beersmith question?

I need someone to explain IN SIMPLE TERMS, why I need Beersmith (or a similar tool). I don't doubt that I do, but I am just not sure what all I will get out of it. I have very slow download speed and don't want to download it just for the free trial. I use an aircard for internet access and have to watch my usage. I don't mind buying it if I need it, but do I need it?
I am fairly new to AG and keep seeing that Beersmith is needed and a good investment. Is it a program that helps build recipes? Presently I just ask my LHBS guy for a reccomended recipe and he prints me one out, without me knowing exactly what to compare it to. Hopefully it will help me out in that regard.
Also, does HBT have a glossary of terms in one of the dropdown menus that I am not seeing? I read a post and find myself having to google the term to see exactly what it means and how it applies in the context it was used. I am referring to terms like HERMS and RIMS and decotation etc. This would sure make it easier on us AG new guys. Thanks for any and all replies in advance.
Ron,ar

Simply put, buy it. It's the best money (if not the least amount of money) you'll spend in an all-grain setup.

Beersmith will help you play "what-if" scenarios on recipes, but you're better off investing in books like "How To Brew" and the like if you need assistance on the terminology and process nuances of the hobby.

No, you don't need beersmith.

It's a nice program, full of features and tools, but you don't NEED it.

There are many free utilities out there on the internet that you can use to calculate water usage, water profile, gravity, IBU, recipe formulation, etc. Beersmith (as well as promash, or whatever you like) bring all those utilities together in a neat little package.

If you have a I-phone/pod/pad try the brewpal app. Maybe you can get it for android now, not sure.

It has quite a few features, and last time I checked it was only a buck. And it's portable. Like all software, once you get it dialed in for your system, it's pretty effective. Not as full featured as beersmith, but effective, portable, cheap, and it puts quite a few utilities in one place.

That being said, I use beersmith. You don't need it, but it's nice.

I think HBT has a WIKI or a sticky somewhere with a glossary - sorry, not sure where to direct you off the top of my head.

Just one opinion . . .

+1

Here's a link to a beer/brewing term glossary I think you might find helpful. It comes from the Wiki link at the top of the page.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Glossary

I would have never found it, don't use wiki-anything much so didn't think to look there.
My knowledge, actually access to knowledge, just quadrupled.

ron said:

I would have never found it, don't use wiki-anything much so didn't think to look there.
My knowledge, actually access to knowledge, just quadrupled.

Click to expand...

You're welcome Ron

I think many people don't know about that link. Like you said though, your access to knowledge just quadrupled! There are also a few good links in the beginner brewer's section. Many people just don't realize they're there until somebody points it out.

Spunkmeyer said:

Simply put, buy it. It's the best money (if not the least amount of money) you'll spend in an all-grain setup.

Beersmith will help you play "what-if" scenarios on recipes, but you're better off investing in books like "How To Brew" and the like if you need assistance on the terminology and process nuances of the hobby.

Click to expand...

Exactly. Beer Smith brings everything together, and is very quick. I used to use Hopville for my "what if", but found BeerSmith to be much easier to adjust and plug in recipies. It also helps with gravity/brix conversions, temperature estimates, and I find that it does a better job for determining how misc. ingredients affect the recipe.

However, I agree. BeerSmith, or any other tool, is not required. But, it does help figure out what your beer will be like, and what certain changes might do to it.

I use Beer Smith all the time. It helps me with the calculations to determine what I need. I use it to calculate the amount of strike water needed for a given amount of grain and a grist to liquid ratio. Secondly, the program is indispensable for determining the temperature of the strike water for a given volume of water, amount of grain, and temperature of the grain and temperature of the mash tun. I also use it to get an idea of how much sugar I collected by taking a specific gravity reading, and then converting that for the calibration temperature of my hydrometer. Finally, it is useful to determine my alcohol content, etc. I hope that this might give you an idea of why Beer Smith (or any other brewing software) might be needed for all grain brewing.

Mark

As others have said. Necessary? No, extremely helpful? Absolutely! If you're not utilizing the all grain technique yet you won't find a much utility in it though.

If you like math, have a lot of time on your hands, don't mind figuring out, sometimes complex formulas, and have malt analyses on common malts, then no you don't need Beersmith.

Another thing it does is keep a log of all your recipes so you can repeat /tweek them.

Beersmith is a great tool. BrewTarget, which is free to use, is also a nice software tool.

These tools are certainly not necessary, but very useful. Having recently started all-grain brewing, I've really enjoyed the assistance these tools provide. I should mention too that Beersmith2 is only a little over 7MB, which shouldn't be too bad to download although I don't know what your connection speed is. To me, the software is worth the time to download and play around with. You should consider downloading the 21 day trial and seeing what the fuss is all about. If you can't download it, but want to try it, send me a PM and I can mail you a CD with the installer.

Here are some of the reasons I enjoy the software:

• Calculates water volume, mash temperatures, pre-boil gravity, etc.
• Great tool to help formulate your own recipes
• Yeast calculator
• Once your equipment profile is created, you'll easily be able to scale a recipe to fit your equipment
• Saves my recipes, brew day instructions, and brew notes

You could buy the cd and have it shipped to your house to save down load time
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...mp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0069RMSKI

You could have a friend with a fast internet connection down load the ISO file , burn it to a cd for you and try it out. Check bottom of this page

http://www.beersmith.com/download-beersmith/

We don't needs cellphones or computers but everybody uses them, just buy it.

I'm going to go against the grain and say you don't need beersmith. I have created a spreadsheet that does most of what I need. On brew day I use tastybrew to calc my recipie, strike water, og, fg and IBUs to have something to compare my actuals to. I record all the infro I need on my spreadheet, one tab for each recipie. I will probably purchase Beersmith eventually, but I use the manual calcs to assist me in gaining an intuitive understanding of the relationships. Plus I kinda like the record keeping aspect of the hobby.

Thanks guys for the advice, I think I will go ahead and order it and play around with it for a while before I actually use it in a brew.
I think I will go with the Amazon cd, thanks iaefebs, and thanks again for all the answers.
ron