For people who have BeerSmith Software-Is it worth it?

For people who have BeerSmith Software-Is it worth it? I'm going to be switching around between partial mash and AG and have been contemplating purchasing this software. Also, does it convert extract into all grain? Thanks!

Yes.

If you're on the fence try the free trial first.

But yes.

They have some automatic options to convert between extract, partial mash and all grain, but I prefer to do it manually within the software. I get better results that way. The software itself is definitely worth it though!

Yes, it's worth it. I use it and really like it. Tried all the others, but decided on BeerSmith. Yes, it will convert extract to AG. Get the free trial and check it out.

Edit: Damn! You guys are fast!

I love it. It is the only small software I've ever actually purchased.

I have only used Beer Smith so I can't compare it to any thing else. I do like it a lot and think it is worth the $$.

Like jmkratt said. If your not sure give the free trail a spin. That is what I did and helped me make my mind up.

Holy crap, you guys are fast on this topic! I came back like 10 minutes later to see 6 responses already! Thanks for the feedback. This whole homebrewing hobby is really racking up as far as cost. I will admit, its by choice though. The further in you get, the more you want and the more complex you can get. I love it!

Yes. I'd actually call it quite a bargain.

I think it's worth it. Tried some others and kept coming back to BeerSmith. As an added bonus the writer of the sw is a frequent contributor here on HBT.

I can't imagine brewing without it. With BeerSmith I am able to be right on the money for water volumes and strike temperatures. It also allows you play with a lot of the ingredients to see what affect it will have on ABV, IBU's, and color. I really like the way it lays out the brew day sheet for me too. Best $40 (I bought my son a copy too) I have spent on brewing stuff.

Yes, it's worth it. Don't leave home without it.

I have BeerSmith but I use BrewTarget more. I like the interface better and I have it installed on a flash drive so I can keep my recipes at work/on my laptop/on my desktop.

Beersmith does have some nifty features that BT doesn't have but for the most part BT does all the calculations I need. Plus it's free and open source and the author has a huge thread here where he's implementing people's suggestions

Worth it 100%

Aside from the basic stuff, i find the calendar and brew log the best part. Helps me remember what I've done and where I'm going

It is ok as a learning tool, but once you understand the formulas you can do the same thing with a simple excel spreadsheet. Tastybrew's online calculators are free and awesome. I don't even use Beersmith anymore. I have my system dialed in to an excel spreadsheet and hit my numbers spot on every time. But if you don't want to recreate the wheel so to speak, Beersmith is a worthwhile investment.

I like it as well. I used the trial version, and was still figuring out some of the little things when I purchased it. There are some nice tools all tied into one package, and it creates nice brew sheets to break down a brew day. Well worth the low cost!

Am I the only one who didnt paid for beersmith?

Beerbuck said:

Am I the only one who didnt paid for beersmith?

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I'm gonna guess no.

passedpawn said:

I'm gonna guess no.

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I'm gonna guess you are one of the few. For $21.99 I'm sure most of us spend more than that on a case of beer. I've given up my pirating ways long ago as I lost interest in trying to find and crack software(though i've moved almost entirely to open source now). However, i did incidentally crack this particular piece of software since I installed it and got too busy to test it, so I just extended the trial a bit, however after I got used to it I did purchase it. BeerSmith isn't an open source project, so support the developers if you like, if you can't swing $21.99 you probably can't afford to be brewing anyway.

I had the same questions when I started brewing. After trying the trial I had no problems shelling out the $22 bucks for it.

It's the only Windows program I still can't live without. Nothing compares, IMHO, so I've found ways to use it on Mac and Linux.

Yuri is right, it also works flawlessly under wine

Yuri_Rage said:

It's the only Windows program I still can't live without. Nothing compares, IMHO, so I've found ways to use it on Mac and Linux.

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How are you running it? I'm running it through Wine, but I can't print from it and I've been getting errors lately.

I also use Wine. I export to HTML and print from the browser if I really need a hard copy.

Just tried Wine again after ~5 years ... wow they've made some improvements ... BeerSmith works perfectly!

I found starting out that I was better off following recipes out of magazines and books, and focusing on technique, and procedure.

having brewed for many years that way, I now find I want to tweak recipes, and beersmith provides a good tool for playing around with recipes and seeing what affect (at least numbers wise) making various changes has on a beer.

I also like the brew sheets, but I was doing that by hand in a paper notebook just fine.

Conclusion: I REALLY like beersmith, but it is not an essential tool. in the early days, I would have rather spent $20 on BYO magazine and others to read the articles, and try their recipes. I also started brewing in college where I had to really stretch my $$$. so any spare cash went into ingreedients...or cobbled together equipment. now that I have a bit more money, and have a decent brewing setup (and have a giant stack of old magazines) BeerSmith has been a great investment.

I've just started using BeerSmith after one AG batch I did on my own. Just brewed by second AG batch using BeerSmith this time around and loving it. Once you get everything setup (equipment profiles and all) it's great to have auto calculations for the brew day. Great purchase IMO!

I like BeerSmith...use it all the time and like the Brew Log. I don't get how people can stand to use that calendar, though. It is possibly the worst calendar interface ever.


There are two other things that annoy me about it:

1. I brew with different equipment for some batches. For example, some smaller batches I will do stovetop BIAB-style, and some batches I will do outside with my cooler MLT. So when I'm writing a recipe, or even when I'm just scaling an existing one, I will get my recipe all set, then realize that I have the wrong equipment set. But as soon as I change it, BeerSmith resets my batch size to my default 5.0 gallons, which I often don't catch until later. I haven't accidentally added the wrong amount of strike water YET, but I can tell it's just a matter of time.

2. I have to set boiloff as a percent of volume, rather than specifying a constant rate for that equipment. This inevitably leads to a bunch of tweaking when I get a new brew kettle with different dimensions.

Wow! Thanks for the overwhelming amount of responses. I think its pretty clear I will probably shuck out the money for it. It really isn't that bad for $22. I fiddled around with the trial a bit last night and just need to work on getting familiar with it.

Does anyone know if you get free upgrades or would you have to pay for an upgrade if it became available?

yes..............

DON'T DO IT!!!










Just kidding. Totally go for it!

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

yes..............

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Except, when was the last update? It's been years...

In any case, don't ever buy software based on features the developers promise will be there in the future.

I use it and would recommend it as well.

I agree, it could use some updates, but it's not like barley, hops and yeast have changed all that much since it was released.

Everyone already said, but I have to chime in. BeerSmith has been a fantastic program for me so far. By far worth the money. The calculations and stuf it does instead of having to do them by hand are invaluable; and it's almost always accurate.