Is Beersmith the best software for custom recipes?

2010 was my first year brewing I started with partial mash recipes and ended the year with two AG recipes. I completed 9 5 gallon batches and all were clones of commercial beers.

I want to start making my own recipes now that I have converted to AG. I will buy a couple of books I have seen posted here. I think the one is Classic Beer Styles? Is beersmith the best way to get a novice on taking this next step?

I plan on brewing minimum of monthly if not a little more frequently.

Cheers
jlw

I use it all the time to modify recipes and really like its simplicity. IMHO I think it's the best sw out there.

Heh, I'm pretty much at the same point in brewing as you. I just brewed my 11th batch, 3rd all grain was just yesterday.

I just purchased Designing Great Beers for myself for christmas and really like it. It doesn't have actual recipes, but it gives a good average analysis of NHC winning beers for every style, with tons of tables and graphs. I thought about getting Brewing Classic Styles, but I've read most of the recipes in it are geared for extract batches.

Beersmith was one of the first brewing programs I used and just stuck with it. It makes figuring out gravity, ibu, color, etc a breeze.

Beersmith can be a bit clunky interface-wise, but after you're used to it, it makes entering recipes a breeze. It uses standard Beer XML http://www.beerxml.com/, so you can always import recipes and ingredients from other beer programs that use it, and vice versa.

Don't know if it's the best, but it certainly does the job at a low cost.

Love Promash, but never used beersmith. Anyone try both and have comments on one or the other?

I use beersmith and swear by it. Works great for me!

As for books, Brewing Classic Styles is straightforward recipes from Jamil Zaineshef (sp?) with good descriptions and tips on brewing the different styles.

I got Designing Great Beers for Christmas and look forward to reading through it.

+1 to Designing Great Beers (teaches you how to fish, Brewing Classic Styles gives you fish - although great tasting fish)

+1 to ProMash (unfortunately -1,000,000 for 80's interface and discontinued support, but it's still my baby)

I'm a BeerSmith fan. I tried a few trial versions of other softwares before I bought BeerSmith, but I can't remember the pros/cons. I am not disappointed with BeerSmith.

I will be brewing my 2nd AG batch in the next couple weeks, and after creating my own recipe, I used beersmith to make sure my numbers were all in the right range. It helped tons! I can't say its the 'best' as its all I've used, but im satisfied with it!!

Give BeerEngine a go.
Its very easy to use but make sure your EBC are correct and also yur IBU

I use BeerSmith and like it a lot. But there are tons of free online recipe calculators out there, and it pretty much just comes down to preference. Do a google search to try out a bunch of them and decide which one works best for you

if your on a PC from what I have heard it is the prefered software. However its not Mac compatible. on my Mac I am using Beer Alchemy, it is by far the best Mac native program I have tried (tried them all i think) and i strongly recomend it to any mac user

Beersmith is awesome software. If you want free almost as good software then look into brewtarget.

+ another for beer smith. I've never used any other software so I can't say "it's the best" but I've never had a reason to look into trying or getting a different brewing software.

Atvar said:

I thought about getting Brewing Classic Styles, but I've read most of the recipes in it are geared for extract batches.

Click to expand...

The recipes in BCS have both extract and AG instructions. It's a fantastic book.

I have beersmith and enjoy it a lot. It's not perfect but it's very good. Take some time to set up your equipment parameters. After that it does all the math for mash and sparge volumes, temps, etc... It also has several handy calculators for refractometers, attenuation, boil off, dilution, scaling, etc... I can't imagine brewing with out it.

I'm still pretty new to home brewing, and I've already picked up Beer Smith. I used the trial for a little while (almost two weeks) before just sucking it up and buying the license (which you can use on two systems)... I find that it's very helpful when you want to tweak the recipe to figure out the combination of ingredients, and your priming (once ready for bottling)... I also like that you can add your own grains (for those that are not actually in it) as well as change the hops profile (especially the AA%) when you've bought some in bulk.

Since going AG (yesterday was my first AG batch, which I know where things went sideways) I like how it also helps you to figure out the mash and sparge water temps and volumes.

Golddiggie said:

I also like that you can add your own grains (for those that are not actually in it)

Click to expand...

You can also download and install grain specs from the more popular malt manufactures like crisp, briess, cargil, weyermann, etc...

Too bad Beersmith and Promash can not be used on a Mac, unless you use the clunky interface.

Windows based systems just suck. Is there any good (advanced) beer calc out there that is Mac based?

I've been using Beersmith on Ubuntu Linux under Wine, and it's been working great. I love me some Beersmith!

Sparky said:

Too bad Beersmith and Promash can not be used on a Mac, unless you use the clunky interface.

Windows based systems just suck. Is there any good (advanced) beer calc out there that is Mac based?

Click to expand...

Why don't you look about 7 posts above yours? BeerAlchemy runs on a mac. Also, there is an iphone version as I recall.

weirdboy said:

BeerAlchemy runs on a mac. Also, there is an iphone version as I recall.

Click to expand...

Thanks, looks good.

I like brewpal on my iphone for it's simplicity. I find it faster to use than beersmith for most things.

Sparky said:

Is there any good (advanced) beer calc out there that is Mac based?

Click to expand...

You can try Beer Tools Pro, Beer Alchemy, or BrewTarget. All run natively on OS X. BrewTarget is free.

http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=1814.30

I love beersmith and think it's the bomb for developing recipes. Brad is also working on the Mac version for the soon to be released new version!!!

Sparky said:

Too bad Beersmith and Promash can not be used on a Mac, unless you use the clunky interface.

Windows based systems just suck. Is there any good (advanced) beer calc out there that is Mac based?

Click to expand...

Once you stop drinking the apple branded cool-aid, and wake up from the drugged state, you'll stop thinking that mac's are the best. It comes down to the right tools for the job. Put as simply as possible (for the mac fanatics out there) 90%+ of the world runs on the Windows based platforms. The balance is running Linux, or the mac OS.

I USED to think mac's were the best out there. Then I woke up to reality. I can do EVERYTHING that I used to do on a mac on my computer running Windwos (7) without any issue. In fact, faster, better, easier, and I can upgrade the hardware without paying out the whazoo.

I'm not saying that there's no place for the apple hardware, I just see it as a personal choice by the end user with apple hardware/software being no better than what's out there for the x86 platform.

Bottom line, since this thread was started about Beer Smith, NOT about things for the mac OS, we should stay on target.

I do like Beer Smith over any of the online/web based tools for several reasons. Not the least of which is that I can use Beer Smith no matter where I am, especially if I cannot get online. I've tried the web based on my BlackBerry Storm2, and those just suck... Too cludgy of an interface where it takes far longer to enter items than if I simply fired up my laptop and launched Beer Smith...

BeerSmith runs fine with CrossOver Office on Linux, and it also works okay with Wine. It occasionally randomly crashes, but it's not a big deal. I also can run it on CrossOver on OS X.

There, now I'm on topic...so I can say this:

Golddiggie said:

I'm not saying that there's no place for the apple hardware, I just see it as a personal choice by the end user with apple hardware/software being no better than what's out there for the x86 platform.

Click to expand...

Hardware-wise, most Apple stuff is a bit slower than the rest of the mass market, especially at the same $$$ level. But for me it comes down to user interface and user experience. And I have the best user experience with OS X, with a couple of the Linux desktops running a somewhat-close second.

I don't think the Windows UI is awful, it's just that for me, it's at the back of the pack of what is available. So I compromise and use an OS that I like to use, but that generally runs on hardware that costs more and opens up applications 4 or 5 seconds slower. To me, it's a good trade, but everyone has to make that decision for themselves.

Sparky said:

Too bad Beersmith and Promash can not be used on a Mac, unless you use the clunky interface.

Windows based systems just suck. Is there any good (advanced) beer calc out there that is Mac based?

Click to expand...

Beer Alchemy, as i mentioned in my previous post.

culturejam said:

BeerSmith runs fine with CrossOver Office on Linux, and it also works okay with Wine. It occasionally randomly crashes, but it's not a big deal. I also can run it on CrossOver on OS X.

There, now I'm on topic...so I can say this:


Hardware-wise, most Apple stuff is a bit slower than the rest of the mass market, especially at the same $$$ level. But for me it comes down to user interface and user experience. And I have the best user experience with OS X, with a couple of the Linux desktops running a somewhat-close second.

I don't think the Windows UI is awful, it's just that for me, it's at the back of the pack of what is available. So I compromise and use an OS that I like to use, but that generally runs on hardware that costs more and opens up applications 4 or 5 seconds slower. To me, it's a good trade, but everyone has to make that decision for themselves.

Click to expand...

true, the windows UI isnt awful, not now that they have made windows 7 a blatant carbon copy rip off of OSX. still, i will never buy a windows based computer. Have always been and will always be a Mac. end of story

92greenyj said:

true, the windows UI isnt awful, not now that they have made windows 7 a blatant carbon copy rip off of OSX. still, i will never buy a windows based computer. Have always been and will always be a Mac. end of story

Click to expand...

Then I feel for the pre-intel Macs you must have used, those power PC macs were just awful. I prefer not having my computer force me into using specific hardware just because Steve Jobs says they are the best, but thats just me.

That said, Beersmith for me, I dont even use Windows, but it runs great on my Linux Machines (Ubuntu) through Wine, slightly glitchy but will do everything it does when run under windows. I use Brewpal on my Ipod so thats as far as my Mac experience goes, but thats mainly just as a quick carb and alcohol calculator, nothing that you couldn't get online, I don't find it's interface very intuitive.

My friend has recently showed me IBrewmaster and from what I've seen, it's a very good substitute for Beersmith on Mac (Ipod/Itouch only) and if anything is easier on the eyes then the bare bones spreadsheetish interface of Beersmith, although as a computer engineer, I am right at home with that. If they had a desktop version, I'd have it running on my Mac-Mini and Ipod right now.

+1 for Beer Alchemy on the Mac and iPhone / iPad. Fantastic software.

I've also used iBrewmaster on my iPad but find it not as user friendly. It's not bad but Beer Alchemy is much better IMHO.

Cheers!
Kevin

Skinner said:

+1 for Beer Alchemy on the Mac and iPhone / iPad. Fantastic software.

Click to expand...

I don't care for how Beer Alchemy handles the mash. I feel like for any given recipe, I'm locked into a mash "preset", instead of tweaking the mash for each recipe. I tend to run with a similar mash schedule each time, but the temp and volume of each step differs from recipe to recipe. Beer Alchemy assumes that most infusions are with boiling water, which I do not like. Obviously, this makes the calculations easier if you always just go with 212F for infusion water, but I figure a computer can handle the "extra" work.

I wanted Beer Alchemy to be my #1 app, but because of the way the mash works, it's not ideal for me. I feel like I don't have as much control as with other apps. But this is very subjective, obviously.

Grizzlybrew said:

+1 to Designing Great Beers (teaches you how to fish, Brewing Classic Styles gives you fish - although great tasting fish)
)

Click to expand...

Perfect analogy!

Designing Great Beers is a must for anyone interested in AG. I used the formulas there to build my own custom excel based brewing spreadsheet. It calculates all my temps, volumes, etc. I also use it calculate grain weights for importing other receipes (very basic really). Still flying blind on exact IBU and color calculations, though so I should probably take the next step and look into Beersmith, etc.

Bottom line, this book will teaches you all the "why" stuff necessary for true learning. Really took the mystery our of AG for me.

culturejam said:

I don't care for how Beer Alchemy handles the mash. I feel like for any given recipe, I'm locked into a mash "preset", instead of tweaking the mash for each recipe. I tend to run with a similar mash schedule each time, but the temp and volume of each step differs from recipe to recipe. Beer Alchemy assumes that most infusions are with boiling water, which I do not like. Obviously, this makes the calculations easier if you always just go with 212F for infusion water, but I figure a computer can handle the "extra" work.

I wanted Beer Alchemy to be my #1 app, but because of the way the mash works, it's not ideal for me. I feel like I don't have as much control as with other apps. But this is very subjective, obviously.

Click to expand...

the mash schedule is really just a guide. I plug in my actual times and temps and volumes after the brew session is over to see how close i came to my target numbers.

92greenyj said:

the mash schedule is really just a guide. I plug in my actual times and temps and volumes after the brew session is over to see how close i came to my target numbers.

Click to expand...

It's always just a guide with any software since it's nearly impossible to hit everything 100%. I just would prefer to be able to have more control over the infusion parameters. Maybe I'm just not using it right, but I spent quite a few hours wrestling with it. I usually move on if something is that non-intuitive to me. But I paid for it, so I'll likely use it occasionally for reference or comparison.