, the main window reveals a command line including File, Recipe, Edit, Brew Log, Display, Utilities, Window and Help. Icons below the command line represent New Recipe, Open Recipe, Close Recipe, Brew Log New Batch, Brew Log Open Batch, Search Recipe, Copy Recipe, Print, Run Label Designer and Run Reference Guide.

Homebrewer's Assistant is organized into folders in which you place recipes. The default folder, cleverly named Main Folder, contains forty-eight recipes. You can rename this folder and add recipes, or create a new folder in which to place your recipes.

Once a folder is opened, you must next open an existing recipe or create a new one. In designing a new recipe, you're presented with options for brewing an extract, partial mash or full mash beer, and you can set an extraction rate or use the default of eighty percent. Other options to set are the name, style and source of the recipe, and the boil and batch sizes must be changed if they are different from the defaults (five gallons for each). Defaults are changeable in a Set Defaults area of Homebrewer's Assistant.

When this first part of the program is completed, you begin entering recipe specifics in a Recipe Information Window. Ingredients, pre-set but easily edited, are arranged by the categories Adjunct Grains, Conditioners, Finings, Hops, Malt Extracts, Malted Grains, Other Adjuncts, Priming Sugars and Yeasts. At any time in entering ingredients, you can easily edit or delete whatever you've entered, as well as edit the Ingredients Database.

A Recipe Banner at the top of the Recipe Information Window lists the name, style and source of the open recipe. A statistics banner at the bottom of the window provides information on the recipe's estimated starting and finishing gravities, HBUs and IBUs, color and alcohol content. These banners may be hidden, if preferred.

Other options available from the Recipe Information Window are an Instructions Window, a Hops Schedule Window, a Comments Window, a Style Guide Window, a Recipe Information Window and Print Options.

The Instructions Window provides detailed instructions about brewing the current recipe. These instructions can be added to, changed, deleted, and moved. The Hops Schedule Window displays the hops used in the recipe. The Comments Window displays a blank window where you can write your own comments about the recipe. The Style Guide Window displays AHA 1996 style guidelines for the style of beer on which your recipe is based. The Recipe Information Window displays the current recipe's name, style, source, type (extract or mash), date created and date last updated.

After designing a recipe, the next step is to create a new Batch Log and to add the recipe to this log. The log includes fields for setting the dates for brewing, racking and bottling, as well as the gravities and temperatures for each of these dates. Alcohol percent by weight or volume is automatically calculated on saving the Batch Log. Options from Batch Log include Print (there are six different print formats), Score (how your beer fared under the AHA/BJCP fifty-point scoring system) and Compete Form (a form which you can fill out for entering your beer in a homebrew competition).

In the Set Defaults section of HomeBrewer's Assistant, you can set the batch size, type, boil size, alcohol content measurement (by weight or volume) and the recipe measurements (U.S., Metric or British). There are also settings for hops utilization (the tables written by Rager or Garetz, or you can write your own), mash water statistics, color utilization and the display colors of HomeBrewer's Assistant.

The Reference Guide includes many short articles and graphics on beer styles and homebrewing topics. Titles listed are the 1996 AHA Style Guides, Associations, Clubs, Books, Magazines, Newspapers, Shops, Equipment, FAQs, Glossary, Instructions and Tips & Techniques. The Label Generator is a fun and handy tool. Here you can create custom labels designed with text, graphics and photos. HomeBrewer's Assistant even supplies many of the graphics.

HomeBrewer's Assistant performed without any technical problems and proved itself a workable tool for the homebrewer.