BTP 1.5 Beta is out now.

I don't know if it's "okay" to post this but Beertoolspro released their 1.5 beta software today:

What Makes BeerTools Pro 1.5 So Different?
The BTP interface has been significantly modified from its original form in order to provide access to the more commonly used tools and features without leaving the main window. The user experience is more efficient and more intuitive. Some of the changes:

New toolbar with buttons for managing recipe files, folders, and printing
New assets library for storing recipes, ingredients, equipment and other items just a mouse-click away
Contents list for displaying the contents of assets folders
New info panel for immediate access to recipe and ingredient specifics including detailed descriptions and analysis data
Fully drag-n-drop capable for moving ingredients in and out of recipes

What Else Is Different?
The interface has experienced numerous other improvements that make working with BTP easier than ever. One example is how 1.5 handles units of measure. BTP 1.0 combined a text field and a popup menu to store a value and its corresponding unit of measure. This was a very flexible way to handle units, but 1.5 greatly improves on it by eliminating the units popup menu. How are units entered now? One way is to type the unit abbreviation after the value. If the abbreviation is omitted the current unit is used. Additionally, unit conversions can be done even easier now. Simply right-click on the value and a menu with list all of the possible conversions appears. Converting the value is just a matter of selecting from the list! To match the power of the new method of unit conversion, we have implemented a few more enhancements:

Values can be edited directly in the ingredient, equipment, and other lists
The graphs next to fermentables and hops can be dragged to change their respective ingredient proportions
Many items have been removed from the interface because their functionality was replaced and their presence cluttered the layout

What New Features Are Included?
Ever since the introduction of BeerTools Pro, we have maintained a punch list of items that have continued to remain on the drawing board. We are happy to announce that we haved knocked a few things off the list:

Recipe management within BeerTools Pro
Inventory tracking, comparison and recipe deduction
New dilution tool
Demo version licenses


I haven't played around with it yet but it looks promising.

I'll probably download it later today and play around with it.

I'll be downloading it tonight...haven't participated in the forum with the requests/enhancement suggestions or anything but I am going to run the beta.

Edit: BTW, I think you have to be a member of the beta forum to download the release in beta....

I'm looking at making the jump to AG this summer and have been playing with Beersmith because of the inventory feature. Anyone have a review of BTP 1.5 inventory structure and the transition to shopping lists?

I'm having fun messing with the hops that I have and making different recipes based on what I have on hand.

I can't say much about it yet. I played with it for about five minutes yesterday.

The inventory feature made it but there's something inherently wrong with it if you like to plan out multiple batches ahead of time before you brew any of them.

Think of it this way;

1. You populate all your supplies into the inventory list along with quanitities (BTP1.5 does this fine).

2. You craft a recipe. Maybe some items are in stock, others are not, either way. Also covered in 1.5.

3. You MIGHT craft another recipe to pull from stock.

Now, the issue I have comes in knowing which ingredients are already commited to a given recipe. The way it's built now, you open a recipe, go into the inventory/shopping list window and you can see how that recipe is affect the inventory. Ok, so now if you want to commit to brewing that recipe, you click "deduct from inventory". The problem is, this is irreversible. If you actually decide to nix this recipe indefinitely, the items don't go back into inventory. There's also no way to keep track of which recipes have been committed to the inventory (or I should say vice versa as well). It would be nice to be able to go into inventory and see how a given stock may already be divied up to various ON-DECK recipes. It's key to be able to uncommit items.

Am I being a little b!tch about this feature or does this make sense? I don't know how beersmith resolves this, if at all.

You can also sit in that inventory window and continue clicking "deduct from inventory" until you're empty.

Bobby_M said:

Am I being a little b!tch about this feature or does this make sense? I don't know how beersmith resolves this, if at all.

You can also sit in that inventory window and continue clicking "deduct from inventory" until you're empty.

Click to expand...

From what little I've played with Beersmith, it seems to do the same thing with "deduct from inventory" when building out planned beers.

Excuse me while I go re-add most of my inventory.

Maybe I'm just an EAC that expects brewing software to be intuitive and flexible. I guess homebrewers are supposed to plan a recipe, brew it, then plan another one and brew it...etc.

Alright, I'll explain myself better and add more of an overall review while I'm at it otherwise I'll just seem to be complaining for the hell of it. Sorry for the big pictures but you'll see more detail this way. Some of the major improvements were the recipe browser on top and also the ability to adust ingredients and times with up/down arrows right in the ingredients list.

First, here's the new main window layout:



Now we see the new inventory/shopping list window here which is accessed up in the menu labeled "recipe". You can see the deduct button I'm talking about. This just kills the inventory in whatever increment is displayed as part of the recipe. Notice the 1st and 4th ingredient is NOT in stock and it tells me to buy it.



Next we see the schedule window which is where you set your brewing process up; i.e. the infusions, transfer, heating, etc. I haven't messed around with the heating portion yet but it's critical to use this for all grain.

The first comment I have on this is that it would be nice to be able to view this info as a pane on the main window without having to use a drop down to switch. You can see with my resolution, I have plenty of room for it. That said, I do like the ability to adjust volumes and temps right in the window. If you look at the 4th pic, you can see what happens when you double click on any of the steps; you get a details window. I set my batch infusion temps in there and then later tweaked them higher in the main window. It's nice.

Oh, when you got to file-->print, here's what comes out:

I said it before, I will say it again, I think I am buying this software. Thanks for the overview Bobby

Sounds like what you're after is inventory allocation. You can flag X amount as being reserved and unavailable, it's still in inventory but the usable qty on hand drops by that amount unless you free the allocation.

I built that into the brewing software I was working on for something to do because I wanted it and I've not seen it in any other software. It's not surprising it would be left out of homebrew software, I imagine the majority are in the 'what can I brew now with what I have' or 'what do I need to buy to brew this' categories.

I don't think it's unreasonable to have at least two recipes on deck and not having a way to keep your inventory straight kinda sucks.

I totally agree with you, that's why I put it into my software. It's just tougher to keep track of in the program so I can understand why they don't include it when maybe 1/10 people would use it.

Just to harp on this flaw (IMHO), I wonder when others will decide NOW is the time to deduct from inventory. Would you do it on brewday after you start milling or ????? If you do it too far in advance, you might forget if you did it.. then you might deduct twice. Even something simple like an indicator on the recipe that says, you've already hit the deduct button on this one pal.... that would work.

I deduct at the end of brewday myself. Promash disables the finalize inventory button after you've pushed it so you can't do it twice. The only annoying part of that is dry hopping. It deducts the dry hops at the same time even though they're still in inventory.

I either go back into the inventory and add the dry hops back in (which requires removing them again later after dry hopping) or I just pull them out into a separate freezer bag until use (basically allocating them).

I like the idea of inventory allocation. I have both BTP and ProMash, but use Promash almost exclusively. I have all of my invertory all ready entered into it and I will deduct everything from inventory on brew day once I start a new session. I'll usually plan out two or three brews in advance and have to start a new session, then go to analyze inventory to see what I have in stock, then cancel the session if I need to go shopping. Not the easiest way to figure things out.

I'll have to play around with the new BTP to see if it is worth making the switch. Is there a way to enter item cost into the inventory so it will cost out recipes? Would also be nice to tell how much money you have tied up in inventory.

Just an FYI:
Lathe poland has a logon here, although he seldomly does so.
It might be worth it to try to get him involved in the discussion.

Obviously it's late in the game for this change to be made soon, but maybe it could be put in the pipeline.

I imagine the orginal requirement was to have "inventory management" and nothing more really defined, so I can see how something like this might just get punched out.

Good points all.

I see what you are saying Bobby, and I'd definately bring it up to the designers.

olllllo said:

Just an FYI:
Lathe poland has a logon here, although he seldomly does so.
It might be worth it to try to get him involved in the discussion.

Obviously it's late in the game for this change to be made soon, but maybe it could be put in the pipeline.

I imagine the orginal requirement was to have "inventory management" and nothing more really defined, so I can see how something like this might just get punched out.

Good points all.

Click to expand...

There is a forum over on their site (where this info is also posted by Bobby) specifically to discuss the beta version where Lathe is actively participating...though he has not posted in Bobby's thread.

I agree with Bobby...and just so you have some support over there, I will post my thoughts in the Beta forum.

That's even better.

So, is this version, when out of beta, going to be free to those that have the oriinal version?

Yeah, I didn't mean to leave that detail out. I'm actively persuing it over there.

rdwj said:

So, is this version, when out of beta, going to be free to those that have the oriinal version?

Click to expand...

"All current BeerTools Pro customers receive a free upgrade to BeerTools Pro version 1.5. "

Sounds cool.

Bobby,

Things are a little crazy at BeerTools right now, but we hear ya. We have sketched out some ideas to take inventory to the next level (and them some). Some of this touches on features planned for BTP 2.0 and 2.5. However, we will try to work the fundamentals in to this release.

Thanks for all of the hard work our beta testers are putting in...and PLEASE keep it up! BTP 1.5 will be our biggest release, so we need it to be rock solid.

Lathe
BeerTools

I know it must be crazy with a release. You just get a taste of a feature you've been waiting for and want it to be fully functioning from day one. It's certainly better than nothing at this point.

BeerTools Pro said:

Bobby,

Things are a little crazy at BeerTools right now, but we hear ya. We have sketched out some ideas to take inventory to the next level (and them some). Some of this touches on features planned for BTP 2.0 and 2.5. However, we will try to work the fundamentals in to this release.

Thanks for all of the hard work our beta testers are putting in...and PLEASE keep it up! BTP 1.5 will be our biggest release, so we need it to be rock solid.

Lathe
BeerTools

Click to expand...

any idea of when the demo will come out? i'd really like to purchase a brewing application but i can't justify it until i try your software as up till now all i have used is brew smith.

That is the question we are asked most often. Much depends on what the testers dig up. We are anxious to get it out there, and cautious about launching before it's been fully vetted. People have been asking us to release a demo for a long time so we want it to be a well tested app. We really appreciate your interest...

As was mentioned BTP 1.5 will be a free upgrade for all current owners.

Lathe
BeerTools

scottfro said:

any idea of when the demo will come out? i'd really like to purchase a brewing application but i can't justify it until i try your software as up till now all i have used is brew smith.

Click to expand...

As many little nit picks I have with it, it's as good if not better than the other packages available. Beersmith has a few more presets so it's more intuitive for the beginner, but there are enough folks using BTP now that they can help you figure things out. I'd go for it.

Bobby_M said:

As many little nit picks I have with it, it's as good if not better than the other packages available. Beersmith has a few more presets so it's more intuitive for the beginner, but there are enough folks using BTP now that they can help you figure things out. I'd go for it.

Click to expand...

I'm gonna have to agree with Bobby. It's certainly a very solid beta, other than that folder problem we discussed in the bugs problem (now solved in 1.5.2).

Other than that, I'd like to see the inventory recognize hops by type, not by type AND alpha acid. I mean, sure, it's nice to know if I have some 5.0% cascades when the recipe calls for and ounce them, but it would be better if it would point out if I had some 6.0% cascades, and better yet if it told me I only needed 0.8oz.

Keep up the good work, Lathe.

I totally agree that it is really solid for a beta version.

It's nice to see someone really listen to what the user community wants out of the product and really work with trying to create that elusive "best" take on the features requested! Jeff and Lathe's participation with the user base and the upgrade path were two factors when I made the decision to purchase BTP.

so do registered users get updates for free for life?

We hope to be adding features to BTP for a very long time. We wish we were at the version 10 feature set..but we are a little company in which we all have day jobs.

So...1.5 is a free upgrade...as for free upgrades for life...hard to say...how long do you plan on living? :cross:

Thanks gang...keep up the good work!

Lathe
BeerTools

I really, really wish that you guys would offer a short free trial, a la BeerSmith and ProMash. I'd consider moving over from BeerSmith, but it's hard to say whether I'll like it better or not just looking at a few screenshots.

Bird,

That's what this is all about. 1.5 brings with it a demo.

Lathe
BeerTools

Ah, sweetness. I'll definately check it out.

the_bird said:

Ah, sweetness. I'll definately check it out.

Click to expand...

Same, I was going to pull the trigger on Beersmith today, but now I will have to hold off until I can try out BTP.

As someone who has used beersmith and BTP, I can honestly say there are pros and cons to each. Beersmith is a little more developed as its been around longer but BTP is a little more pretty and flexible. There's no way you'll be able to appreciate which one is better without using them for a couple batches. This is even more true if you're used to one and try an alternate. You'll hate the new one.

Whats the latest?

B