I caved in and got BeerSmith...

I have been using ProMash but found it lacking in the area of grains and yeast and hops selection to make recipes....I felt I wasted money.

Did I waste more money? The free trial seems way better....

Someone please tell me I made the right decision in spending 21 bucks on another software....

While I would agree that Promash is dated you can add ingredients to the database as needed.

You didn't waste your money. Be sure to go to the web site and download all the files for the various grains from different manufacturers.

Well I loved the interface better than Promash. Easier and not as complex. I felt like I had a bazillion windows to open. On top of that I love the descriptions of the yeast strains etc it provides to help determine good quality.

I say you wasted your money. Why pay when you can use a free spreadsheet that does everything you need. Plus, you can update it at any time without waiting for anyone. But that's just me. I can't see spending $$ on stuff I can easily do for free.

jgourd said:

I say you wasted your money. Why pay when you can use a free spreadsheet that does everything you need. Plus, you can update it at any time without waiting for anyone. But that's just me. I can't see spending $$ on stuff I can easily do for free.

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Where is this free spreadsheet you speak of.

I've had Beersmith for a couple of years now. I use it for every recipe. Works great and is really easy. It takes me about 10 minutes to enter and dial-in a recipe for my AG process.

I've always been an open source, free software kind of guy. However, Beersmith is one of those things that's well worth it. You figure it's roughly the cost of 1 AG batch, but it'll make things so much easier for you.

I have all three f the big ones, BTP, Promash and Beersmith. I personally use BTP, but would rather have either of the other ones rather than my old spread sheet.
BTP is constantly being updated (for free) and includes practically every beer ingredient you can think of. you can always add ingredients to either free programs and spreadsheets, but the idea of me adding all the tedious things was ridiculous to me. I would much rather pay someone else to do that stuff while I brew beer.
truth is though, to each his own!

It was on sale last week 3Peg for 16 bucks, so you only wasted $5. You'll like Beer Smith more, once you get used to the interface.

Thanks for the input guys

klyph said:

Where is this free spreadsheet you speak of.

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I think there's a more recent version, but I'll dig it up later. For now, here is the spreadhseet I speak of. Note that it is for OpenOffice (an application like Excel that is FREE and open source).

jgourd said:

I think there's a more recent version, but I'll dig it up later. For now, here is the spreadhseet I speak of. Note that it is for OpenOffice (an application like Excel that is FREE and open source).

Click to expand...

You don't need OpenOffice. The spreadsheet works fine for me in Excel 2007.

It's a nice spreadsheet with a lot of good info, but I personally don't think it is the right tool for the job. A database driven system like any of the other software titles mentioned here is much more scalable when you have a ton of recipes. The spreadsheet method is more of a manual system.

For $20, BeerSmith is a great tool. The fact that you can try before you buy kind of negates any question of whether it was a wasted purchase.

I use Beersmith for all my recipes. I can't imagine creating a recipe without it. I've never tried the other ones, so I can't comment on them.

Beersmith does take a little getting used to. It's not intuitive to use sometimes.

jgourd said:

I say you wasted your money. Why pay when you can use a free spreadsheet that does everything you need. Plus, you can update it at any time without waiting for anyone. But that's just me. I can't see spending $$ on stuff I can easily do for free.

Click to expand...

Where is a spreadsheet that will let you calculate your strike temps while considering your specific equipement (ie plastic mash tun vs. metal)? come on man there isn't a spreadsheet out there that will do EVERYTHING beer smith will. It might do some of it, but not everything. To each there own, but I f'ing love beer smith. Best $20 dollars that I've spent on brewing, because it helps me use almost every other piece of equipment better or more consistently.

I have used beersmith for a couple years now and wouldn't want to brew without it

BeerSmith makes beer designing a lot of fun. Well worth the cost, imo.

At $20 it's really a no brainer. Probably the only piece of software which is actually worth paying for.

I think you ought to get BTP as well since "Aller guten dinge sind drei"

-a.

Curious... what makes you say that the free trial is better than the paid version? It's the same software, but only lets you use it for a month.

Greatest $20 dollars I ever spent. Almost 2 years of using beersmith. I'd make the purchase again in a heartbeat.


** Edit ** Greatest $20 dollars I ever spent .......................... on brewing related stuff lol