BeerSmith 3 due out soon

[BlackDuck]

BeerSmith 3 Licensing Explained will give you good information on what's going on with the licensing and what you may or may not need to do. I use BeerSmith Lite on my iPad, it looks like I might not be able to use that for much longer and may need to buy the new mobile app, even if I choose to keep using BeerSmith 2.

Looks like I purchased BeerSmith 2 before the cutoff date, so I am not eligible for the free 12 month trial of BeerSmith 3.

[Beer-lord]

I knew I wasn’t eligible but that’s why I preordered, to save a few bucks. I use it exclusively and feel I’ve gotten more than my money’s worth so far.

[BlackDuck]

I use it exclusively too, but I'm not sure the new version will benefit me much. He is still going to support BeerSmith 2. Did you buy the basic one time deal or did you upgrade up any levels on a yearly subscription?

[Beer-lord]

Just the one time deal. I rarely use my ipad and this version is good on 2 computers so I'm continuing what has worked for me. Certainly, I could stick with 2 and still have no problems but he likely will only support 2 up until 3 gets it's first update in 6 or more months (based upon his podcast comment a few months back).

[BlackDuck]

he likely will only support 2 up until 3 gets it's first update in 6 or more months (based upon his podcast comment a few months back).

That's interesting that he would say that on a podcast, because he wrote this on his Licensing Explained Page on the BeerSmith website:

All BeerSmith 2 users can continue to use BeerSmith2 for several more years, and we will continue to answer questions and offer support

[Beer-lord]

It was just a blip on his podcasts like a commercial but it was months ago that he mentioned he had been working on an update for years, asking users what they liked and didn't like and what they wanted. He also said he got help from pro brewers too.
He should support the older version for as long as possible. Maybe he caught crap for it and changed his mind. I can't believe they'll be that far apart and that different from one another anyway.

[Beer-lord]

Brad has a few, quick videos of B3 on his youtube channel if you're interested. Should be out this weekend.

[Kealia]

I like the addition of hopstand AAUs, but not sure there is much else that I "need" from V3 - from what I've read so far.
I'm just back from vacation so I have vacation-brain....the pricing seems overly complicated. After I go back to work and get my brain back in gear I'll look at it again.

[Beer-lord]

Version 3 is out and installed. I hope to have some time this weekend to see what's under the hood as I prepare a recipe for next weekends Rye something or other pale ale.

[Beer-lord]

I played around a bit with v3 yesterday and its more than enough that I can say, there's no reason to update from 2 to 3 in my opinion. I'm brewing this weekend and will see how close their water info is compared to what I use (Brun' Water and Screwy's EZRecipe) but with all that is out there already, I can't honestly say that even though I got a $10 discount, the $25 is worth it. The ph tool is helpful and looks to be in line with what I already use so that's a plus.

It is a bit more streamlined and I find I can do things a bit faster but nothing to make any difference to me. Of course, if I did meads and ciders I probably would find it more useful so those that do may find the upgrade worth it.
I don't use the cloud much so that's not beneficial to me.
v2 was already an excellent program for what I need but you can 'trial it' for 21 days so I suggest you do before seeing if it's helpful to you and your brewing needs.
EDIT: I forgot to mention one more thing that I did like about B3 and that's better whirlpool hop utilization info. I do whirlpool and steep often and this will be a benefit to me though not a huge one. Based on their forum, there's already some updates coming for whirlpool info as well as a few other fixes.

[mashani]

I've played around a little bit, the one thing I do like is how the water adjustments have become integrated with the recipe and now actually affect the estimated mash ph properly so that additional adjustments like acid additions are easier to figure out without having to jump around between tools. I can do everything I need now right inside the recipe designer without going anywhere else.

So, it's useful for me, because for example to get to something like Antwerp water (any many others, but not all), from my tap water, I just have to add a little bit of salt, calcium chloride, and gypsum to my existing water, I don't need to build water from RO to do it. So it makes this easy for me to just do inside of beersmith. I'm lucky that my tap water is generally good to brew with, unlike the unlucky folks in some other parts of my state.

I could live just fine in BeerSmith 2, but I do like this extra functionality in BeerSmith 3.

Better whirlpool/hopstand/slow-chill calculations going forward are also useful to me, since that's pretty much what I'm doing all the time right now.