Hi!
The only cases I have found of this were caused by a corrupt data file. Here's a manual process for detecting the file and correcting it from the automatic backups.
1. VERY IMPORTANT - FIRST BACK UP ALL OF YOUR DATA FILES - to include everything in the C:\Program Files\BeerSmith directory. Especially the *.BSM and *.BAK files. Copy them to another safe location in a separate directory on your hard drive. Copy everything so you do not lose any data.
2. I'm not sure which file might be corrupt, but BeerSmith makes backups of all your files automatically.
a. After you have copied all of the files to a separate location, you can try deleting (MAKE SURE THEY ARE COPIED SOMEWHERE SAFE FIRST!) all of the *.BSM and *.BAK files in the "c:\Program Files\BeerSmith" directory. This will empty all of your databases. Then run BeerSmith - it should run but you will have no data in your databases. If it does not run at this point, drop me an email.
b. Now try opening each of the BSM files in your SAVED COPY directory from BeerSmith using the IMPORT command on the File menu. Start with the data files (Grain.bsm, and so on) first and try the Recipe.bsm last.
c. You will likely find at least one that does not open. If that is the case, try opening the backup files with the same name (i.e. "Recipe_1.bak" , "Recipe_2.bak" and so on until you find one that runs OK.
d. Now its time to restore the files...probably the easiest way to do this is to simply copy and paste the items from each "good" saved file (as you open them) into the respective tables in your corresponding database. For example after you open "Grain.bsm" and make sure it is good, you can select all of the items in it and copy/paste them into your "Grains & Extracts" main table. Repeat for all of them until you are running again.
An alternative (also) is to just copy the good files back to your "c:\Program Files\BeerSmith" directory.
I'm sorry this is so manually intensive. The next version of BeerSmith I'm working on will attempt to automatically recover from such errors by pulling up the backup databases from newest to oldest.
Please drop me an email if you have any additional questions or problems.
Cheers!
Brad