QBrew is a Home Brewer's recipe calculator. You can create and modify ale and lager recipes as well as calculate gravity, color, and bitterness. QBrew includes a database of styles, grains, hops, and miscellaneous ingredients, plus a brewing tutorial.
QBrew is easy to use. The screen comes up with a recipe formulator that allows you to enter ingredients. Tabs let you enter grains, hops, and miscellaneous ingredients, including yeast, and flavorings, as well as notes about your recipe. As you add ingredients, QBrew calculates IBUs, SRMs, OG, FG, ABV, and ABW, on the fly.
By replacing the installed database with one modified by Jkarp, you can formulate recipes that include Mr Beer ingredients.

To get started, Download the program:
Windows
Macintosh
Install the program and Download Jkarp's database:
Database
-NOTE- New and improved Database has been attached to this post, see below.

Now go into the QBrew folder. Typical path is:
C:\Program Files\QBrew
Find the file named:
qbrewdata
Rename it to:
qbrewdata.off (This way you can revert to the original database if so desired.)
Go to the location where you downloaded Jkarp's database, find:
qbrewdata and copy it. Go back to the QBrew folder and paste it there.
A note on downloading the Database. I tried to avoid confusion by linking to the version that PepperBuddha is hosting, as it has no file extension (Jkarp's original was a .XML and had to be stripped of the file extension). It was pointed out to me (thank you Herb Meowing) that if you download it using Internet Explorer, the .XML gets added to it. If this is the case, right click on the file and choose "Rename" and remove the .XML. If you suspect that the file extension is there but do not see it. Go to: Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization>Folder Options>View>Advanced>uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types".
You are ready to start building recipes!

Lets tweak a standard West Coast Pale Ale refill kit. Lets say we want it a little more hoppy and a little drier, with a bit more ABV.
First we need to set the Batch size. Mr Beer batch size is 2.13 Gallon.
By default QBrew opens with the "Grains" tab visible.
To add malts, click on the "+" button in the lower right hand corner.
This produces a drop down box, double click in it.
Now scroll down to "MrB. West Coast Pale Ale" and select it.
The default Weight is 1.000 lb. Double click on 1.000 and manually change it to 1.210 (One can of HME).
Now add the Booster.
Click on the "+" button again, in the new drop down, scroll down to "MrB. Booster" and select it.
Change the Weight to 0.813 lb.
We are done adding malts for now. Click on the Hops tab.
Click on the "+" button in the lower right hand corner.
Scroll down to "MrB. West Coast Pale Ale" and select it.
Leave the weight at 1.000 oz and change the time to 5 minutes.
Thats it, Standard West Coast Pale Ale.
Lets make it a little hoppy.
Under the Hops tab, click on the "+" button again.
Lets use Cascades.
Scroll down and select it.
Double click on the weight and change it to 0.500 oz.
Change the time to 05 min.
Lets up the ABV a bit.
Click on the Grains Tab, click on the "+", select Honey.
We have 12 oz by weight of honey, so change the weight to 0.750.
There we are, a new recipe, easy peasy!

Grains Tab:

Hops Tab:



A couple of notes:
-You can set the default batch size to 2.13 under Options>Configure>Recipe.
-Jkarp appears to have used the Tinseth IBU formula when modifying the Database. Set this under Options>Configure>Calculations.
-If you are using two cans of the same HME/UME set it to 2.42 lbs under malts and 2 oz @ 5 mins under Hops.
-UMEs are not listed under Hops because, well.., they are not hopped.
-If an ingredient is not listed, you can add it using the Database editor under Tools>Database Editor. After adding the ingredient, be sure to select File>Save.
-You can add ingredients without using the "+" button by right clicking in the main window and selecting "Add Ingredient". (Thanks Mr Bill!)
-You can also add ingriedients with the short cut: CTRL + INS.

Common weights:
1 can HME/UME = 1.21 lb
1 package Booster = 0.813 lb
1 cup packed Brown Sugar = 0.490 lb
1 cup unpacked Brown Sugar = 0.320 lb
1 cup Sugar = 0.440 lb
1 cup Honey = 0.750 lb
1 cup Molasses = 0.740 lb
1 cup Maple Syrup = 0.710 lb


Looking further at the program, under the file tab are a few important features: saving, exporting, and printing. Saving your recipe saves it to a proprietary QBrew format, to be opened later. Exporting allows you to export the recipe in several formats, including XML, PDF, TXT and HTML. Printing sends a summary of the recipe to the printer.

Finally, there are a couple of calculators in addition to the recipe formulator. These include an ABV calculator and hydrometer correction calculator for temperature.

I would like to send a big Thank You to Jkarp for all of the work that he has done on the database!
Cheers!


12/26/09; Hopefully fixed the database download. It is uploaded as a .txt. Right click on link and choose "save as".
After downloading it, rename it to qbrewdata. Then paste it into your QBrew folder.
12/26/09; Okay, added a zipped version as well. I hope...
12/26/09; If all else fails try this.