BeerSmith 2.0

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Shaneoco1981

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So, I just got an email regarding BeerSmith 2.0, saying it's going to be a new program, not an upgrade. If that is the case, will I have to buy it again? I just bought 1.4 about a month ago and I really don't want to buy it again. Any thoughts?
 
I'd try emailing the author to see if there's something they can do for you since you just recently purchased the program. Many will take that into consideration and work something out for you.
 
According to the author, major releases are not subject to discount.

Did your email say anything regarding when v2.0 will be available?


Edit: Nevermind. Blog says June before AHA Conference.
 
Also, I found this comment from the author on the Beersmith blog page:

Brad Smith May 2, 2011 at 7:17 pm

I’m planning to offer some kind of plan to make it relatively painless for those who recently purchased to get the new version – much like Microsoft does.

Brad
 
This is a quote from the comments on BeerSmith's Blog:

Brad Smith May 2, 2011 at 7:17 pm

I’m planning to offer some kind of plan to make it relatively painless for those who recently purchased to get the new version – much like Microsoft does.

Brad

Edit: Nice one, Seven...
 
Just chiming in, I'm one of the Beta-Testers and can say that the new version is FANTASTIC! There are some great new features and lots of improvements over v1.4.
 
Really looking forward to this release. The tabbed browsing will be nice.

I bought my copy a few months ago...BS has been a huge help to me!
 
Wonder what it's going to cost, not like it matters, he has me by the balls anyway. The grain by percentage looks sweet.

_
 
Awesome, I heard there was going to be a major upgrade soon... entire new release it's seeming now!

I'll almost certainly be picking this up!


EDIT: Tabbed browsing sounds great.
 
wyazz, suggest a "no sparge" mash profile, with adjustments possible for grain absorption worked into it!
Yes, I'd also like to see a no-sparge profile - though I've read different descriptions of no-sparge. When I think of no-sparge, its along the lines of mashing-in with a 'regular' water/grist ratio, draining first high gravity runnings only and adding water in the kettle to reach the target pre-boil volume. I understand that others describe no-sparge as adding all of the sparge water to the mash (much higher water/grist ratio, like BIAB). Maybe a BIAB profile & a no-sparge profile in a future release?
 
Wyazz, I was speaking for a full volume "no sparge" profile:

"As described by John Palmer in his BYO article “Skip the Sparge” (May-June 2003), a no sparge brew has the entire volume of “sparge” water added to the mash and stirred in before any runoff has taken place. Even though additional water has been added, since it’s been added to the mash before runoff has begun, we can more properly think of it as a mash infusion, rather than a sparge addition...hence the name “no-sparge”. "

http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/
 
Wyazz, I thought of one other thing; in the equipment listing, the boil-off should be a constant instead of an percentage staying the same regardless of batch size!
 
I haven't seen anything yet that would necessitate spending money for this upgrade. Yeah 1.4 has some quirks but nothing that can't be worked around. Tell me something that 2.0 will do that you can't do with 1.4. Tabbed browsing is cool but for $20.00 I will just use the back arrow.
 
Wyazz, I thought of one other thing; in the equipment listing, the boil-off should be a constant instead of an percentage staying the same regardless of batch size!

Yes. Should be a volume per hour instead of percentage per hour. And, if anyone is smart enough to integrate a RH with Surface area algorithm based on equipment profile and with selections for wind (fan) and no wind for estimated boil off that would be swell.
 
Looking forward to the tabbed and windowed browsing. Now I don't have to close the recipe and re-open it when I'm converting my readings from the refractometer. Seems like a lot of new features, should be great!
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
Yes. Should be a volume per hour instead of percentage per hour. And, if anyone is smart enough to integrate a RH with Surface area algorithm based on equipment profile and with selections for wind (fan) and no wind for estimated boil off that would be swell.

I was thinking the same thing too earlier this week.

One thing I was doing with Beersmith (the 1.4 trial, as I knew 2.0 was coming soon) was setting up a recipe for a lambic, and immediately it was clear that setting up the mash schedule for a turbid mash is impossible. That would be a neat feature, even if one that most people might never use. I am probably doing a 4-hour boil with the lambic, and wanted to see what kind of volumes I needed - in particular, if my kettle is large enough to hold the amount of wort necessary to produce a 5gal batch after such a long boil.

It didn't matter though, because I realized that using any mash schedule to work out the pre-boil volume. But the problem with measuring boil-off as a percentage quickly presented a serious flaw - it implies that boiling 10gal down to 5gal takes just as long as boiling a tablespoon down to 0.5tbsp, which is just absurd. I know that it's an extreme example, but if the total boil-off volume seems to be pretty accurate for your standard 60- or 90-minute boil-length and whatever batch size, then the more you change one of those variables, the further off the calculation will be from reality.

For instance, I brewed a Berliner Weisse a few months ago, and the boil volume of 15min represented a difference of 4-fold from a standard 60min boil - same as with my lambic, just in the opposite direction. The main difference is that with the Berliner Weisse, it should end up choosing TOO LOW a starting volume, but that can easily be fixed with a post-boil top-up. The 4-hour boil calculates out to over a gallon more than is actually needed, which can be fixed, I suppose, by boiling it longer, which isn't too serious since lambic only gets a bittering charge (with aged, virtually 0%AA hops at that), but that's a waste of time. Two more beers I have planned though with long boils, a Bière de Garde (3 hours) and a Saison (2 hours), with both also having very time-sensitive hop charges in addition to the bittering (30min, as well as 15 min+ 5min charges, respectively). Obviously if I were to just lengthen boil times to reach the correct volumes, they'd all become useless bittering additions.

So it's a pretty substantial flaw. Sure, more-accurate measures can be done in a manual fashion, but just about everything in Beersmith can, so that's a bit besides the point! Especially when you consider those that might not realize the ridiculousness of measuring boil-off by %.
 
I like the recipe by percentages feature. And it looks like it has something that a ton of folks come on here asking for- The ability to type in a few ingredients and have it suggest a style. Not something I've seen the need for- I usually know what I want to brew and then create the recipe, but it seems a lot of folks on here want it.
 
I like the recipe by percentages feature. And it looks like it has something that a ton of folks come on here asking for- The ability to type in a few ingredients and have it suggest a style. Not something I've seen the need for- I usually know what I want to brew and then create the recipe, but it seems a lot of folks on here want it.

BeerSmith has, for as long as I have owned it, always been able to reccommend a recipe based on Inventory. Problem is, 1. You have to have an updated inventory, and 2. You have to have multiple recipes in your collection.

For a noob with time on their hands to play with, it would be easy enough to take a recipe book and start plugging things in for style proven recipes.

But, the final flaw is that the way to search the DB with filters applied for Inventory items is not well known or even discussed in the manual. So everyone assumes it doesn't exist or, they don;t have enough plugged into their recipe DB for it to be worth while.
 
You know what would be REALLY nice?

If HBT could incorporate BeerXML files into the allowable attachments. Then we could simply pluck the files from the recipe area and import it into our Brewing Softwares.
 
BeerSmith has, for as long as I have owned it, always been able to reccommend a recipe based on Inventory. Problem is, 1. You have to have an updated inventory, and 2. You have to have multiple recipes in your collection.

All the years I've used it, I've never seen that feature, what button? I'm like you I never update my inventories anyway.
 
Easily added to the default lists by an Add-Ons option in the menu. Recipe packs, Different Maltsters, etc...
That sounds great. Are they going to have Great Western, Simpsons, Gambrinus, Bairds and other maltsters that they currently don't have libraries for? I would really like to record the specific maltsters malt that I use, so that later I can look back and remember what I liked and what I didn't.
 
That sounds great. Are they going to have Great Western, Simpsons, Gambrinus, Bairds and other maltsters that they currently don't have libraries for? I would really like to record the specific maltsters malt that I use, so that later I can look back and remember what I liked and what I didn't.

It's my understanding that these will continue to be developed and will be able to be added by the community. Also if you're a current user and have specific grains that you've added to BeerSmith 1.x you can export/import them.
 
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