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The software

CR

Grandmaster Brewer
Joined
Aug 24, 2009
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Do you use it?
What does it do for you?
 
I use it to record my brewing history and to assist in designing new recipes.  I also use it for conversions, especially my post ferment refractometer readings.

IMHO the best piece of brewing software currently on the market.

Fred
 
It helps me NOT to design and make a bunch of mediocre brews that miss the style guidelines in one way or another.  Since learning BSmith, if my brew falls short the fault lies with the brewer and his process. 
 
Do you use it?
Religiously! I have used other mediocre tools in the past. I also believe it to be the best on the market. With a great forum to support it!
What does it do for you?
All of the above and helps me keep a calendar of events, and scheduled tasks for each brew session.

If you don't own it, Buy it! One of the best tools in my inventory! Thanks Brad!

Cheers
Preston
 
I've been fiddling with it and haven't  figured out how it can help.
Neater than a spiral binder I suppose.
 
   I've been climbing the ladder from extract to partial mash, wanting to brew all grain, with the tools to understand the process.
With BeerSmith, the program clues you in to make sure certain ratios are in line with the style your wanting to brew.
Malt to hops ratio. Brew Pot size to hop utilization factor, just to mention two differant features.
On brew day you can print out a brew sheet to give you a check list for your whole process.
Aside from the program, I have relied on this Forum and the advice from advanced brewers every step of the way.
stevemwazup
 
When I first became an all grain brewer there were a lot of things I didn't know and more things I didn't know I needed to know.  I Knew becoming an all grain brewer meant there were going to be things I needed to account for but wasn't.  What I did was print all of the help files then sat in front of my computer (with a few homebrews to be sure) and then went through them one by one until I had read every help file I printed (pretty sure I printed them all). 

After doing that, I believe beersmith helped me become a better brewer overall not to mention letting me know how I can best use the program.  I of course use it religiously and don't think I would make a beer without it.  Even if you don't use the brew sheet, using the strike water tool, the hydrometer adjust tool, and having the style guidelines right there in front of you to compare what your shooting for to what you have makes it worth it right there in my opinion. 

To answer your question more specifically, I use beersmith primarily to help me formulate my recipes based on my brewhouse efficiency (calculated with beersmith) and my target volume.  Not many recipes are given with my homebrewery in mind so some adjustments need to be made and beersmith makes those easier.  Thats probably what I use it for the most.  That and it gives me water volumes and temps on brew day and its a nice library to have as well.  The brewsheet is nice to have but to be honest I lean on it very little.  I look at it to know what volumes of water I need to be dealing with and what temps they need to be as well as what gravities I'm shooting for but it really doesn't guide my process all that much.  Still, those few things make brew day that much easier in my opinion.

$.02   
 
I mostly enjoy the guidelines for styles and really appreciate the help it gave me in moving to AG work.  I could stand to do a better job in using it for records, but I do like my little journal to drag along to the club and lhbs. 
 
I forgot the main reason I use the software...  ::)



So I can annoy and misdirect everyone here on this forum...

;D

Cheers
Preston
 
CR
I actually gave an education session on brewing software last year to about 20 of our club.  One guy kept asking whether BS would give/provide/make a recipe.  If that was your impression, unfortunately it won't help there, at least directly.  
If you're having specific setup or technical questions, post them here and lots of people can help.
If you're doing extract, and especially kits, I would recommend entering those ingredients to see what BS says of the recipe.  Select the style and see if it fits well.  Brew it and decide if you want it hoppier, maltier, dryer, sweeter, whatever.  Then tweak it in BS and brew it again, buying those tweaks and adding them yourself.  
Hopefully, over time, that would build your confidence to make your own recipes and eventually be free to brew whatever you like best with ingredients of your own choosing.  
You could do that without software, but BS makes it a ton easier, and drastically shortens the learning curve.  
 
    Well said Maltlicker.
In fact, I finally have enough ingredients left over, grain, hops, ect... that I going to use Beersmith and see what I can make.
stevemwazup

 
Apparently I need to spend a little more time evaluating the software.
That's no challenge.  It does have a substantial PDF manual. 
I wasn't expecting it to create recipes.  However I have a BeerSmith recipe that  I got the ingredients  for and haven't figured how to get the software to  pick it up.
(Left Coast  Pale Ale by Chris Poel ) 
http://www.beersmith.com/Recipes2/recipe_50.htm
I suppose I could plug the ingredients in manually  and prolly should since I made a few changes.

My brewing  years go back  to the 1980's when  there was no internet-S and no software for this sort of thing. 
I uses all extracts pelletized hops  and the only yeasts were powder (selections were few) &  a few partial  mashes  when I wanted a stout. This is like a whole new world for me. 





 
go to http://www.beersmith.com/recipes.htm and open "All Grain Pack 2"

move the left coast into your brew log and then make your modifications.


Fred
 
CR said:
My brewing  years go back  to the 1980's when  there was no internet-S and no software for this sort of thing.  I uses all extracts pelletized hops  and the only yeasts were powder (selections were few) &  a few partial  mashes  when I wanted a stout. This is like a whole new world for me. 

Ha!  That's funny.  I got started in grad school in late '93, i.e., before the WWW.  I had access to the green-screen internet and USENET groups like rec.crafts.brewing, and vividly remember thinking THAT was amazing, reading about other people's screwups and thinking how the INTERNET (oooo!!) had shortened the learning the curve so much.  The LHBS was 50 miles away and there were seven (7) Wyeast packs. 
 
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