I know this is a well ridden horse, but is their a reasonable way of migrating MY recipes
from ProMash to BeerSmith v2.0.40? Will BeerSmith v2.0 import xml? Or, will I be entering
them one brew at a time?
The first release of BeerSmith 2 doesn’t import xml. Brad said a future update will. He recommended importing to BeerSmith 1.4 and exporting as .bsm, which the new version can import. Kind of a long workaround, but better than one by one. Last I checked, you could still download a trial of 1.4
I have a utility (can’t recall where I found it) that converts Promash recipes to xml. Then you can load the xml files into Beersmith 1.4 and experot them as bsm files that can be loaded into BS2. The utility will batch export Promash recipes, but you have to load and save them in BS1.4 one at a time. A total PITA and needless to say I haven’t imported many recipes in BS2 yet.
Thanks, I got a couple of recipes imported for the trial period. The jury is still
way out on this version. New paint and more chrome, but little has changed
under the hood; is an easy to format recipe report too much to ask for? Lots
of PTA little issues for someone fifty something.
Nope…I keep trying to learn Beersmith, but between confusion and stuff I’m used to in Promash that isn’t in Beersmith, I keep going back to Promash. I haven’t given up on Beersmith, though.
So this brings up the question, what is the motivation to move to Beersmith? If Promash has worked for you (and me) for so many years, why change? Is it simply because it’s still evolving and getting updates, whereas we all know Promash is not?
Denny,
what does ProMash have that BeerSmith doesn’t that keeps pulling you back?
Both are good programs. I have helped both authors develop the programs. I found the ProMash database was too limiting for me.
I was playing around with a lot of different things and if I wanted to use a new hop I had to find some ingredient to delete from the database (a limit if 255 entries).
but I’d like to know, what is in Promash that isn’t in Beersmith? Granted I only used the trial version of Promash before deciding on Beersmith, but I can’t recall any situation where there was a difference in terms of capability - I just preferred the look and feel of Beersmith better and hence chose it and became accustomed.
I switched to Beersmith because I have a PC and a Mac and it works on both for the same price. I would not have switched from Promash except that my PC hard drive crashed and the new PC doesn’t like the antique floppy discs that I originally loaded Promash with, whenever that was.
Hopefully I’ll be able to learn to export my recipe docs to Beersmith. I still find it a bit cumbersome, but I’m still learning. It is a lot fancier.
Understandable motivation, but for me it’s fallen into the, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” category. I’m fond of and familiar with the layout of Promash, so I’ve never been motivated to move away from it, despite the lack of updates. I was not aware of the limit of 255 entries in the DBs though. Whenever I encounter that, it may be motivation to start looking at something else. But I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it
Nope. I’m willing to give Beersmith 2.0 a try but haven’t done it yet. In the past, I found it to be cluttered with features I didn’t need or with dubious value (FG predictions). ProMash and Kai’s water spreadsheet do everything I need to do with a better interface for me. Right now I’m not lacking anything.
I met Brad at NHC and he was a really nice guy, though.
Also, in response to jeffy, you can run ProMash easily on a Mac using wine, even using your PC installation if you have that hard drive mounted. I hear Beersmith 2.0 fails though, but there is a Mac version.
I used to use promash, but the computer I had it on was stolen and I had misplaced the disks. If I was going to buy a new one, I figured I’d go with one that was being updated and didn’t have the limits Fred mentioned.
I know that he will, Fred. I think that at this point the thing I’m having the most trouble with is that Beersmith seems to rigid about making you do stuff its way. Maybe that means I haven’t looked at Beersmith enough, which I freely admit. But ya know, I don’t wanna choose a mash profile from a list. I don’t want to have to deal with equipment profiles. I want it to be more free form. It’s entirely possible that it can work like that and I haven’t figured it out yet, which is why I keep going back to Beersmith and working with it. I also have to figure out how to get it to give me the same results as Promash in terms of gravity, IBUs, volumes and stuff like that so I can can work on recipes that I’ve used before and have them give me the same results. I’m not in any way dissing Beersmith. I just need more time and experience with it. Until I can get that, I’ll stay with Promash or use both at once so I can see what the differences are and how to deal with them.
For me, there are a couple motivations. One is just to see what I might be missing out on by not using Beersmith. The other is that I made a commitment to Brad to learn Beersmith. I’m interested in seeing how he implements batch sparging and to see if there might be anything I can contribute to improve it. The database limitation in Promash isn’t a problem for me. I really don’t need to keep the specs from hops I bought in 2005 any more. If I should ever run up against the limit (and I can’t imagine I ever will) there’s plenty of stuff there I can delete.
Same for me. I don’t know the purpose of a set mash schedule or why I need to input my system’s equipment. I haven’t spent enough time on it yet to see why and how it all works. I wanted to record the mash schedule on my last brew and gave up after several minutes, adding it to the “notes” section.
I’ll figure it out eventually, but like Denny, I liked the simplicity of Promash just fine.
I just thought of one thing I definitely prefer about Promash…it doesn’t make FG predictions! There is no way a piece of software can accurately do that and I don’t know how many people have been confused by Beersmith telling them where their beer “should” finish. IMO, Beersmith should just get rid of that “feature”.
While there are several set mash profiles, as ther are in ProMash, you can define your own, as you can in ProMash.
Email me the same recipe in both ProMash .rec and BeerSmith .bsmx
Be sure and tell me what formula you are using in ProMash. and I’ll help you “dial it in”.