Anyone using BeerSmith regularly ?

[SleepySamSlim]

Download the trial software --- I'm going to do my 2nd brew in a few days. The brew shop gave me the stuff for a Nut Brown Ale - which looks very much like an English Northern Brown Ale. What I was aiming for was something more towards a English Southern Brown Ale ( a bit smoother sweeter).

So I pumped the ingredients into BeerSmith (even the hops schedule) And by reducing the hops (Kents Goldings) from 2oz to 1.6oz --- I have the IBU down from 21.7 to 16.

Seems very easy to use if you are used to fiddling on a computer.

 

[BarleyWater]

I think most everyone here uses some sort of brewing software. If you want to make your own recipes it's pretty much a neccessity.

The author of BeerSmith is actually a member here.

 

[Bigsnake]

I used Beersmith through the trial and immediately had to purchase it. It's awesome!

 

[Nightbiker]

same here. In fact, I was impressed enough to purchase it only a few days after starting the trial.
initially I was using it to convert and modify all grain into extract-based recipes. Soon as I finish building my HERMS I'll be using it a bit more often. Brewing has slowed considderably since SWMBO uh, "requested" that I vacate the kitchen and "do whatever you need to do" to brew in the carport (need I say how hard it was to conceal my joy at being told, in essence, to build my all-grain rig? )

 

[Homercidal]

I downloaded and used BS, but have not purchased it. I can really be a big assistance. I probably should go buy it, but it's one of those things that I keep putting off, like a full membership to this site. It's easily the best of the software I've tried.

 

[Coastarine]

I love Beersmith. What's funny is that I spent HOURS creating an excel spreadsheet to keep track of my recipes. It was just for extract brewing but it could give me the OG based on extract and IBU's. I put a lot of work into figuring out how to compute IBU's adjusted for gravity, etc. Then I found beersmith and it did so much more. I had to have it.

 

[menschmaschine]

I downloaded and used both trial versions of Promash and Beersmith. I ended up buying Beersmith. I know a lot of people use Promash and it's a good program too. Beersmith seemed to be more up to date on ingredients and easier to set my brew system parameters, so that swayed me. But maybe Promash has updated their ingredients since I've looked. I know a lot of people were complaining about it being dated.

 

[Yooper]

I love Beersmith- I use it for all of my recipes, and to adjust my hopping and efficiency. I use it for ABV calculations and hydrometer adjustments, too.

 

[bull8042]

BeerSmith is great and money well spent. The capabilities are awesome and will support you up to any level you wish to go in your brewing endeavor.

 

[planenut]

I didn't use it for the first few months but always kept notes and even typed them up in word.

Once I spent a little time with Beersmith, I really liked it. It helps me with calculating efficiency, boil off, IBU's etc. It has notes about how differeent grains give different flavors. And it has a brew log to track my brews.

I'm sure there is more I haven't found yet.

 

[Surly]

A big advantage I see is that the creator provides service and support. He checks the Q & A forum often and responds to us.

There is a lot of info on his site and then here as well.

A great program with excellent support.

 

[Beervana]

After years of homebrewing I finally decided it was time for a program to help me with the record keeping. I was surprised to find that Brewsmith has much more and even though I have only had it a month I am using it regularly to formulate new recipes and predict water temperatures and so forth. I really like the program. I do wish I could just simply click and drag something (like a recipe or ingredient) from one folder or the notepad to another. But, copy/paste/delete works. It would also be nice to have the program tell me what my brewhouse efficiency is based upon the ingredients and the resulting OG. Money well spent on this wonderful program.

 

[Nurmey]

I consider Beersmith one of the best brewing purchases I've ever made. I tried Promash but it just didn't do all the things I wanted.

The only problem is that it's so nice to create recipes using it, I now have a backlog of brews to make.

edit: Oh yeah, Brad (Beersmith's owner/designer) answered my email question right away. Service like that is important.

 

[Panzermann]

I'm trying to figure out how to use it.. ha

 

[Edcculus]

Beersmith is a great program. It has really helped me step up my brewing. I use it to formulate all recipes and do a lot of calculations. It is also an essential tool on brew day. I set up my laptop in the kitchen in a dedicated "no water/wort zone". I use it as my brew station where I make water calculations, enter gravities and keep notes on the session.

 

[mmb]

More often than not I have BeerSmith open when the computer is on.

Inventory, calender tracking of batches, attenuation and hydrometer correction are all tools that I use frequently. Recipe tracking is great and it's handy for keeping track of notes and gravity readings.

JUST MAKE SURE YOU BACK IT UP! Right Chriso?

 

[videoman]

Beersmith is my favorite program when looking side by side with Beertools.... but, just moved over to the Mac OS this year and had to leave Beersmith behind. Beertools has a Mac Version. Bummer. Would love to see a Mac version of Beersmith....

 

[dr_finklestein]

I'm looking at ProMash, BeerSmith, or BeerTools but haven't really decided which to use. I've been looking for reviews for each.

 

[AnonyBrew]

Beersmith rocks!

 

[tuoply]

Being in the software development field, I can really appreciate the work and testing that had to have gone into beersmith. Before I found it, I kicked around the idea of building my own app --so once I found it, I was really impressed with it's capabilities. For the price, you can't make anything anywhere near as good and offer the same support.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I downloaded the trial for help with my first AG, so I had a LOT of unknown factors regarding wolumes (Yes, that was a typo, but I left it in 'cos it looks cute), temperatures etc.....It only takes a short look at the program, and everything you need is there! I STILL keep finding stuff that just makes life easier! It will take me a while to get accustomed to it so I can get the best out of it, but I find it very intuitive, so that will be a breeze, even for an old retard like me!

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Ya' see there?

NeerSmith is old retard approved. LGI sed so.
















I ment to dew thet.

 

[fratermus]

What's funny is that I spent HOURS creating an excel spreadsheet to keep track of my recipes. It was just for extract brewing but it could give me the OG based on extract and IBU's. I put a lot of work into figuring out how to compute IBU's adjusted for gravity, etc.

When I first starting brewing I built a spreadsheet in VisiCalc (!) on my trusty Apple ][e (!!). Beersmith is much nicer to use.

I make it a point to use open source freeware when possible and I can probably count the number of commercial software programs I have bought on one hand in the last 10 years:

Beersmith
a thumbnail image generator in 2000
a PocketPC keymapper this last year

First piece of software I bought was the Bluewave message reader for FidoNet.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Beersmith = the best $20 a homebrewer can spend.

 

[schneemann]

Best investment I've ever made as a homebrewer.

 

[McCuckerson]

I cannot imagine brewing without Beersmith. I overhopped a wheat beer so badly that it was almost undrinkable. When I put the recipe into beersmith I quickly realized the mistake.

 

[BlindLemonLars]

Beersmith is my favorite program when looking side by side with Beertools.... but, just moved over to the Mac OS this year and had to leave Beersmith behind. Beertools has a Mac Version. Bummer. Would love to see a Mac version of Beersmith....

Use Boot Camp to install Windows on that Mac, and keep on Beersmithing!

It's really easy to do and works great, I've installed it on a few MacBooks at work. Leopard has Windows drivers for all of the standard Mac hardware, so all features work. Just hold the option key and reboot to select an alternate OS.

 

[SixFoFalcon]

BeerSmith was integral in getting me into all-grain. Like any tool, there is a learning curve, and you can't expect something as low-demand as homebrewing software to have an interface as polished as the latest release of iTunes or Firefox. Having said that, BeerSmith is packed with features, and really helps me keep my brewing universe organized.

I started out using BeerSmith primarily for building recipes--calculating the right grain bill for desired the desired starting gravity, figuring out IBUs from hop additions, beer color, etc. When I switched to all-grain, of course all those temperature and water volume calculations were important, too.

Now I find myself relying on more of the "secondary" functions in BeerSmith. Using BeerSmith to manage my inventory is a great time saver. When you have bulk ingredients on hand (pounds of hops, 100# plus of various grains, etc.) it's nice to be able to see how much you have of each ingredient from your PC rather than having to do physical inventory and keep everything straight as you punch up new recipes. When it's time to brew, you just click "remove items from inventory" and it subtracts all the stuff you are going to use so that your inventory list is still accurate. If you need to go get certain ingredients before brewing, you can click "print shopping list" and take your list to the store with you.

I'm also easing myself into using BeerSmith as my only brewing calendar. I'll admit I still write on my office wall calendar, and a lot of my brew day notes don't seem to make it onto the PC, but I'm hoping to get in the habit of putting everything in BeerSmith so it's all in one place and I don't need to shuffle papers anymore.

 

[lordbeermestrength]

I use promash, and I hate to admit it, but I think Beersmith is a better option. The interface looks better, they update it much more regularly, it is marginally cheaper, and seems to have all the functionality that promash does. Of course, both programs rock and are far superior to spreadsheets. But I still use a spreadsheet too with a bunch of specialized calculations that I use.

 

[knipknup]

Dude, buy beersmith - nuff said?

 

[knipknup]

When I first starting brewing I built a spreadsheet in VisiCalc (!) on my trusty Apple ][e (!!). Beersmith is much nicer to use.

I make it a point to use open source freeware when possible and I can probably count the number of commercial software programs I have bought on one hand in the last 10 years:

Beersmith
a thumbnail image generator in 2000
a PocketPC keymapper this last year

First piece of software I bought was the Bluewave message reader for FidoNet.

^ ^ ^ <- Dude is old

 

[Ceedubya]

I downloaded the trial two weeks ago and love it. I have been playing with a few recipes and discovering some cool things. Plan to buy it right away.

Merry Christmas to me

 

[BierMuncher]

I've used it since the beginning.

I have 160 recipes on it.

I'm going to go back up my BSM file now if you don't mind.

 

[BlindLemonLars]

I'm going to go back up my BSM file now if you don't mind.

Send a copy to me for safekeeping! Even if disaster strikes your town, your recipes will be safe.

 

[holden]

Beersmith is my favorite program when looking side by side with Beertools.... but, just moved over to the Mac OS this year and had to leave Beersmith behind. Beertools has a Mac Version. Bummer. Would love to see a Mac version of Beersmith....

Have you tried BeerAlchemy?

 

[Scotty_g]

I messed around with some of the web calculators and looked at some of the other brewing software. Beersmith was the first one I found that had provisions for late extract addition, and since I still brew steep/extract that was important.

I've used BS to convert some AG recipes and turn steep/extract recipes into full-ish boil and late extract addition with good success. I was also about to make the mother of all spreadsheets, then realized for $20 I could get a lot more beer drinking time.

I agree with countless others that it's money well-spent.

Once we get the AG rig set up I'll have different issues to deal with (mashing, reduction in wort volume, etc.) but BS can handle those too. Awesome.

 

[Nightbiker]

Send a copy to me for safekeeping! Even if disaster strikes your town, your recipes will be safe.

hehehe, +2 that! You can never have enough er, 'archival copies' spread around! We may all be gone, but the recipes (and therefore beer) will survive -and thats the most important thing, right?

 

[BlindLemonLars]

While we're on the subject of Beersmith...

You may have noticed that Northern Brewer lists the ingredients for each of their all-grain kits, right on their website. They also have links to download ProMash .rec files for each recipe.

A few days ago, I emailed them to ask if there was any chance they could support BeerSmith users by posting .bsm files as well...they just wrote back to say this feature is "coming soon."

 

[Nightbiker]

Hey SWEET! THanks for the heads-up!

 

[fratermus]

You may have noticed that Northern Brewer lists the ingredients for each of their all-grain kits, right on their website. They also have links to download ProMash .rec files for each recipe.

Beersmith won't import .rec will it? I half-heartedly looked around the other day and did not see that functionality.