I presume that I'm preaching to the converted and I mean no offense to what is a great bit of software or those who created it, but - for me - after a short trial period BeerSmith 2 is a huge step in the wrong direction for what I want from my 'brewing software'.
I first posted these comments on the AHB forums here, because I know how many people have upgraded to BS2, and wanted to check if I was the only person that did not like the 'upgrade'.
However, it seems that everything that others find 'good' about BS2 (it works on Mac and Linux, BIAB support, you can add grains by percentage and some broken formula are fixed) are not really things I need.
On the other hand there is a list of things I dislike about BS2:
It's so big and clunky and chunky, BS1 was neat and streamlined and basic, BS2 is a monster in comparison, I'd find it difficult to imagine someone new to home brewing understanding even the basic concepts of the program.
I hate how it spreads individual brew-information spread over 5 different tabs, I can't see my 'notes' or all the other information I find 'useful' on the first page and adding 'Selected Fields' gets cumbersome when you have more than a few bits of info you want to see on the 'main tab'.
The 'Yeast starter' tap could be cool, but despite its overly complex setup, does not allow the use of washed slurry*, stepped starters, a different pitching rate for different types of ales** or even to use a 'starter cell density'***.
Seems I need to create a new "Aging Profile" for each beer I make, rather than BS1 where it was simply a matter of saying ferment at x Deg for y days.
The mash/fermentation graphs look pretty, but don't really do anything useful.
The cost information might be useful, but I can't see it as something I want to know or care about.
The external/detached little window for editing grains/hops also bugs me, but there might be a fix for that in the options that I didn't look for.
It is not easily portable or backup-able like BS1 is, where you can simply copy the folder to a new location/computer/flashdrive without issue.
I'm sure that some people find all the new tabs, bells, buttons, and whistles that BS2 provides very useful. However, after a short BS2 trial, it appears that all I need is the simple and easy layout, information and control provided on 1 screen in BS1.
Is there any chance of a 'Basic' or 'Simple' skin/template/interface that makes BS2 as simple and easy as BS1 but with all the improvements in the background - if one ever wanted to use them?
* 'Yeast starter options' has a bit about slurry but on the 'Design' or 'Yeast Starter' tabs there is no way (that I could find) to select that you're using slurry.
** Using x0.5 for English ales for example ... unless you change the generic rate.
*** I don't mean growth factor, I mean cell density in the starter eg: '100billion cells/ml', which since I use stepped-starters is more important for me than a 'growth factor' multiplier.
I first posted these comments on the AHB forums here, because I know how many people have upgraded to BS2, and wanted to check if I was the only person that did not like the 'upgrade'.
However, it seems that everything that others find 'good' about BS2 (it works on Mac and Linux, BIAB support, you can add grains by percentage and some broken formula are fixed) are not really things I need.
On the other hand there is a list of things I dislike about BS2:
It's so big and clunky and chunky, BS1 was neat and streamlined and basic, BS2 is a monster in comparison, I'd find it difficult to imagine someone new to home brewing understanding even the basic concepts of the program.
I hate how it spreads individual brew-information spread over 5 different tabs, I can't see my 'notes' or all the other information I find 'useful' on the first page and adding 'Selected Fields' gets cumbersome when you have more than a few bits of info you want to see on the 'main tab'.
The 'Yeast starter' tap could be cool, but despite its overly complex setup, does not allow the use of washed slurry*, stepped starters, a different pitching rate for different types of ales** or even to use a 'starter cell density'***.
Seems I need to create a new "Aging Profile" for each beer I make, rather than BS1 where it was simply a matter of saying ferment at x Deg for y days.
The mash/fermentation graphs look pretty, but don't really do anything useful.
The cost information might be useful, but I can't see it as something I want to know or care about.
The external/detached little window for editing grains/hops also bugs me, but there might be a fix for that in the options that I didn't look for.
It is not easily portable or backup-able like BS1 is, where you can simply copy the folder to a new location/computer/flashdrive without issue.
I'm sure that some people find all the new tabs, bells, buttons, and whistles that BS2 provides very useful. However, after a short BS2 trial, it appears that all I need is the simple and easy layout, information and control provided on 1 screen in BS1.
Is there any chance of a 'Basic' or 'Simple' skin/template/interface that makes BS2 as simple and easy as BS1 but with all the improvements in the background - if one ever wanted to use them?
* 'Yeast starter options' has a bit about slurry but on the 'Design' or 'Yeast Starter' tabs there is no way (that I could find) to select that you're using slurry.
** Using x0.5 for English ales for example ... unless you change the generic rate.
*** I don't mean growth factor, I mean cell density in the starter eg: '100billion cells/ml', which since I use stepped-starters is more important for me than a 'growth factor' multiplier.
