5 Best Free and Paid Mead Brewing Apps Compared (2024): Logs, Calculators, and Stall Detection

If you're hunting for the best mead brewing app in 2024, the honest answer is that no single tool does everything—but the five options below cover every major use case, from batch-plan calculators to live fermentation stall detection. Stuck fermentation is consistently the top complaint on r/mead and r/homebrewing, yet most apps treat mead as an afterthought bolted onto beer-centric software. This guide compares five real tools—Mead Maker, Brewfather, BeerSmith, MeadMakr, and GotMead—so you can match the right one to your skill level and pain points.

• Mead-first vs. beer-first: Most popular apps (Brewfather, BeerSmith) are optimized for beer and lack TOSNA calculators, honey gravity estimates, or stall detection specific to mead.
• Stuck fermentation alerts: Only Mead Maker's Pro tier includes an automatic stuck fermentation alert that monitors your gravity curve for stall patterns ^[3].
• Free tiers: Every tool offers a free entry point, but free tiers on general brewing apps cap recipes/batches at 10 or omit mead-critical calculators ^[1][4].
• Gravity logging depth: Brewfather leads on hardware integrations (20+ devices), while Mead Maker logs OG, FG, and all interim readings with a visual chart on Pro ^[2][3].
• YAN / TOSNA calculations: Only Mead Maker and MeadMakr's web toolbox offer Fermaid-O–based TOSNA scheduling; the others require manual math or third-party spreadsheets ^[3][5].
• Platform: Brewfather and BeerSmith work across web, iOS, and Android; Mead Maker is a native mobile app (iOS + Android); MeadMakr and GotMead are browser-only calculators ^[2][4][6].

TL;DR: Mead Maker is the only dedicated mead-tracking app with automatic stuck fermentation alerts; Brewfather is the best general brewing platform if you also brew beer; MeadMakr is the gold standard for pre-brew web calculators; and BeerSmith suits brewers who want a comprehensive desktop tool.

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The Mead-Specific Gap Every Brewer Hits

Before evaluating individual apps, it helps to understand why general brewing tools fall short for mead. Honey is not grain. Its fermentable sugar content varies by source and moisture level—MeadMakr's BatchBuildr assumes a 79.6% sugar content for honey as a baseline estimate ^[5], a figure no beer-focused app exposes to the user. More critically, yeast available nitrogen (YAN) matters enormously in mead because honey is nearly devoid of the amino acids and micronutrients that beer wort supplies naturally. Without staged nutrient additions (like TOSNA), fermentations routinely stall.

Why Stuck Fermentation Is the Top Pain Point

Stuck fermentation occurs when yeast stop working before reaching your target final gravity. In mead, the causes are narrower than in beer—nutrient deficiency, osmotic stress from high sugar concentrations, and temperature drift are the three most common culprits—but none of the major general-purpose brewing apps detect or flag these patterns automatically. If your gravity reading hasn't moved in 72 hours during active fermentation, you have a problem; a mead-optimized app should tell you that before you've lost a batch. For a deep dive into the root causes, see our guide on why your mead is not fermenting and how to fix each cause.

What a Mead App Actually Needs

A complete mead tracking tool should handle five jobs: (1) honey gravity estimation before you brew, (2) YAN and TOSNA scheduling so nutrient additions are calculated correctly, (3) gravity logging across the full fermentation arc with enough readings to build a fermentation curve, (4) 1/3 sugar break detection so you know when to make the final nutrient addition, and (5) stall detection that flags when gravity stops moving. Apps are compared across those five dimensions below.

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App-by-App Breakdown

Mead Maker: Honey Wine Tracker — Best Dedicated Mead App

Mead Maker is the only purpose-built mead tracking app available on both the iOS App Store and Google Play. Its free tier covers batch creation across all major mead styles (traditional, melomel, cyser, pyment, metheglin, braggot, bochet), gravity logging of OG/FG and all interim readings, ABV calculation, phase tracking (primary → secondary → bottling → aging), and temperature logging ^[3]. No account, no cloud sync, and 100% offline by design—your data never leaves the device ^[3].

The Pro tier is where the mead-specific power lives: TOSNA nutrient scheduling calculates Fermaid-O doses at 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, and the 1/3 break automatically from your OG, volume, and yeast type ^[3]. Automatic 1/3 sugar break detection tells you exactly when that final addition is due ^[3]. And the Pro-tier stuck fermentation alert—the feature no other app on this list offers—detects stalled fermentation early and prompts you to investigate ^[3]. A visual gravity chart renders your fermentation curve over time so you can spot a slowdown before it becomes a full stall ^[3].

The yeast library includes common mead yeasts with their nitrogen requirements listed, which pairs directly with the TOSNA calculator to take the guesswork out of nutrient math ^[3]. Honey type tracking (wildflower, clover, orange blossom, buckwheat) is logged per batch, giving you a historical record that helps correlate honey source with fermentation behaviour ^[3]. The one trade-off: no cloud sync or multi-device access, and no desktop web version.

"Mead Maker helps home meadmakers track honey wine fermentation from primary to aging with gravity logging, TOSNA nutrient scheduling, and ABV calculation. Built for mead brewers who want simple fermentation tracking without complicated brewing software." — App Store description, Mead Maker: Honey Wine Tracker ^[3]

Verdict: The clearest choice for anyone whose primary hobby is mead. Pro is the meaningful tier.

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Brewfather — Best for Beer Brewers Who Also Make Mead

Brewfather holds a 4.9-star rating across both App Store and Google Play, with over 1,600 App Store ratings and 2,700 Google Play ratings ^[2]. It is an all-in-one platform for recipe design, batch tracking, guided brew days, and live fermentation monitoring that works across web, iOS, and Android simultaneously ^[2]. The key distinction to understand is this: Brewfather is primarily designed for beer brewing, but you can also use it for other types of brewing such as cider, mead, and wine ^[4].

Brewfather's hardware integration is unmatched on this list—it connects to 20+ digital hydrometers, temperature controllers, and cloud services including Tilt, iSpindel, RAPT, Plaato, Brewpiless, and Brewtools Cloud ^[2]. For mead brewers who own a Tilt or iSpindel, this means continuous gravity and temperature readings streamed directly into your batch log. The free plan caps you at 10 saved recipes and batches and removes import/export functionality ^[1]; the Premium tier unlocks unlimited recipes and full features for around $30 per year ^[1]. A Premium Plus tier adds an AI Brewing Assistant for recipe generation and modification ^[2].

What Brewfather lacks for mead is notable: there is no TOSNA calculator, no YAN-based nutrient scheduler, no 1/3 sugar break detection, and no stuck fermentation alert. Meadmakers using Brewfather will still need external spreadsheets or the MeadMakr toolbox for pre-brew planning. For maintaining a complete gravity log with charts, though, Brewfather is excellent, and our gravity reading log guide covers how to build those habits regardless of which app you use.

"It's more than just a recipe calculator; it's a comprehensive brewery management system. I can design a recipe on my desktop, then walk into the garage and pull up the exact same batch on my tablet." — Bar Carrera review, Brewfather ^[7]

Verdict: Excellent all-around brewing platform, but mead brewers will need to supplement with mead-specific calculators.

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BeerSmith 3 / 4 — Best Desktop Recipe Software

BeerSmith added support for mead, wine, and cider in version 3—more than seven years after BeerSmith 2—in response to a growing and diverse homebrew community ^[8]. The upgrade is meaningful: BeerSmith 3 ships with honey types, fruit juices, and fruit preloaded as fermentables, integrated BJCP mead style guidelines, and dynamic dialogs that show only mead-relevant fields when you create a mead equipment profile ^[6]. Backsweetening calculation tools and yeast nutrient tools are also included, though the YAN workflow is not as streamlined as a dedicated TOSNA calculator ^[6].

BeerSmith is primarily desktop software (one-time purchase with optional mobile companion), which gives it an edge for deep recipe design sessions at a computer but makes it less convenient on brew day in the cellar ^[8]. Fermentation data tracking exists but is not a primary workflow strength, and there is no automatic stuck fermentation detection or gravity curve anomaly flagging. BeerSmith 4 moved to a SQL-based database for improved reliability and added updated yeast starter models and water chemistry tools ^[6].

Verdict: Best for mead brewers who want rich recipe design, BJCP style comparisons, and prefer desktop software. Fermentation tracking is basic.

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MeadMakr — Best Pre-Brew Web Calculator Suite

MeadMakr is a browser-based toolbox that has been a community staple for years. Its BatchBuildr calculates your target original gravity and estimates the honey needed for a batch, using a 79.6% sugar content assumption for honey ^[5]. The Advanced Nutrient Calculator supports Fermaid-O, Fermaid-K, and DAP with dosing-to-limits logic ^[5]. The TOSNA 2.0 calculator was contributed by Sergio Moutela of Melovino Meadery ^[5], and the ABV calculator uses equations from Michael Hall's 1995 Summer Zymurgy article for SG-to-Brix conversion accuracy ^[5].

The limitation is structural: MeadMakr is a collection of standalone calculators, not a batch tracking app. There is no gravity logging, no fermentation history, no stall detection, and no mobile app ^[5]. You run your numbers before brew day, then you're on your own once fermentation starts. See our article on TOSNA vs. Fermaid-O vs. Go-Ferm nutrient protocols for how to apply MeadMakr's outputs to real batches.

Verdict: An essential pre-brew planning resource, especially for TOSNA scheduling, but not a fermentation tracker.

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GotMead Calculator — Best Quick Estimate Tool

GotMead is the largest mead resource on the web and offers a free online calculator for estimating honey quantities and target gravity ^[6]. It is useful for back-of-envelope math before you commit to a batch but offers nothing in terms of fermentation logging, nutrient scheduling, or stall detection. Think of it as a starting-point check rather than a tracking tool.

Verdict: Good for a 60-second gravity/honey estimate. Not a replacement for a tracking app.

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Feature Deep-Dive: The Five Things That Actually Matter

Gravity Logging and Fermentation Curves

Manual gravity logging—recording specific gravity every two to three days—is the foundation of good mead making. An app that lets you build a time-series of readings and visualize the resulting curve gives you the earliest possible warning of a stall. Brewfather handles this well when paired with a Tilt or iSpindel hydrometer, streaming continuous readings into the batch ^[2]. Mead Maker's Pro tier renders a gravity chart from manual readings, which works for brewers without a wireless hydrometer ^[3]. BeerSmith logs gravity readings per session but does not build a curve visualization for continuous monitoring ^[6].

TOSNA and YAN Nutrient Scheduling

TOSNA (Tailored Organic Staggered Nutrient Addition) is the dominant nutrient protocol in the mead community because it staggers Fermaid-O additions at calculated doses tied to fermentation progress rather than guesswork. Mead Maker's Pro TOSNA calculator takes OG, volume, and yeast type as inputs and outputs doses for the 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, and 1/3 break additions automatically ^[3]. MeadMakr's TOSNA 2.0 tool, built by Sergio Moutela of Melovino Meadery, offers the same functionality in-browser but without batch tracking ^[5]. Brewfather and BeerSmith require manual calculation or external spreadsheets for YAN-based scheduling. For a breakdown of when to use TOSNA versus alternatives, see our guide on re-pitching yeast in a stuck mead without ruining the batch.

1/3 Sugar Break and Stall Detection

The 1/3 sugar break is the point at which roughly one-third of your original sugar has been consumed by yeast—a critical milestone for the last staggered nutrient addition. Missing it means yeast enter a stressful nutrient-depleted phase that commonly leads to a stall. Mead Maker automatically detects this milestone from your gravity readings and alerts you ^[3]. No other app on this list does. The stuck fermentation alert in Mead Maker's Pro tier goes further: it monitors whether gravity is moving between logged readings and flags potential stalls for investigation ^[3].

Honey Type and Batch Context

Different honey varieties ferment differently—buckwheat's complex flavors and higher nitrogen content behave differently from a mild clover honey, and orange blossom carries antimicrobial compounds that can stress yeast. Logging honey type per batch lets you build a personal dataset correlating honey source with fermentation outcomes. Mead Maker tracks honey variety per batch ^[3]. Brewfather and BeerSmith include honey as a fermentable ingredient in recipes but do not tie honey type to fermentation behavior analysis.

Cross-Device Access and Offline Use

Brewfather's cloud-sync architecture means your data is always up to date across web, iOS, and Android, even after switching devices ^[2]—but it requires an internet connection for most advanced features. Mead Maker takes the opposite approach: 100% offline, no account required, all data stored locally on your device ^[3]. For meadmakers in cellars or barns with spotty connectivity, that offline-first design matters.

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How to Choose: A Quick Decision Framework

If mead is your primary brew

Start with Mead Maker. The free tier handles basic gravity logging and batch tracking. Upgrade to Pro once you want TOSNA automation, 1/3 break alerts, and the stuck fermentation detector—these are the features that save batches. If you own a wireless hydrometer, pair Mead Maker's manual logs with a Tilt app for continuous monitoring.

If you brew beer and mead

Use Brewfather as your hub and run MeadMakr's TOSNA calculator in a browser tab for nutrient planning. Brewfather's hardware integrations and cross-device sync are hard to beat for a brewer managing multiple fermentation vessels simultaneously ^[2]. The $30/year Premium tier is fair value for unlimited batch logging.

If you prefer desktop software and deep recipe design

BeerSmith gives you the most comprehensive recipe tool with honey fermentables, BJCP mead style guidelines, and backsweetening tools built in ^[6][8]. It is less convenient during active fermentation monitoring but excellent for planning.

If you just need a quick calculation before brew day

MeadMakr or GotMead will have your honey estimate and TOSNA dose in under two minutes, with no account and no app to install ^[5][6].

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The Missing Piece: Contextual Stall Troubleshooting

All five tools above share one blind spot: when a stall does occur, none of them surface tailored troubleshooting steps based on your specific inputs—your OG, your yeast strain, your nutrient additions logged so far, your fermentation temperature. Mead Maker alerts you that a stall may be happening, but the next step (nutrient addition? temperature adjustment? re-pitch?) is still left entirely to the brewer. That gap—between raw data and actionable diagnosis—is the core problem that MeadStall was built to solve. MeadStall combines the gravity logging you'd do in any of the apps above with an automated pattern-detection engine that recognizes stall signatures in your fermentation curve and surfaces the specific intervention most likely to restart fermentation, calibrated to your exact batch parameters.

If stuck fermentation has cost you batches—or the anxiety of not knowing whether your mead is stalled or just slow has cost you sleep—check out MeadStall and see what contextual troubleshooting built on your own data actually looks like.