BeerBorg

I've been using Brewer's Friend to formulate recipes and fit them into styles. It used to cost $15 annually, now $25. I'm considering BeerSmith, which has a one time cost. I keep a written log, and always will, but programs are handy. Brewer's Friend is pretty easy to use, some say that BeerSmith has a learning curve. I don't have much patience or savvy with computers. What do you use and why?

I use BeerSmith. It does have a little learning curve, but it's not hard. It can be very detailed, but it doesn't have to be. There are many options on it that I ignore, because I just don't need that kind of detail. The most time consuming part it setting up your equipment, but I would think this would have to be done with any software. I had to run a complete 60 minute boil with just water to figure out my boil off. But once you've got your equipment set and you figure it out, it's really pretty easy.

I use Beersmith for recipes, I do use Brewers Friend free (4 recipes) to work up my water profiles and just edit each time for whatever brew.

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I have used Beersmith for many years. It can be simple or as complicated, your choice. I recommend the program. I print out my recipes for a paper record. Very easy to change/modify recipes, rename/copy recipes when I do big changes.

Beersmith for me. If it's good enough for the Pro's, I want the same thing! Well, it's got everything I need and more. Once you learn it, you can customize it to fit your personal brewing styles.

Another satisfied BeerSmith user here too.

Yet another vote for BeerSmith.

I liken it to something like Excel. It can be very powerful to the point of overwhemling, but it's also great for basic use without using every add-on/feature.
Plus, it's easy to share recipes , scale recipe, blah blah blah.

I also paid the few extra $$ to get the app so I can store a few recipes in the cloud and access them from my tablet & phone.

Sooo, no one really likes BeerSmith?
Thanks guys, I'll check it out.

John,

I think the biggest learning curve for BS is getting your equipment profile set up in to it accurately. Once you get that in there I don't think it is very complicated at all. There are definitely complicated sections to it if you wanted to mess with that and dive deeper in to your recipes and mashing but it isn't really necessary.

Well, that will save either my computer or my recliner from abuse.
Is there a default setting for equipment?

I used qbrew for a long time. When I first bought BeerSmith, I was overwhelmed and didn't even use it for a long time. Then, when I started using it, I couldn't remember why I didn't want to use it before.

There are default equipment profiles. I think they tried to cover some of the most popular options. But you can also add your own. I did that when I bought a bigger pot for my BiaB PM batches.

There's another fairly decent free program (brewtoad?). If I remember correctly, it was acquired and the new owners are charging for a premium version, but the original program is still available for free (but it's no longer updated or supported).

BeerSmith does have a trial version that you can use for free for a certain amount of time. You could always extend that period by downloading a Windows VM and installing the trial BS there, then reinstalling in new VMS as the trial versions expire. You'd need to take some extra steps to save any work. All in all, that seems like a lot of work to avoid a pretty reasonable licensing fee.

But seriously, if you want to see if it will meet your needs, you can download the trial and check it out.

As an aside, with all of the tools that @screwybrewer has developed, does he have anything that compares with Beersmith? I got comfortable with the programs I was using before he started putting things together, but you may be able to do what you want with what he offers.

Hey Borgavellis, I use a program called Tasty Brew. I just put in the ingredients,and it gives me the ABV,and IBU's. That's really all I need,but it allows me to record the ingredients as well. I print out the sheet and staple it to a front page for the brew notes I take.It works well for me.Not too involved,but just what I need. Cheers

There are help videos and a forum at beersmith.com that explain many of the menus. I think there’s some help videos on YouTube as well.

I find this thread on the BeerSmith forum[/url] helpful for info about setting up an Equipment Profile:

http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.ph ... 140.0.html

There's also this page at the BeerSmith website:

http://beersmith.com/equipment-setup/

A link to the video that Beer-lord mentioned:

http://beersmith.com/setting-up-your-eq ... ersmith-2/

Thanks. I'll download the trial version before my next batch.