Some suggestions for Beersmith.

I really love this software.  All the tools are really great.  I'd like to make a few suggestions for enhancements to the tools section.  First, a brew timer with a nice audible alarm.  I usually have my laptop running so I can use the refractometer tool and view the recipe I'm brewing.  It would be great to have a configurable timer for hops additions, i.e., set boil time, then set multiple alarm points for additions of hops etc.; an always on top window that doesn't close when you click other areas of the program screen would be great.  I just brewed a recipe that had 4 hops additions and thought it would be nice to be able to have an alarm that would notify me when to add them.

Also, I thought another neat tool would be a HLT water tool, something that you could, instead of bringing all your sparge water to 168F or whatever you needed, maybe a tool that could calculate to bring X gallons of water to boiling and then a tool that calculates to add Y gallons of Z temp water to bring it down to a target temp.  For example, I've got a 10 gallon cooler for sparge water, I typically use a smaller pot to bring my sparge water up to temp., it's 4 gallons and easier to handle; it would be nice to have a tool that I could bring 4 gallons of water to a boil, then add X gallons of cool water to, to bring the total volume to a target temp.  Vice versa, start with X gallons of cold water and add Y gallons of boiling water for a total volume of a target temp.

Beersmith may already be able to do the later but I'm not familiar with how it could be done with strike or adjust mash calculators.

All in all, I really like the Beersmith program!!

Thanks Dale,
  I have a timer in the works, though it will probably be in an early update and not the first release.

  I also like the boiling water idea and will look closely at adding that.

Brad

+1 on both of these ideas.

I have had many times where I didnt hit my mash temp exactly and would love an easy way to figure out how many qts/cups? of boiling water I would need to add to my mash.
Anything I add I can just take the same amount out of the sparge water to compensate for volume.

Glad to hear the timer idea is at work.

Great software though, I switched from Promash over a year ago and love BeerSmith more! I  preordered my update right when I heard about it.

Hi,
  You can use the "mash adjust" tool (Tools menu) if you happened to miss your target temp - it will calculate exactly how much water you need to add (hot or cold) to correct your temperatures.

Brad