Fermenticus Brew Log vs Calcohol
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Fermenticus Brew Log
This app is a comprehensive logbook, calculator, and recipe formulator for homebrewers and small craft brewers. It helps you input ingredients, perform calculations for gravity, color, and bitterness, and manage your brewing recipes.
- Recipe formulation and storage
- Ingredient database
- Automatic gravity, color, and bitterness calculations
- Mash rest and sparge calculations
- Brew-house efficiency and yeast attenuation tracking
- US & Metric unit support
- Recipe export via email
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Fermenticus Brew Log is a logbook, calculator, and recipe formulator for homebrewers and small craft brewers alike. • Optimized for both iPhone & iPad. • Clean design - You can quickly input your ingredients and measurements, automatically perform important calculations, and concentrate on the brewing instead of the software! • Suitable for any level of expertise - Brew Log will handle all your extract, steeped grain, partial mash, or all-grain recipes. • Ingredients database - Add your own ingredients or select from lists of common malts, extracts, adjuncts, hops, and commercially available yeasts. • Save your recipes - Recipes are stored on your device for quick access at any time. You can also export your recipes via email in a convenient table format that can be pasted into any spreadsheet or printed out for brew day reference. • Organize your recipes - Sort your recipes with logbooks for organizing and archiving. • As you add grains or hops Brew Log instantly updates estimated gravity, color, and bitterness. Great for building recipes on the go. • Mash Rest & Sparge calculations for simple to complex mashes. Calculates volumes and temperatures for your strike water, infusions, and decoctions. • Built in calculators to determine original and final gravity, alcohol (ABV), bitterness (IBU), color (SRM), efficiency, attenuation, and more. • Choose a standard beer style or make up your own. • Designed to be an efficient brewing companion for quick logging during your brew day (“Do more with fewer clicks”). • US & Metric simultaneously supported. You can combine both US and metric units in your malt bill or hop bill. Recipes can also be converted from US to Metric and vice versa. • Unique date handling, so you can add dates with information about the date. Useful for logging information during fermentation or bottling! • Once you make your own measurement Brew Log will let you know your actual brew-house efficiency (for all-grain) and actual yeast attenuation. • Save your default settings such as typical batch size and if you brew extract/all-grain/steeped. Of course, this information can always be set on a recipe by recipe basis. ••• Important Information Regarding In-App Purchases ••• Brew Log has a limitation on the number of recipes you can store on your device. All users will get 5 empty recipe slots. There is no other limitation on any functions. The free slots are the exact same as paid recipe slots. Brew Log's In-App Purchases are tied to your iTunes account and are permanent. Your purchases on one device will be shared on all your devices. You can refresh to restore your purchases at any time. Upgrades of +10, +25, and unlimited slots are available for less than a beer at the pub. If you reach your maximum recipe limit, you will have to either delete existing recipes (I recommend exporting via Email first!) or purchase an upgrade before adding a new recipe or cloning an existing recipe. Cheers and Happy Brewing!
Calcohol
This app provides a comprehensive suite of tools for liquor makers, offering calculations for dilution, contraction, mixing, heating, boiling, and distillation. It also includes a notebook for recipes and iCloud sync, with support for various measurement systems.
- Alcohol strength calculations (dilution, contraction)
- Mixture calculations by volume and mass
- Heating and temperature management tools
- Boiling point and distillation calculations
- Mash and spirit making calculators
- Notebook with iCloud sync
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Here is a functions list: • Notebook - save notes, recipes and so on with iCloud sync (for iOS 13 and later) • Dilution – calculating require water volume, to decrease alcohol strength to desired • Contraction – calculating require volume of higher ABV solution, to increase available alcohol strength to desired • Mixing Alcohol by Volume – calculating mixture of two alcohol solutions by given their volume • Mixing Alcohol by Mass – calculating mixture of two alcohol solutions by given their weight • Weight to Volume - calculate volume of liquid by its weight • Gravity Change – calculating alcohol per volume, based on gravity change in SG, Plato and Brix • Water Temperature Mix – calculating overall temperature after mixing two solutions • Chilling Water – calculating volume of cold water, to chill hot one • Electric Heating Power – calculating required electrical current, voltage and % of max heater power, to get desired power from particular electric heater • Heating Time – calculating heating time by given liquid volume • Heating Power - heating source power calculation, which is applied to increase liquid temperature • Boiling – calculating boiling point by given pressure. With iPhone 6 and later version (except SE), atmospheric pressure can be read from build-in barometer • Hydrometer Reading Correction – correction reading hydrometer value depending on temperature • Mash Maker – calculate mash parameters, such as water, yeast requirements, alcohol amount prediction. All calculation based on specified ingredients list, its amount and desired total volume of mash • Strike Water – calculate required temperature for strike water, to get target mash temperature • Spirit Maker – this feature will help you to mix strong alcohol, water and sugar, to make liquor with specific proportion of that ingredients • Distillation Cut – calculate each fraction volume • Drip Speed – calculate time to collect specific volume • Theoretical Plates – calculate plates equivalent of your column extender Can be configured to calculate volumes in metric, UK or US imperial systems
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Calcohol at 4.7 against Fermenticus Brew Log's 4.2. Calcohol also leads on ratings volume (203 vs 46). Fermenticus Brew Log's advantage is review sentiment (85% vs 63%). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Fermenticus Brew Log sells 8 one-off in-app purchases and Calcohol sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Calcohol holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 46 and 203 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 85% of Fermenticus Brew Log's written reviews are positive against 63% of Calcohol's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Fermenticus Brew Log ships an update every 6 weeks, Calcohol every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Fermenticus Brew Log | Calcohol |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (46 ratings) | 4.7 (203 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 84.9% of reviews — better | 62.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 46 | 203 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 20 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Mark Hambly | Denis Orlov |
Customer experience
Fermenticus Brew Log
Calcohol
Bugs and requests
Fermenticus Brew Log
Reported bugs
15 issues- App crashes on open after paying to add recipes
- Paid for additional slots and lost all recipes when changing from Android to iOS
- Most recent version/update is over 2 years ago
- App not functioning correctly, not estimating IBU
- Cannot remove added items (grain, hops, mash rest)
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- Mash water and temp calculations get messed up with second sparge/mash out
- Cannot paste photos in notes
- Export feature only goes to email
- Dry hop calculator does not work
- Water volume calculations appear off
- Font on export email is tiny
- App crashes when trying to enter a new fermentation or brew date (since iOS8)
- Cannot expand current limit of 5 recipes (no in-app purchases)
- App crashes when trying to share grain bills
- After an update nothing seemed to work
Requested features
26 requests- Export to iPhone outlook app
- Highlight selected recipe for easier navigation
- Update ingredient list (hops, yeasts, malts)
- Ability to select Coopers products as LME addition
- UI font scaling
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- Add common yeast strains for mead making
- Sync between devices
- Desktop site
- Import recipes from home brew sites
- Add timer
- Add brewing salt addition calculator
- Add common yeast strains for mead making
- Export to BeerXML
- iCloud syncing for other iOS devices
- Calendar (or iCal integration)
- Field to plug in gravity readings
- Ability to delete entered items
- Water dilution feature
- Partigyle or second runnings brews
- Export to Untappd
- Print function
- More brew sessions available
- Upload step by step pics of brew
- Timer and alert function
- Dark mode option
- Advanced analytics dashboard
Calcohol
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Fermenticus Brew Log
- 10 Recipe Slots$2.99
- 10 Additional Recipe Slots$2.99
- 10 More Recipe Slots$2.99
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- 25 Recipe Slots$5.99
- 25 Additional Recipe Slots$5.99
- 25 More Recipe Slots$5.99
- Unlimited Recipe Slots$11.99
- To Infinity... And Beyond!$11.99
Calcohol
- Full Version$0.99
Questions
Is Fermenticus Brew Log free?
Is Calcohol free?
Which has better reviews, Fermenticus Brew Log or Calcohol?
Do Fermenticus Brew Log or Calcohol have ads?
Which is updated more often, Fermenticus Brew Log or Calcohol?
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