I purchased Beersmith2 and I think that it is OK, so far, but only OK. I don't have time right now to write a complete report on everything that I feel should be looked at, but I am going to ask about something that came up as I was working on recently, trying to refine a recipe.
I am trying to decide on what hops to use in a recipe. I often order my ingredients from Midwest and they have pretty thorough descriptions of the hops that they have for sale. One of the problems that I have with Beersmith is that there is some discrepancy between the descriptions of hop characteristics on Midwest, compared to the descriptions on Beersmith. Are hop characteristics subjective to the point that Midwest might describe a hop as a hop with aromatic characteristics, while Beersmith categorizes it as only a bittering hop? For example, Chinook, in the Midwest catalog, is described as "pleasant, but intense aroma," while Beersmith categorizes it as a bittering hop. It looks to me as if Chinook might be a really good aroma hop, but I wouldn't know that if I followed Beersmith.
Also, there are many hops that are listed in the Midwest catalog that are nowhere to be found on Beersmith. Does Beersmith do any kind of upgrading to keep abreast of offerings from major suppliers like Midwest?
I am trying to decide on what hops to use in a recipe. I often order my ingredients from Midwest and they have pretty thorough descriptions of the hops that they have for sale. One of the problems that I have with Beersmith is that there is some discrepancy between the descriptions of hop characteristics on Midwest, compared to the descriptions on Beersmith. Are hop characteristics subjective to the point that Midwest might describe a hop as a hop with aromatic characteristics, while Beersmith categorizes it as only a bittering hop? For example, Chinook, in the Midwest catalog, is described as "pleasant, but intense aroma," while Beersmith categorizes it as a bittering hop. It looks to me as if Chinook might be a really good aroma hop, but I wouldn't know that if I followed Beersmith.
Also, there are many hops that are listed in the Midwest catalog that are nowhere to be found on Beersmith. Does Beersmith do any kind of upgrading to keep abreast of offerings from major suppliers like Midwest?