Beersmith worth it?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Bowlegged

Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2013
Messages
19
Reaction score
0
Does anyone use the program Beersmith? I was just wondering if it was worth the cost or if there were cheaper (free) substitutes (besides calculating by hand). Thanks!
 
I use Beersmith. It gives you a lot of information and control over your recipe.

I started by using Beer Calculus on Hopville.com. It is simpler but you can make great beer using it. I would say that I got an intro with Beer Calculus then graduated to Beersmith
 
I have used Qbrew for the last year and just switched to BeerSmith over the last month. I like BS a lot better and it allows you to get as detailed as you like over control over the creation, inventory and process as you want or can handle.

Best investment yet IMO
 
Recipe formulation tells you if you are to style. Mash temp adjustments can be made on the fly. Temperature and volume calculations to hit strike temperature are nice. In short, I have been using it since I quit buying kits. It's a good tool.
 
It has made me a better brewer. More consistent. And my beer tastes better. Best $20 I ever spent on making brew.
 
I use brewers friend its free and it works well, I used to use hopville which is also free but when they switched over the program never worked right for me. Beersmith is a good program but it cost money.
 
400% WORTH IT!

Literally, I would have paid up to $100.00 and still been pretty happy, but I got it for $21.99!
 
It's worth every cent I paid for it and even more. If I had to buy it again for whatever reason, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Yes, it's worth it!
 
You can download the software and use the fully-functional software for 21 days, then make up your own mind whether it's worth it or not.

I use it, because it's easy and accurate. I also use it to keep track of what I've brewed, notes, there's a calendar, a brewtimer, etc.
 
+1BeerSmith, but like any tool you need the knowledge to make the best use of it. I looked at it when I first started brewing and it was over my head. Now, I use it for every brew. It is especially useful for formulating your own recipes.
 
I love it. Took 4 or 5 brews before I fully understood everything I needed to understand about the software, but it is well worth the money.
 
It's nice. I used BrewTarget for a while, then switched over. I have to say that Beersmith is somewhat more polished and has a wider feature set, but in terms of producing and tweaking recipes, you can do everything you need with BrewTarget just as well.

Both have some strange interface decisions; I'm somewhat disappointed with Beersmith in this regard. I am tolerant of this in free software, but I expected a bit more out of something commercial. It's not terrible or unusable, just odd. The thing that bugs me most about both is the insistence on using equipment, mash, and fermentation profiles defined separately from the recipe. Certainly it's good discipline, but I very often want to play around with these settings and it's unwieldy. Beersmith is somewhat better in this regard, I think.

I'd say it's worthwhile having and knowing how to use *some* software. Beersmith seems to be the most widely used, which is a benefit, but if you don't plan on developing a lot of your own recipes and you're financially constrained, the free options work just or nearly just as well.
 
I use beersmith and love it, the biggest problem is that my buddies are always asking me to enter their brews!
I started by using beer calculus on Hopville, it is a good start, but the beta program just wasn't working correctly, so I jumped to BeerSmith.
When I started using BeerSmith, my efficiency increased significantly!
 
I bought it a couple weeks ago when I wanted to start building my own water. It's absolutely awesome. There is a learning curve, but it's easily overcome.
 
Try it for free for the 21 day period and like the rest of us, you'll buy it!!! Great tool for brewing. :rockin:
 
Back
Top