BeerSmith - BeerTools - Promash. - Which is best? What do you have?

[Bobby_M]

With all the major software packages running around $25, it's hard to argue against value.

 

[Pelikan]

With all the major software packages running around $25, it's hard to argue against value.

I suppose, unless the Recipator and other free calculators can deliver the core benefits.

 

[nosmatt]

Beersmith.
but, not an honest vote, i have never used the others. i have no idea what is best. beersmith is intuitive however, and i like that

the only thing i have a problem with, is sparging. i guess i just need to mess with it more, but a seperate sparge column in the recipe area would be great.
i use other online calculators to determine strike temp for sparge 1, and for sparge 2 since beersmith does not have what i want.
i must be overlooking it being it is so damned comprehensive...

 

[Jolly McStanson]

I love Beer Smith, but iv never tried the others. You can tweak Beer Smith to do what you want. The more I fiddle with the program the more I learn. Also they have great support. If you have a problem go to there web site / forum, and ask your question. The moderators or someone else will always have an answer.

There was a concern with batch sparging so they re wrote the program to accommodate. I thought that was great.

 

[ArcaneXor]

At this point I use StrangeBrew Java and various web-based calculators. I downloaded the trial of BTP and have been a bit frustrated by it, but I'll play around with it some more. Right now I am leaning against buying it.

I'll try Beersmith at a later point

 

[Whisler85]

i havent bought the full version of any of the programs yet, but so far, I'd say Promash is more user-friendly, and definitely easier to navigate

just tinkered around with beersmith for the first time- it seems to have more features than promash

like someone said earlier, it would be nice if you could open multiple windows in beersmith- i do all my windows organizing with windows, not tabs

 

[Runyanka]

Does beersmith have a tutorial on how to use it once you buy the full version vs the trial version? I have the big three trial versions downloaded now (beersmith, BTP, and pro mash). I am new to brewing, and to be honest with you, I dont know what half the dang parimeters it is asking me to input mean. I would like to learn beersmith for I like its interface, just with i knew how to use it for all its worth. I reall want to know questions like; how much striking water to use in mash and temp, how much sparge water to use and what temp, and so on. Thanks for the help.

 

[saltwater43]

I've tried Beersmith and Promash, but for the New AG brewer (4 batches), Beersmith was the easiest to learn. We bought Beersmith. Now, if I could just get my sparging technique down.
Chuck
Merritt Island, Florida

 

[blue_bmw2]

Although i haven't started brewing yet, two days and we will be cooking! i do have a copy of Beer Smith that i got from a friend who brews. I've started looking at it by entering my inventory and such. The only problem i have is finding all the information on a type of hops or malt when they came in a kit. I bought a kit to do as my first beer and i have to manually enter some of the hops in the software such as the Argentine Cascade hops. I can't figure out where to go to get all the information about the hops as LD Carlson's website, the make of the brewers best kit that i bought, doesn't contain any of the information. Any help would be wonderful!

 

[Reverend JC]

just picked up beersmith after using trial versions of each for some time trying to find the most intuitive and complete program. I love it.

 

[G-E-R-M-A-N]

How is beersmith with fly sparging calulations? I am using BTP right now, but having a problem understanding how to use it with fly sparging. I am thinking of pickup up beersmith, to use it and compare.

 

[edennis]

I have used beer smith, pro mash, and beer alchemy. Beer Alchemy is my favorite. Beer Smith is a close second. Beer Alchemy is a little more user friendly than Beer Smith. However, Beer Alchemy is Mac only I think.

 

[Brew-boy]

BeerTools for me.

 

[MagicLarry]

I started with promash, but I must say beer smith is just so much more user friendly. Plus updates are available still unlike promash. +1 for beersmith!

 

[Crazytwoknobs]

I started with promash, but I must say beer smith is just so much more user friendly. Plus updates are available still unlike promash. +1 for beersmith!

Yeah, what's the story on that? Is version 2 not coming out ever? I looked around the website a few weeks ago and couldn't find anything about it.

I'm leaning towards Beersmith, but I won't have a computer near where I'm brewing, nor do I have a printer, any tips? Just take good notes?

 

[Bobby_M]

I figured this thread would be good as any for this. About two years ago when I first started all grain brewing, I used Beersmith. I thought it was pretty easy to use and intuitive. However, for the past year and a half, I've been using BTP and despite the learning curve and lack of preset mash/sparge schedules, it's running like a rolex for me. In my quest for understanding, I downloaded Beersmith again to see why it has 60% penetration at HBT. I think the GUI is a total clusterf$@%& with a bazzilion things to click. What's with the tiny catalog of ingredients also? I'm sure it's just resistance to change more than anything else, but it looks like I'll be sticking with BTP for at the least the near future.

Can someone do a video screen capture walk through showing how you'd craft a recipe, enter equipment stats and design the mash schedule?

 

[3 Dog Brew]

I own both Beersmith and ProMash. But I only use Beersmith now. The top three packages all have most of the same basic features (e.g., recipe calculation, brew day scheduling, inventory management, etc.), but there are a few things about Beersmith that make it stand out for me. ...

Far and away, buying Beersmith was the best $20 I spent for my home brewery. Very highly recommended.

This is exactly my experience as well. I had used ProMash for a few years before switching to BeerSmith and converting all my recipes, although tedious, was well worth the effort.

 

[janzik]

I figured this thread would be good as any for this. About two years ago when I first started all grain brewing, I used Beersmith. I thought it was pretty easy to use and intuitive. However, for the past year and a half, I've been using BTP and despite the learning curve and lack of preset mash/sparge schedules, it's running like a rolex for me. In my quest for understanding, I downloaded Beersmith again to see why it has 60% penetration at HBT. I think the GUI is a total clusterf$@%& with a bazzilion things to click. What's with the tiny catalog of ingredients also? I'm sure it's just resistance to change more than anything else, but it looks like I'll be sticking with BTP for at the least the near future.

Can someone do a video screen capture walk through showing how you'd craft a recipe, enter equipment stats and design the mash schedule?

I paid for both BS and BTP back when I first started brewing. I really liked how BTP looked (especially compared to BS which I agree being an absolute total clusterf$@%&). I just never fell in love with using it. I think for whatever reason the whole website subscription model was a turn off for me. Nevermind the fact that there really is no way to know if a recipe is any good, since anyone can really post a recipe and anyone can rate it for whatever garbage reason.

After I started collecting a quantity of ingredients I started entering them into BeerSmith's inventory and really just kept using it from there.

I still find BS lacking in ways, and I'm not sure how it compares to what BTP has to offer, since I stopped using it. I don't hate BS, but I wish things were different. Off the top of my head, without being in front of it, these are the things that stick in my mind...

It doesn't really give you the ability to "plan" a recipe. It's automatically got a date associated with it. You can keep this off your brew calendar by only putting the brews you do in your "brew log" folder (which you can change to another folder, rather than the default Brew Log).

I just don't like how that whole object model works, er lack there of one.
You should have a "Recipe" Object, which is independent of whenever it was brewed. When you brew, there should be a "Brew Session" object that contains the objects and properties of your brew day. So you would have a Brew Session Object that contains a Planned Recipe object (of the Recipe type) and an Actual Recipe (of the Recipe type), etc etc etc (This was all off the top of my head, so, I'm sure there are better ways to do this).

Something like this allows me to keep my base recipe in one place and then I can select it when I want to have a brew day and update the Brew Session object once everything is done. Mom bakes chocolate chip cookies. She's been using the same recipe for over 30 years, she doesn't print out a separate recipe card every time she makes them...

Taking this even further, it could be neat to have some sort of CVS system for recipe revisions (I used to brew this recipe with 4oz of Carapils, now I use 8oz, or whatever)

BS also doesn't give me the ability to "multitask". If I'm in a recipe and I need to go do the strike water calculations based on how warm my crushed grains are, I need to go select it from the tools menu, and then after I'm done I need to go back and find my recipe.

Inventory tracking needs to be handled better too. I need to confirm this by looking a little harder than I already have, but what I had to do was name my recently purchased bulk hops and my harvested yeast differently than what I already had. I did this so I knew that I had 3 ounces of some old ass Cascades (with diminished AA%) compared to the new 2lbs of it that I just bought. So I copied my old ass Cascade inventory item and renamed it to 2008 Cascades with the correct %. What would be nice is if I could have left the name as Cascades, but had additional fields for harvest year and source (whether it was hopsdirect, my LHBS or my back yard). Have it treat it as separate entities, but not screw up my recipe. If I added my APA recipe to BS 2 years ago, and it's my tried and true Haus recipe, I need to use the substitute button each time I want to brew it from a new source. It would be nice if I could say it needs 5.4% Cascades and then let me know with a check, an X or a switcharoo icon that will guide me to what I can use from my inventory. This also goes back to the "Planned Recipe" vs "Actual Recipe" for brew day.

I've set up my equipment as best as I think it is set (Sacc gave me suggestions for the same Coleman Xtreme cooler we both use), but BS is definitely broke for the Mash Profiles (or at least the sparging section). I actually don't even use it to calculate my sparge sizes and numbers. I collect my first runnings and then subtract it from my brew volume and then divide it in half and go for it.

I could go on and on, but I've already spent enough of screen here... I'm hoping a 2.0 will emerge, but as is, it is more than sufficient for doing what I'm doing, so for as much as I complain, I'm not losing sleep over it...

 

[HalfPint]

I'm having a bit of a hard time. I've brewed dozens of AG batches, but just recently I'm beginning to have trouble. I need to start using a brewing program, but beertools seems like it has a bit of a learning curve.

 

[alcibiades]

Am I the only idiot who uses free online tools?

I regularly use beer recipator, and brewcalcs for my water. They work fine.

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator

http://www.brewcalcs.com/

 

[Bobby_M]

The online tools are cute, but for $25 you can have something portable that saves all your recipes for the long haul.

 

[HalfPint]

Am I the only idiot who uses free online tools?

I regularly use beer recipator, and brewcalcs for my water. They work fine.

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator

http://www.brewcalcs.com/

I agree that they do work, but sometimes you have to play with them a few times until you can get your water dialed in properly. See, I have never used programs. I've always typically done 1.25 quats/lb for my mash and sparged until I made my way up to 6.5 gallons (for a 60 minute boil) or 7 gallons (for a 90 min boil). Lately I've been lazy and have started just eyeing it. That's where I've run into problems! Last night I brewed a 1.045 APA after a 100 minute boil b/c I added way too much sparge water.


I really want to use these programs, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to calculate how much water to use for my batch sparge with beersmith.

Can anyone help me out?

 

[FREDBPIES]

iI BOUGHT PROMASH ON LINE - ONLY GOT THE HELP SECTION BEEN TRYING TO REACH SAUALITO BY PHONE/ON LINE FOR A YEAR!!! WILL NOT ANSWER ME THINK I'LL SWITCH TO BEERSMITH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FRED(H.M.F.I.C.) -BATBOY BREWERY CINCINNATI OH HAIL LARRY!2010

 

[Azharen]

U've never brought me any beer from Ur stash dude. I'm upset. *SNIFF*

 

[v2comp]

after trying all three of the most common ones, I settled on BTP for a few reasons. believe it or not, I picked it because it was the most difficult to set up. after years of being an almost non stop comp. geek, I fell in love with its functionality and support from the developers. after tweaking it over several brews, I now have something that I have the utmost confidence in and feel I can trust its numbers completely.

 

[StunnedMonkey]

Yeah, what's the story on that? Is version 2 not coming out ever?

Well, since it was last updated in March 2003 (coming up now on 7 years ago) I think it's safe to say that there isn't going to be a version 2. Too bad, since there's a lot of geeky things to like about promash. But its interface and organization is ridiculous compared to BS and BTP.

I actually own all three, and have been using BTP. For kicks I reloaded the other two this weekend to revisit them and see if maybe there are some elements I'd missed before that perhaps I'd utilize more now, but I'm not seeing any reason to switch from BTP. I'm not sure why BS seems to be the most popular.

 

[Crazytwoknobs]

I checked the forum on the promash site after my last post, and the reason that version 2 won't be coming out is that the wife of the main guy behind promash had some situation wherein the guy had to stop working on promash. I don't remember if she became debilitated or died or what, but don't expect another version unless the company gets bought out.

 

[junkyard brewer]

Trying to get a view to allow brews trying to make a decision of which of the big three is right for them. (If any)

What do you like about the program you use?
What is it missing?
What does it do really well?
Why did you go for the one you did?

I know we did one previously but there have been major updates.

Promash:
1. its fairly simple to use
2. updates.
3. easy to use, easy to build recipes
4. I didnt reasearch anything else

bottom line, I hate promash. Why I still use it, I dont know. Its crappy, it lacks updates, and I feel almost as if I were robbed. I didn't research like I should have. PM is so old, and outdated I almost feel as though it should be "freeware". Beer Smith offers so much more for less money IMO. I had issues with getting my "license" from PM and it took almost a week to get it. The gentleman from PM claimed to had sent it via...-I use gmail and carry a blackberry...never once have I ever "missed" or not gotten a email. I also had to call him out on the PM forum to get it...as he wasn't responding to emails.

Stay away from promash.

Crazy, the guy needs to pass the torch onto someone else.

 

[Crazytwoknobs]

I purchased beersmith recently, and haven't used it yet for a brewday. But having just messed around with it a bit, it *feels* old. The icons are ancient, the text is ugly.... I don't know, at least it was cheap.

 

[junkyard brewer]

it was cheap and is updated.