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

Shults said:

I brew 380 liters on my system. Does Beersmith support the conversions to any size batch?

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Yes - we have a lot of pro-brewers using BeerSmith now. You need to create an equipment profile for your pilot system and another for your full size system and then you can use the scale command to scale between them.

The other major factor is the "hop utilization factor" which is normally 100% but may run higher for micro breweries over 20 gallons (set in your equipment profile). Send me an email if needed and I can send you more details.

Brad

DeNovo said:

So, has anyone run BeerTools Pro under Mac OS 10.8 yet? How about a report?

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Nobody?

I've been getting my feet wet for a few weeks now with Beersmith 2. I've been pretty happy with it although I think I'm probably using all of 10% of the available features!

One thing that annoys me is that the default unit for all grains is pounds. If I use three ounces of something I need to mess with the numbers to get it right.

But I like it enough to plan to give it as a gift. Just gotta figure out how to package it...

You can change the defaults, but it would be nicer IMHO if there were a pounds and ounces setting instead of just pounds or just ounces.

Till then if you get a digital scale and set it to just pounds you can measure out that .625 lbs.

Might try entering ounce values in the entry field. For 3 ounces, try 3 oz I think Beersmith will automatically convert it or accept it, depending on your view.

I just learned a few days ago via the help file that Beersmith does this automatic conversion when researching Birx to Specific Gravity.

Yes it does do some auto conversions, but that isn't what I was talking about.

If you need a pound and two onces of grain BS shows this as either 1.125 lb. OR 18 oz. It would be nice to be able to see it as 1 lb. 2 oz. and that is not an option.

It doesn't make a huge diference to me now because my scale can switch to fractional pounds but I used to have a scale that only read pounds and ounces and it was a bit of a pain.

Actually the current version of BeerSmith will display grain weights in lbs-oz. It should be set on by default but the option is under Options->Units near the bottom as "Show English Weights as lbs/oz". I've also added lbs-oz on the latest version of the mobile BeerSmith Lite app under Options->UNits.

Brad

Ah yes but if you double click on an item to change the quantity you get decimal pounds.

Sorry about my mix up, or maybe I was just remembering an older version. You do display Lb + Oz in the recipe display, if you want to adjust the amount it shows as decimal pounds. Again not a big deal, but not consistant.

DeNovo said:

Nobody?

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Yes! Using it on Mountain Lion right now. I lost all my profiles and recipes in the upgrade so backup before your go from Lion to Mountain Lion. I also needed to re-authenticate my license for some reason. Regardless, it works fine on 10.8.

Cheers,

MD

While I'm new, I vote for Beersmith. I like that you can adjust for water, equipment, and the tools for adjusting recipes is great. having links to recipes that you wouldn't see otherwise is a great feature. The ongoing podcasts are good for added information onhow to grow in homebrewing.

Just purchased Beersmith... Been a Promash user since the mid 1990's. Didn't want to miss out on the Memorial Day pricing..

I just loaded beersmith on my iPhone looks like it will work well.

I apologize - the loading mash issue (which is intermittent) was found on the Android version a few days ago and I published updates for both versions. Unfortunately the Apple store typically takes 4-8 days to approve updates, so it will be a few days before the fix is posted there.

If you have additional issues please PM or email me at my beersmith at the beersmith.com domain.

Brad

Thanks for the response. Your advise helped and I loaded everything on it and it looks like it will help out with my brew day a lot! Thanks again.

mwdoher said:

Yes! Using it on Mountain Lion right now. I lost all my profiles and recipes in the upgrade so backup before your go from Lion to Mountain Lion. I also needed to re-authenticate my license for some reason. Regardless, it works fine on 10.8.

Cheers,

MD

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Just upgraded last week; I did have to re-authorize with my license key, but none of my files or profiles were lost.

BeerSmith can be picky, but if you take the time and get your numbers dialed in, its an excellent resource.

I would say that's the same with Beer Tools Pro; you can use either app as a simple recipe database, but the real power comes in when you calibrate all of your equipment and dial in your process; then you not only can create recipes with appropriate targets, or adapt other recipes to your system, but also hit all of those targets on brewday, repeatably. Once I took the time to calibrate all of my vessels and heat sources in BTP I hit every number every time. Everything is very predictable, and repeatable. I hate when I see folks complain about spending $30 on a brewing app, they are so useful and powerful, IMO they'd be worth double or triple the price, easily.

Brewer's Friend is nice.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/

I have the new beertools and Beersmith. Neither one of them seem to have every ingredient I want to add to recipes. Good luck finding something simple like munich liquid malt extract in either of them. I just upgraded to the newest Beertools and can't even figure out where the heck the ingredient database is. The left side of screen on the software is blank for me. I emailed 3 days ago and have had no reply. They could all be better in my opinion.

I bought beersmith after trialing both. It seemed to be the least annoying in some ways. What is most annoying, and easily fixed is how it adds ingredients and puts them in order. Why is there no button to move an ingredient order up or down.

Also, it's too bad you can't make up an ingredient to add. There are no fruit purees to add. There are yeasts and ingredients missing. I don't think I saw a single yeast from East Cost there. It's really annoying that you have to add crap into the notes to have an accurate recipe and god forbid you add an ingredient that is near it as a placekeeper, just to overlook it in the notes...

Considering it was just updated, and there have been thousands of copies sold, I really don't understand why it's missing yeasts and why there are no purees.. Even if it doesn't calculate the purees as fermentables..

And yes, it does seem like pretty old school windows tech, but it seemed more powerful than BeerTools and it seemed to be more widely used, and not just on here.

You can change the sort order of ingredients by clicking on the various headers for the ingredients list. Also you can grab a ton of ingredients including the latest yeasts and hops by clicking on the "add-on" button and adding new packs from there. It is very easy to do.

Brad

Thanks, the add ons are nice I'm glad you mentioned them. I've been clicking on the columns to get it in the order I want, but it doesn't always work out nicely. For this recipe, the 3 lbs of apricot should come after all the other ingredients but clicking the columns doesn't do it.

It's better than what else is out there.

If you enter them in order you can do it in the # column. I had it entered wrong.... lol.. I see this is your program. I must say, I like it even better now.. You were all over that!

Beer tools pro is amazing and always spot on with temps, timing, and o.g. with all three setups I've had over the past 6 years. Just calibrate your equipment and you're good to go.

Hi,I am Rodolfo from Italy,and I tested Ibrewmaster with good results and I think it should be like beersmith but newer. An interesting feature is:
You choose the style of your recipe and it offers the values ​​Ibu,% vol, EBU range and you can vary the recipe ingredients to enter in the style...if you like.


Inviato dal mio iPad utilizzando Home Brew

I would like to add that my experience on Ibrewmaster software is using braumeister speidel 20 equipment.


Inviato dal mio iPad utilizzando Home Brew

I wish any of these would work with Windows 8 on my Surface 2. I've emailed Brad Smith, he claims he'll eventually get an app for the Surface but did not give me a timeline.

I have also beersmith and promash and I did a comparison using my braumeister equipment the result was that Ibrewmaster and the second was beersmith. This is my opinion based on features user friendly and equipement. I have both on my ipad and promash on pc . I think the whole software strictly dependent on the ease of the user is able to do better the setup without having superlative notion...personal opinion.


Inviato dal mio iPad utilizzando Home Brew

steinsato said:

I wish any of these would work with Windows 8 on my Surface 2. I've emailed Brad Smith, he claims he'll eventually get an app for the Surface but did not give me a timeline.

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If your Surface has Windows 8 then why can't you install (and use) beersmith? I know I've installed BeerSmith on Windows 8 without any troubles. Is there something different about the Surface device? Or, are you by chance using Windows RT?

I guess it's RT. I've tried my full version and it didn't work.
Does RT stand for "Really Terrible"?

steinsato said:

I guess it's RT. I've tried my full version and it didn't work.
Does RT stand for "Really Terrible"?

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IT guy checking in, quote is pretty much accurate. Surface 2 runs on Windows RT, while the Surface Pro 2 uses Windows 8. Without getting too technical, they look identical but they're very different under the hood. Regular Windows applications such as Beersmith have to be modified to work on RT.

Warning: Brew software rant coming...

I had BTP for years. I hate this software. The UI is terrible and relies too heavily on mousing. But it was the first one I bought when I started brewing, so I stayed against my will due to the hassle of switching. BeerXML? Standard? Yeah, right. Anyone ever have success migrating libraries from one SW vendor to another. Laughable...

Spent an hour trying to get Beersmith working doing the trial. Tabs, icons, frames, my mind is spinning! Ok, marginally better. But clearly waaaaayy too much going on here. Poor distinction between the two mobile apps. If one is 'lite' why isn't it free? I'm not paying $8 to try it out. Why should I buy either one? Busiest UI and may also be able to operate the mars lander. But hey, at least he predicted that mobile phones weren't a fad. The guy at BTP ignored this for years, then made a half hearted attempt. Smartphones...yeah they'll be around for a while.

Ay caramba, all this **** looks like it was built in a committee at the UN. Horrible. I am using paper, f--- this crap. Thanks for the wasted sunday morning.

What am I missing? Jesus Harrison Christ...I just want a clean UI for Windows that seamlessly integrates with a mobile app (Droid) and lets me update recipes in both both places.

Also, would a proper doc set be too much to ask?

I am not a software designer, but know a good UI when I see it--and BTP and BS are total hassle.

Rant off.

Is there a way to like that post from the mobile app, because I couldn't have ranted it better myself! I just said forget all the busyness and stripped down to Brewtoad.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

To each their own... I rather enjoy the complexity that BTP offers in terms of not just a recipe database but calibration of my entire system and brewday, and I find the UI to be just fine for its intended purpose. (No real experience with BS, but IMO it looks like they patterned a lot of it after BTP.)

If all you're looking for in a brewing app is a recipe database then both of these are way more than you need and I can see how all the extra stuff would get in the way.

This thread is a 7 year history of brewing software. If someone really cares they should start a new poll, I voted again, but I feel like I've voted in this poll 3 times now over the last 4 years and all three votes were for BeerSmith.

Anyone know of a decent brew software for Microsoft Surface? I have BTP and BS on my laptop and desktop but the surface is my preferred PC at the moment. I've emailed BS numerous times and it honestly doesn't sound like he's going to get around to making an app for it anytime soon.

The Surface doesn't need to run BeerSmith as an app. I installed and run it just like on my desktop.

CA_Mouse said:

The Surface doesn't need to run BeerSmith as an app. I installed and run it just like on my desktop.

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You must be using surface pro. I can't do that on my surface 2.

Brewers Friend - web based so no software to download. And it rocks. Easy to use, great calculations, nice user interface, all good...

Heineken said:

Brewers Friend - web based so no software to download. And it rocks. Easy to use, great calculations, nice user interface, all good...

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... until you're without internet service.

I'll take BS instead.