BeerSmith Cloud Recipe Privacy and Sharing Explained

This week I present a short overview of the cloud sharing, privacy and folder features available in BeerSmith 3 home brewing software. The cloud features in BeerSmith let you share recipes between your computers and phone, share with other users or just use as an online private backup for your recipes.

The BeerSmith cloud is an online server located at BeerSmithRecipes.com which currently has some 850,000 beer, mead, wine, and cider recipes. Access to the cloud is integrated into the desktop and mobile versions of BeerSmith software as a “cloud folder”, which reach back to the server to access recipes stored there. In BeerSmith 3 a secure connection (SSL/Https) is used.

Some potential uses for the cloud folder:

• Sharing recipes privately between your computers and mobile devices. All recipes are private by default.
• Sharing recipes with others (if you mark them as shared)
• Storing recipes offline in the cloud for backup purposes

BeerSmith Cloud Privacy Options

You can add items to your cloud folder by either moving/copy/pasting new items to the folder or by creating a new recipe in the cloud folder area. On both the desktop and mobile version the cloud folder is a separate selection to differentiate it from the locally stored “My Recipes” folder.

You can add items to your cloud folder by either moving/copy/pasting new items to the folder or by creating a new recipe in the cloud folder area. On both the desktop and mobile version the cloud folder is a separate selection to differentiate it from the locally stored “My Recipes” folder.

On the desktop you click on the large “Share” icon (looks like a large lock) from Cloud view to change the privacy settings for the selected recipe. On the mobile version, there is a selection on the menu that lets you alter privacy. On the mobile if you open a cloud recipe there is a “Sharing State” button just under the section with the recipe name that lets you adjust privacy.

Private: By default, anything you add to your cloud folder is marked as private which means that only people logged in with your cloud login can access them. They are not publicly listed or accessible unless you take action to share them. Private recipes can be reached from your other mobile or desktop devices, but only if you are logged into your account.

Shared: On both the mobile and desktop version there is a button that allows you to share a selected recipe. If you opt to share the recipe, it will now be accessible from both the BeerSmithRecipes.com search page as well as the cloud search functions within BeerSmith desktop and mobile. Shared recipes can be found and downloaded by any other BeerSmith user.

Unlisted: If you mark a recipe as “unlisted” it will not show up in general search results, but it can be accessed using the sharing ID shown. The idea behind an unlisted recipe is that you can give the sharing id to a friend so they can access the recipe without having it listed in search results for something you may not want shared with the whole world.

It is important to note that each recipe has its own privacy setting, so you can choose to either keep all your recipes private, or select just a few recipes to share or mark unlisted.

That is a quick overview of the recipe sharing options available in BeerSmith and the BeerSmith cloud. Thanks for joining me on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter or my podcast (also on itunes…and youtube…and streaming radio station) for more great tips on homebrewing.