Beersmith Vs Promash

[AndrewQLD]

1. You cannot open two or more recipes at once. (So you can't compare two or more recipes or anything to do with them on screen.)

2 clicks on the back or forward button will allow you to flick between 2 recipes if you have opened them both one after the other.

2. You cannot even open a tool without having to close your recipe view. How annoying is that? I find myself having to write down answers from a tool with pen and paper and then re-type them in an appropriate section. WTF?

When using one of the tools from within the recipe view, click on the tool required, enter the data ect and get your result. You can then flick back and forth between your recipe view and the tool using the forward and backward buttons at the top of the page.

At the moment you have to type in your grams and see how many IBU's you score in a totally dedicated window! It's like a game of twenty questions though you do get better at it.

You can adjust your hop amounts up and down from the recipe view in Beersmith, the IBU's are updated automatically and displayed in the beer profile section directly below the ingredients box, so it's all on one screen.

 

[AndrewQLD]

This is a big one. This leads on too, the most annoying thing I find is that you can't open a recipe and your inventory (unless there's a way I don't know about)
So if I am making last minute changes or trying to knock up a recipe from what I have you can restrict what appears to only inventory items, but you can't see how much of those items you have... Again, unless there's a way I haven't found yet. To be honest, I haven't spent a long time trying to do it, which perhaps I should...

But yes, another one for beersmith, particularly as I started using it as an extract/mini mash brewer, for whom it excels, particularly 1.4...

If you click on the find button at the top of the main page (binoculars) you will get the "find recipes by ingredient" this tool is great if you want to make something from what you have on hand in inventory. This will only search and scan for recipes from within the recipe folder you are in and not the whole recipe data base. Or again it's just a case of using the back and forward buttons to flick between your recipe and the inventory screen.

 

[SJW]

Beersmith all the way for me. Its great. Now I have over 60 brews saved I just go thru them and choose one and click "duplicate recipe", rename it and tweek it a bit and print out the recipe and the brew day page and put them in a folder for brew day and for future ref. Very easy stuff, and I dont know why U would need anything more complex than Beersmith. And for $30 US it will be the cheapest bit of brew kit u will ever own.

Steve

 

[lonte]

I reckon a good program should enable you to type in your desired IBU's (in Recipe View), your AA rating and then for it to tell you how many grams of hops are needed.

Beersmith has a button on the tool bar that allows entry of an IBU and it will attempt to modify hop quantities to meet that. For single hop additions it works perfectly, if there are multiple additions it does spread the increase over all of them.

Edit: there are similar buttons to adjust colour and gravity too.

 

[Screwtop]

2 clicks on the back or forward button will allow you to flick between 2 recipes if you have opened them both one after the other.
When using one of the tools from within the recipe view, click on the tool required, enter the data ect and get your result. You can then flick back and forth between your recipe view and the tool using the forward and backward buttons at the top of the page.
You can adjust your hop amounts up and down from the recipe view in Beersmith, the IBU's are updated automatically and displayed in the beer profile section directly below the ingredients box, so it's all on one screen.

Some handy tips Andrew.

For PP's hop bitterness use Andrews description above. Also you can enter any amount of hops for bittering, then use the bitterness tool to set the bitterness for the recipe to adjust the hop amount automatically. The bitterness tool also shows the style bitterness parameters. The scaling tools are great on both Beersmith and Promash.

Something I find useful with Beersmith is that you can enter units in any denomination and the entry will be converted to the current Beersmith unit setting. Great when using US recipes , mass units for instance, enter 8lb as your amount of base malt and this will be converted automatically to 3.63Kg or 4oz of Crystal which returns 110g. The same for volume measurements units, enter 4G returning 15.14 Litres, remember though that input Gallons are US.

Screwy

 

[Cortez The Killer]

I use promash - i suppose just because i've got my head around it and the familiarity factor

I did have a go at beersmith but didn't like it after having used promash for a while

I may give it another go - but I find that promash does everything i need it to do and i've tweaked everything nicely in there for my system

Also the windows 3.11 format is very nostalgic and comforting

I personally think its a matter of what you get used to using - both programs are essentially just calculators and only a small step in the whole brewing process

There are a couple of things that could make promash a little more user friendly in its interface - but at the end of the day it'll do pretty much what you want it to

Cheers

 

[Stuster]

I personally think its a matter of what you get used to using - both programs are essentially just calculators and only a small step in the whole brewing process

There are a couple of things that could make promash a little more user friendly in its interface - but at the end of the day it'll do pretty much what you want it to

I agree that they're pretty similar, both work fine and it's really only personal taste which one is easier to use. The one advantage Beersmith has is that it's still getting updated from time to time. Promash has just been abandoned by its author it seems with no more updates in a very long time AFAIK. To me, that's a good enough reason to get Beersmith over Promash, but you really won't go wrong with either.

 

[bconnery]

If you click on the find button at the top of the main page (binoculars) you will get the "find recipes by ingredient" this tool is great if you want to make something from what you have on hand in inventory. This will only search and scan for recipes from within the recipe folder you are in and not the whole recipe data base. Or again it's just a case of using the back and forward buttons to flick between your recipe and the inventory screen.

View attachment 16229

Cheers Andrew...
While that didn't quite get to what I was after it did make me think, and sure enough if I had taken the time to look harder, which as I said I hadn't and should, the answer to what I want is there...
The add ingredients view has an amount column, it is just off screen...A quick customize of the columns puts inventory where I want it...

 

[AndrewQLD]

There are a lot of little tricks in Beersmith that aren't too well known.

This might help you Pat

1. You cannot open two or more recipes at once. (So you can't compare two or more recipes or anything to do with them on screen.)

Select a recipe you want to view and from the "view" drop down menu click on "preview item in new window" this opens that recipe in a new window, you can then go into the recipe view of any other recipe you want to compare them. You can open up quite a few but it does get a little cramped.

 

[Jazman]

Both are good programs and i do prefer promash maybe because i got use to it but as stu o don't there is any more support or updates for promash

 

[Zierschy]

promash may be a fantastic program (I dont know), but if there's one thing that can be said about it, it's that they need to dump the entire GUI and start over. It looks and feels like you're using a windows 3.11 application.

+1

To me the Pro-mash GUI feels home-made but the Beersmith GUI is closer to most commercial software, but I am looking forward to trying the next version of Beer Tools Pro, hope they have a demo version!

 

[PistolPatch]

Thought I better squeeze in here before 11pm

Just been reading through all the useful info above.

AndrewQLD sounds like the master of Beersmith and I think should run seminars for us around the country. Screwtop could maybe be the guest speaker?

Andrew that last tip of yours is brilliant. I have two screens on my computer so it will work a treat.

Unfortunately, Beersmith is on my old computer which seems to be have gone on long service leave. I had better get it working again so as I can try out all the above suggestions.

One question...

As SJW so rightly mentioned, Beersmith is one the cheapest brewing tools we'll ever own. I'm wondering, would there be any advantage in owning two licences? For example, if you had both, 'Beermiths,' open, would any changes made in one update the other? Would it be worth the $30?

Thanks,
Pat

 

[shonky]

I'm a promasher, but only because this was the first one that I used.

One tip, if you want to open more than one recipe or session just run another copy of the program, I have had at least 3 going on my 95 laptop (only used on brew day) with no dramas.

Happy brewing

BTW (just read PP's post) you don't need multiple licenses to run more than one copy of Promash at once

 

[PistolPatch]

Just enlarged Andrew's pic shonky and I see it is only a recipe view. Good but not still quite what I was after. I really want to be able to work on and change figures in at least two windows simultaneously just like you can work on two spreadsheets at once in Excel.

I didn't realise ProMash allowed multiple openings. That has to be a huge advantage and certainly one that I had never heard of before. Thanks shonky.

AndrewQLD: On enlargemnent of your screenshot I noticed the tab HTFU plisner. What does HFTU mean?


Pat

 

[mika]

Ok, while we're on the "Things I hate about Promash" bandwagon. Copying recipes is a bit longwinded (at least the way I do it), open up a session, open up ingredients, change something so that when you click save it asks you if you'd like to save a copy. Is this the only way ?

 

[AndrewQLD]

As SJW so rightly mentioned, Beersmith is one the cheapest brewing tools we'll ever own. I'm wondering, would there be any advantage in owning two licences? For example, if you had both, 'Beermiths,' open, would any changes made in one update the other? Would it be worth the $30?

Pat, owning the one license I believe allows you to use a second copy of Beersmith on a second machine, but they would not be integrated and any changes to one would not affect the other.

HTFU= harden the F@#$ up. This Pilsner was made using Zwickels multi step mash on my herms which took a bit out of me on the day (it was a double brewday).

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Lukes]

Here is a link to the software poll from last year.

I am a happy Beersmith user and run it on 2 computers.
Like most things in modern brewing it's come a long way fast.

Brad also has tips & heaps of support on his site + no shortage of recipes to get you started or compare to your idea's.

A few of them are from Andrew and other Aussie brewers here too.

Hope it helps

- Luke

 

[AndrewQLD]

Just imported my label into Beersmith, you need to do a bit of editing of your label in a web page designer program like Frontpage ect. and save the file in the beersmith templates folder and also a copy in ""C:\Documents and Settings\{Your_login)\Local Settings\Temp" where {Your_login} is your login name.

Then open Beersmith and select Tools, options, reports then click "add" and browse for the file you saved in the reports folder.
And here is the outcome, if you have edited your label correctly Beersmith will put the name of the beer into the label for you.

 

[Screwtop]

Just imported my label into Beersmith, you need to do a bit of editing of your label in a web page designer program like Frontpage ect. and save the file in the beersmith templates folder and also a copy in ""C:\Documents and Settings\{Your_login)\Local Settings\Temp" where {Your_login} is your login name.

Then open Beersmith and select Tools, options, reports then click "add" and browse for the file you saved in the reports folder.
And here is the outcome, if you have edited your label correctly Beersmith will put the name of the beer into the label for you.
View attachment 16430

Very Nice Andrew!!!!

 

[braufrau]

Unfortunately, Beersmith is on my old computer which seems to be have gone on long service leave. I had better get it working again so as I can try out all the above suggestions.

One question...

As SJW so rightly mentioned, Beersmith is one the cheapest brewing tools we'll ever own. I'm wondering, would there be any advantage in owning two licences? For example, if you had both, 'Beermiths,' open, would any changes made in one update the other? Would it be worth the $30?

One of the nice things about Beersmith is it doesn't fiddle with your registry or install DLLs in the system folder so you
can keep it on a flash stick, which is what I do, and then I can use it on my desktop and on HWMBOs laptop (handy on brew day) and bring it to work to consult recipes when I ring the HBS.

When I've bottled a brew I back the whole beersmith folder up to my desktop, just in case.