Beer Smith 3, and Brun N Water supporter question

[Redpappy]

So I know BS3 has been out for a little while now. I am looking for some feed back on it.
I currently have BS2. So far I have only done 1 batch of wine, and thinking of doing a mead soon. From what I have ready BS3 also takes care of doing wine and mead. with that I have a few questions.

How well does it do with the recipes for the wine and mead?
Is it worth the upgrade to do the the recipes in wine and mead?

As of right now, BS2 is doing what I would like it to do with as far as my beer is concern. I don't really drink wine, but I do have family members that do and I would not mind doing wine for them. As far as mead is concern, its a trial that I am doing to see if I like it or not.

My set up is BS2 for recipes and Bru'N water for additives. I am a BIABer. I know I could of upgraded when it came out, however at that time all i did was beer and did not consider doing anything else. I'm just wondering if it is worth the upgrade.

As far as Bru N Water, I run it on a mac, but it has helped out a lot. I am getting the flavors that I am expecting from my bears with using the software for my additions. My question is Since there is a different versions/variable with supported will it make a difference. I'm not sure if I get the full thing since I have to use a 3rd party to use the data base.

Thanks for all the feed back in advance

 

[bracconiere]

from his site

"BeerSmith 3 is here – enjoy a free 21 day trial version you can run side by side with your existing BeerSmith 2, or buy a license today!"

why not try it out as a trial? i still use BS2 also, so can't help you anymore then saying, try it yourself?

 

[Oginme]

It is more friendly to making wines, ciders, and meads and the process is better adapted to most common techniques. If you do or are planning on doing more than a few, it may be worth looking at during the free trial period.

On the beer brewing side, there is better support for water treatment directly within the recipe itself. The process for whirlpool/steeping hops has been improved somewhat. Now, temperature of the hop steep directly affects the utilization whereas in BS2, it was also controlled by a separate utilization factor. I did have to play with it a bit to replicate what I had developed for my system in BS2 so now I specify the timing and adjust the temperatures in BS3 to get the hop utilization I expect. My actual temperatures vary a bit from the ones that I put into BS3, but I have my system pretty well mapped for temperature decrease over time to be able to relate it to real life values.

The pH model in the recipe is improved and based upon the modeling by Mark Riffe. Mark has stated here on HBT that the model overestimates the buffering capacity of the grains and calls for about 60% more acid that what is actually needed. I had come to the same figure in my brewing comparison of actual measurements versus estimated measurements. This has been brought up to Brad's attention and is noted on the BeerSmith forum for those users who inhabit that terrain. Other than that, I have found it pretty reliable and consistent in how much it is off so getting my actual target by offsetting the target in BS3 I am able to hit my mash pH value every time.

If you are looking for improvements in the interface, surprise! There are none of note.

Other than that, if you are happy with the way BS2 is working for you and don't feel you need to take advantage of the new features, then it most likely is not worth upgrading.