Question, and sorry if this has been asked a lot prior but it doesn't look like it has been. I'm going to start to brew in September for first time and am trying to prepare and have the best materials possible, even though I know it's a learning process. So I have to ask, is Beersmith worth it for a beginner? Or should I wait until I become more experienced? Thanks.
I'm currently using iBrewMaster 2 for all my brews. It's a great way to help create, keep track and organize the batches that you've done. I think most of the brewing software is similiar in what you accomplish, just comes down to personal preference. I have it on my iPad and iPhone so whichever I have on me, I can pick up where I left off.
Beersmith is a great program for a beginner, that said there are plenty of other programs out there that are just as useful...and free. I use Brewcipher, it's free and was developed by a member here @VikeMan. Basically it can do everything BeerSmith does, but also gives you a water calculator and more. Anyway, you can do a free 21 day trial of Beersmith to see if you like it enough to spend money on it.
Short answer - yes Long answer - see above response from @JohnSnowNW ... Came here to say essentially this
28 bucks, and it does water chemistry in version 2, that shreadsheet is good, but I do not see water part having more info. I think BS is simple easy to use. I used it from the get go. I just like the fact I can access beer recipes and stuff in their forums. If you JUST want to brew heck no you do not NEED it. Its its just extract brewing. Depends on how far into changing what you have you want to go.
I like it, after i started using it i was a little more efficient or maybe it was because i have more brews under my belt. IMO BS or any other programs are usefully.
I love the BrewCipher sheet and VikeMan has been pretty awesome about adding certain functions that have been requested on here.
I got BS when it was on sale for $18. I love it and wouldn't want to do all the calculations without it. But it isn't necessary. But it sure is handy to keep history, planned brews, inventories, scaling, conversions, changes.
I think it's worth the money. Been using it for years now, no real problems once you get dialed in to your system. Brewcipher does more, so if you're a calculations nut, that's a better choice. But it's unlikely you would be disappointed either way.
Probably not. BS will give most noobrewers a serious case of TMI. More experience leads to being more comfortable with the process. Running your recipes and equipment charteristics (evap rate...trub...sparge volumes for all-grain) through BS will help fine tune your brew day. Still using v1.4 which is still available. The latest BS version (2.whatever) was a big disappointment. Horrible use of screen real estate and no drag'n drop capability.
I find brewing software helpful. I use BeerSmith 2. Prior to that, I used ProMash and BeerSmith 1 and I liked both of those programs more than I like BS2 for their simplicity. BS2 adds layers of complexity on those, but they come at the price of decreasing user-friendliness. I primarily use software for recipe formulation and mash and hydrometer calculations, and as an archive for past brews. There's a lot more going on with the program, but I have not been enticed to mess with it.
It may not be drag n drop, but it is cut & paste if you're talking about moving recipes around. I remember using John Palmer's slide ruler for calculating ibus and gravity, that seemed like an amazing tool at the time... i started into the world of Beersmith with BS2 so can't speak for BS1, but feel it is fairly intuitive. I feel like you only need to delve as deep as you want, but maybe my experience isn't everyone since i have over a decade of experience understanding brewing and calculations of brewing.
The BS interface is little more than warmed-over Access 'forms.' Not bad back in the 90s but the world has...shall we say...moved on. Why are we still CLICKing...SCROLLing...and CLICKing to SELECT ingredients when DragonDrop has long been the standard? It may be intuitive...but it's also user-hostile...especially the Inventory and Scaling 'features.' And what's up with the idiotic two-place decimal precision? As if. I have BS1 and BS2. I have used BS1 and BS2. BS2 ain't much of an improvement over BS1 unless one considers 'tabs' and 'skins' to be all that. It's a half-way decent tool for cataloguing recipes...calculating strike / sparge water volumes....and uh...probably something else...too.
picked it up for $19 at Birdman Brewing. Well worth it at that price. Learned the hard way that you need to make sure you have your equipment profile set up correctly before using it. doh.
