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Getting Started

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BeerSmith 2 offers a ton of features for the home brewer and professional brewer alike.

 

This getting started guide is intended to help you get up to speed quickly, even if you have never brewed before.

 

Activation and Trial Versions

oBeerSmith has a 21 day trial period (no activation required), after that you must purchase a key to continue to use BeerSmith unless you have already purchased BeerSmith 2.  Existing users may upgrade by purchasing a key for BeerSmith 2.  Once you have your key you can Activate BeerSmith to permanently register your copy.

 

Key Features for Building Recipes

oMost of time with BeerSmith will likely be spent designing and editing recipes. This is done from the My Recipes View which is displayed when you first enter BeerSmith.
oYou can add a new recipe to your My Recipes folder by clicking on the Add Recipe Button on the ribbon which opens the recipe design editor in a new tab.
oThere is a tutorial on creating your first recipe here.  BeerSmith comes pre-loaded with the most common brewing ingredients so it is a matter of choosing the ones you want in the recipe design tab and adjusting the amounts to create a new recipe.
oOnce you are done with your recipe you can save it by pressing the OK button
oWe also have video tutorials on creating recipes here.

 

Creating an Equipment Profile

oTo best use BeerSmith, it is important that you create a personal equipment profile to match your particular set of brewing equipment
oThe process only takes a few minutes - but using an accurate equipment profile within your recipes will improve your results.  Equipment can also be used to more quickly and accurately scale and adapt sample recipes that came with BeerSmith or you downloaded from the internet.

 

More Advanced Recipe Features

oThe recipe editor also has tabs for yeast starters, mash details, fermentation and notes.
oIn addition you can print step-by-step instructions for the recipe you just created
oYou can use the buttons on the ribbon to quickly scale and adjust your recipe
oYou can also add your own ingredients to the list of pre-loaded ones
oYou can import and export recipes and other data from the internet to share your recipes with friends, and scale imported recipes to match your personal equipment

 

Standalone Tools and Unit Converters

oBeerSmith comes with 15 stand-alone tools to perform the most common brewing calculations
oIt also has unit conversion tools for converting between different unit systems, and you can even do unit conversions and simple calculations in any field

 

Shopping, Inventory, Calendar and Notes

oBeerSmith includes a shopping cart to make your personal shopping list for the next trip to the store.  You can even add all the ingredients for a recipe to the shopping cart in one click using the Add to Cart button from the open recipe.
oThe shopping cart and recipes are integrated with the inventory view - for easy inventory management.
oA brewing calendar and notes feature lets you track and schedule your brewing sessions and brewing events.