BeerSmith - BeerTools - Promash. - Which is best? What do you have? - Page 9

**Bobby_M** · 11-05-2009, 04:24 AM

The online tools are cute, but for $25 you can have something portable that saves all your recipes for the long haul.

HalfPint · 11-05-2009, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alcibiades

Am I the only idiot who uses free online tools?

I regularly use beer recipator, and brewcalcs for my water. They work fine.

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator

http://www.brewcalcs.com/

I agree that they do work, but sometimes you have to play with them a few times until you can get your water dialed in properly. See, I have never used programs. I've always typically done 1.25 quats/lb for my mash and sparged until I made my way up to 6.5 gallons (for a 60 minute boil) or 7 gallons (for a 90 min boil). Lately I've been lazy and have started just eyeing it. That's where I've run into problems! Last night I brewed a 1.045 APA after a 100 minute boil b/c I added way too much sparge water.

I really want to use these programs, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to calculate how much water to use for my batch sparge with beersmith.

Can anyone help me out?

FREDBPIES · 11-12-2009, 11:00 AM

iI BOUGHT PROMASH ON LINE - ONLY GOT THE HELP SECTION BEEN TRYING TO REACH SAUALITO BY PHONE/ON LINE FOR A YEAR!!! WILL NOT ANSWER ME THINK I'LL SWITCH TO BEERSMITH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FRED(H.M.F.I.C.) -BATBOY BREWERY CINCINNATI OH HAIL LARRY!2010

Azharen · 11-21-2009, 12:53 AM

U've never brought me any beer from Ur stash dude. I'm upset. *SNIFF*

v2comp · 12-03-2009, 10:58 PM

after trying all three of the most common ones, I settled on BTP for a few reasons. believe it or not, I picked it because it was the most difficult to set up. after years of being an almost non stop comp. geek, I fell in love with its functionality and support from the developers. after tweaking it over several brews, I now have something that I have the utmost confidence in and feel I can trust its numbers completely.

**StunnedMonkey** · 12-06-2009, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazytwoknobs

Yeah, what's the story on that? Is version 2 not coming out ever?

Well, since it was last updated in March 2003 (coming up now on 7 years ago) I think it's safe to say that there isn't going to be a version 2. Too bad, since there's a lot of geeky things to like about promash. But its interface and organization is ridiculous compared to BS and BTP.

I actually own all three, and have been using BTP. For kicks I reloaded the other two this weekend to revisit them and see if maybe there are some elements I'd missed before that perhaps I'd utilize more now, but I'm not seeing any reason to switch from BTP. I'm not sure why BS seems to be the most popular.

Crazytwoknobs · 12-06-2009, 07:43 PM

I checked the forum on the promash site after my last post, and the reason that version 2 won't be coming out is that the wife of the main guy behind promash had some situation wherein the guy had to stop working on promash. I don't remember if she became debilitated or died or what, but don't expect another version unless the company gets bought out.

junkyard brewer · 12-11-2009, 01:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orfy

Trying to get a view to allow brews trying to make a decision of which of the big three is right for them. (If any)

What do you like about the program you use?
What is it missing?
What does it do really well?
Why did you go for the one you did?

I know we did one previously but there have been major updates.

Promash:
1. its fairly simple to use
2. updates.
3. easy to use, easy to build recipes
4. I didnt reasearch anything else

bottom line, I hate promash. Why I still use it, I dont know. Its crappy, it lacks updates, and I feel almost as if I were robbed. I didn't research like I should have. PM is so old, and outdated I almost feel as though it should be "freeware". Beer Smith offers so much more for less money IMO. I had issues with getting my "license" from PM and it took almost a week to get it. The gentleman from PM claimed to had sent it via...-I use gmail and carry a blackberry...never once have I ever "missed" or not gotten a email. I also had to call him out on the PM forum to get it...as he wasn't responding to emails.

Stay away from promash.

Crazy, the guy needs to pass the torch onto someone else.

Crazytwoknobs · 12-11-2009, 02:33 AM

I purchased beersmith recently, and haven't used it yet for a brewday. But having just messed around with it a bit, it *feels* old. The icons are ancient, the text is ugly.... I don't know, at least it was cheap.

junkyard brewer · 12-11-2009, 09:39 AM

it was cheap and is updated.