BeerSmith 2.0 reviews

I had pre-ordered this a few weeks ago, and downloaded and activated Saturday in prep for a Sundy brew session.  (Dark American Lager, from BCS)

Anyway, didn’t play around too much, but I sure like the sliding scales to tell you how your matching the selected beer style.  All in all, it looks like a great improvement.  Good job Brad.

I had about 5 minutes to spare this weekend so I downloaded and installed it.  I love that fact that everything I had customized in version 1.4 carried over to 2.0 seamlessly.

I’m looking forward to playing around with it this week.

I started using it this weekend. It took me a bit to find some of the features. Other than that I really like the new version. The tabs make it easier to go between a recipe and conversion tables, etc.

Can you directly set the evaporation rate, or do you have to extrapolate from the starting volume/ending volume measurements?

I don’t have 2.0 in front of me but you can set your evaporation rate in the equipment setup.

Anyone notice that if you hot one of the tabs in the recipe window and then makw an adjustment, i.e., mash profile, it covers up the tabs, making it difficult to return to the previous tab. Overall, I like it. Really like the style sliders. adjusted recipe by adjusting SRM.  Worked geeat!

I really like the new version. Going to take a while before I’m as comfy with it as the old one.
Can’t understand why boil off is calculated as %/hr. Seems like it should be a straight volume per hour.
If I have a 12%/hr boil off, then with 5g, an hour later I’ll have lost .6g, then the next hour I’ll lose another .53, an hour later another .46, etc.
Then, on the same equipment starting with 10g I magically lose 1.2g in one hour…

I never got too in depth with 1.4.  Only used it for 1 recipe so far and I’m still doing extract so the calculations I need are limited.

But, BS 2 looks awesome, and I’m excited to start using it.

Also, the picture of the pint of beer that shows you the estimated SRM gets me pumped to brew!!  ;D

The new version has some awesome new features (specifying grist percentages, tabbed recipe browsing), but has some paradigm shifts as well.

You have to enter a volume.  The old version had an editable percentage (i.e. 9% boil off/hour) and the new version has an editable volume instead.  I wish you could still edit the percentage.

Another change is in mash thickness ratios.  You can only edit the amount of the infusion (8 qts) instead of being able to specify a ratio, such as 1.5qts/lb like in the old version.  Something to get used to for sure.

I saw Brad say on the Beersmith forum that he’ll change this to allow ratios in a future release. He’s been very responsive to feedback there.

Just downloaded mine last night and looks good so far. I’ll weigh in as I get more use.

I just installed it and I’m starting to play with it.  I’m disappointed that I’ll have to manually figure ratios.  Oh, the agony!  ;)  I had a chance to meet Brad at NHC and I was really impressed by his dedication to make the software what we want it to be.  I’m hoping I’m gonna love it!

I think you can still do % for evaporation rate in 2.0.  I just went into my equipment and found it.

FWIW, a new version (Build 40) with fixes and enhancements was posted a couple hours ago.

Thanks, Denny.  Do you download from the site or does it update from within the software?

According to Brad, you must download a clean copy.

In the initial 2.0 release, the automatic updater is broken so you need to d/l if from the site.  That’s one of the things fixed in the new build.

Got it…and downloaded. We must have seen it at about the same time.

With the newest download ratios are now editable.  Yeah!

Denny,
ProMash where is you love???