BeerSmith 3: Here it comes. Thoughts?

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I like having my recipes at my fingertips if I happen to stroll into the LHBS. That is the main reason I use the cloud storage. I do print paper copies for brew day. Mostly just to make notes on really, but I am the worst at putting that stuff in a safe place to keep for future reference later. I also have my laptop up and running but only during the brewing process whereas the paper copy kinda stays with the batch throughout fermentation/completion.
 
I bit but got the standalone version. Realized I was fine with that same arrangement in BS2. Looking forward to getting it. I wonder if it will eliminate the need for Bru'n Water? BW has treated me well so far.
 
Horseflesh said:
I bit but got the standalone version. Realized I was fine with that same arrangement in BS2. Looking forward to getting it. I wonder if it will eliminate the need for Bru'n Water? BW has treated me well so far.
Click to expand...
I always use the water profile tool in BS and never needed Bru'n Water.
 
I tried the water stuff in BS2 and did not like it. For one it only allowed the use of chalk for adding alkalinity. Sounds like the new version will have many changes in this area. I do really like the idea of having my mineral PPMs as part of the recipe so everything is in one place.
 
I too had better luck with bru'n water and it is a great product, one i will definitely be measuring BS3 against.
 
I pulled the trigger on the standalone version. My hope is that he got the disaster that was whirlpooling fixed. Water chemistry accuracy is a bonus. I'll be waiting a while for first hand experience, since I'll be waiting for the Linux version.
 
I just downloaded it, it seems pretty much the same as the previous one, although I havent looked under the hood yet. But the pictures for the color of the beers, what the hell happened there?
 
It appears to be functional in Linux, using WINE. Some errors at the beginning, but seems to work fine if you ignore them. I'm not going to put any effort into it, since I bought it, and can definitely wait for the Linux version. BS2 is fine for me in the interim.
 
Looks like a perpetual license is a thing of the past.
The ‘one time’ fee licenses you for 25 years.

Not sure what the online tools hold in store for us.
Looking forward to playing with the water more when I have time. The features read like you can easily separate mash and sparge additions. That’s been cumbersome in BS2.
 
FunkedOut said:
Looks like a perpetual license is a thing of the past.
The ‘one time’ fee licenses you for 25 years.
Click to expand...

My liver is only good for about 18 years.

My main reason for avoiding the fog subscription is if I duck out of homebrewing for a few years I don't want to keep paying during my brewing holiday.
 
... You can get the new images back!

Click "options" on the menu bar.
upload_2018-6-15_23-15-40.png


Then uncheck "Use New Beer Glass Icons".
upload_2018-6-15_23-17-37.png


You will now have the old beer glass and color representation!
upload_2018-6-15_23-20-21.png
 

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Pkrd said:
My liver is only good for about 18 years.

My main reason for avoiding the fog subscription is if I duck out of homebrewing for a few years I don't want to keep paying during my brewing holiday.
Click to expand...

This is the big flaw for all software subscription models imho. You have nothing if you need to stop the payments. It is designed to be a win for the company.
 
All you folks who are against the cloud should go tell the kids to get off your lawn! :p

But seriously, I think it's a shame that every service has to have it's own subscription, cloud, etc. The comment a while back that the mobile version can't open a file independent of the cloud makes me even more irritated...that would've been one of the few things that would have gotten me to switch, would be to have a mobile version of my brewing software.

I want to like Beer Smith, and I've downloaded the trial a few times in the past, but couldn't get into it. I've been using ProMash forever, and now that I have my PM files on my OneDrive (which syncs a local version, too, so you can access it if you're ever offline, and then updates the cloud version later...), I'm not sure I have a reason to switch.
 
I cant seem to get mash pH to align with bru n water. bru n water calculates 5.3 and measured 5.3 on a recent batch. Beersmith calculates 5.57. This particular batch did not require acidification. Anyone seeing this as well?
 
Downloaded mine today, played around with a recipe and the water addition stuff. Now I just need to brew a batch and see just how things turn out. I am hoping to find the time next week.
 
Okay, something is fishy.

EDIT: User error. My recipe was imported from BS2 and it did not automatically use the changes I made to the equipment profile in BS3. Once I added them to the equipment profile in the recipe itself it gave me what look like valid numbers.

I live at 4373' of elevation. I was excited to have that factored into BS3.

My primary recipe, an English Strong Bitter, on BS2 says 59.7IBUs, on BS3 it now says 62.3IBUs. I have entered my boil temp in the equipment profile as well as imputing my elevation. My boil temp is 204f. I'm getting lower hops utilization and I know it. Why is BS3 telling me my already high estimate of 59.7IBUs is actually 62.3IBUs.

I overshoot on my IBUs because I know I'm not getting there. I was really excited the BS3 might give me more accurate IBU estimates. That doesn't seem to be the case.
 
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It looks like I will also continue to use bru'n water for my water adjustments. BS3 advertisement made it seem like water adjustment was seamless with the recipe builder. I'll play with the water adjustment, but I don't see it doing for me what bru'n water does for me.

Edit: I purchased the gold subscription, btw.
 
Gameface said:
Okay, something is fishy.

I live at 4373' of elevation. I was excited to have that factored into BS3.

My primary recipe, an English Strong Bitter, on BS2 says 59.7IBUs, on BS3 it now says 62.3IBUs. I have entered my boil temp in the equipment profile as well as imputing my elevation. My boil temp is 204f. I'm getting lower hops utilization and I know it. Why is BS3 telling me my already high estimate of 59.7IBUs is actually 62.3IBUs.

I overshoot on my IBUs because I know I'm not getting there. I was really excited the BS3 might give me more accurate IBU estimates. That doesn't seem to be the case.
Click to expand...

I'm in Ogden and was really hoping that this would be corrected and more accurate. I've been over shooting on all my recipes on the IBU's because of the altitude, and this really sounds like a bummer that this is so far off. That, to me, was the major draw in upgrading. I was dead set on upgrading but now I'm having second thoughts. Thx for the review
 
Gameface said:
Okay, something is fishy.

I live at 4373' of elevation. I was excited to have that factored into BS3.

My primary recipe, an English Strong Bitter, on BS2 says 59.7IBUs, on BS3 it now says 62.3IBUs. I have entered my boil temp in the equipment profile as well as imputing my elevation. My boil temp is 204f. I'm getting lower hops utilization and I know it. Why is BS3 telling me my already high estimate of 59.7IBUs is actually 62.3IBUs.

I overshoot on my IBUs because I know I'm not getting there. I was really excited the BS3 might give me more accurate IBU estimates. That doesn't seem to be the case.
Click to expand...

Can it be that "hop carryover" after boil is checked by default in BS3, and you didn't check that box in BS2?
 
biochemedic said:
All you folks who are against the cloud should go tell the kids to get off your lawn!
Click to expand...

Not against cloud at all when it makes sense and improves things. Its the pay monthly or lose it aspect that I have a problem with. I'd rather pay a larger price up front for a perpetual license and know that I can keep using the software if money gets tight. After all, one of the advantages of home brewing is the ability to make excellent beer at a lower cost per gallon than commercial options. The $14.00 six pack seems to be more commonplace these days...

And talk about telling kids to get off your lawn... ProMash?? :eek:
 
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Smellyglove said:
Can it be that "hop carryover" after boil is checked by default in BS3, and you didn't check that box in BS2?
Click to expand...
That is probably it. I will deselect and see what it says.

Edit: Okay, my apologies. I set up my profile but this recipe was imported from BS2 and it seems it did not apply the new equipment profile settings. My IBUs went from 63 to 48 when I updated the altitude in the equipment profile in the recipe and then back up to 49.7 when I factored in hop utilization during whirlpool. So it seems it is working.
 
Gameface said:
Okay, something is fishy.

EDIT: User error. My recipe was imported from BS2 and it did not automatically use the changes I made to the equipment profile in BS3. Once I added them to the equipment profile in the recipe itself it gave me what look like valid numbers.

I live at 4373' of elevation. I was excited to have that factored into BS3.

My primary recipe, an English Strong Bitter, on BS2 says 59.7IBUs, on BS3 it now says 62.3IBUs. I have entered my boil temp in the equipment profile as well as imputing my elevation. My boil temp is 204f. I'm getting lower hops utilization and I know it. Why is BS3 telling me my already high estimate of 59.7IBUs is actually 62.3IBUs.

I overshoot on my IBUs because I know I'm not getting there. I was really excited the BS3 might give me more accurate IBU estimates. That doesn't seem to be the case.
Click to expand...

Double check AA (if modified) has carried over. Also, there is some revisions to how beersmith calculates whirlpool hops. It now takes temperature of the whirlpool into consideration. Double check the hop addition if this applies.
 
Gameface said:
It looks like I will also continue to use bru'n water for my water adjustments. BS3 advertisement made it seem like water adjustment was seamless with the recipe builder. I'll play with the water adjustment, but I don't see it doing for me what bru'n water does for me.

Edit: I purchased the gold subscription, btw.
Click to expand...

I found the new BS3 water tool to be very seamless. I created my base water profile using the results of a Ward Labs Brewers test of my water. I click the water button... add my base and the select a target profile for the style I'm brewing. BS3 will automatically determine which additions I need to match that profile and adds them right into the recipe.
 
kevin58 said:
I found the new BS3 water tool to be very seamless. I created my base water profile using the results of a Ward Labs Brewers test of my water. I click the water button... add my base and the select a target profile for the style I'm brewing. BS3 will automatically determine which additions I need to match that profile and adds them right into the recipe.
Click to expand...
I will give it a shot.
 
aeviaanah said:
Double check AA (if modified) has carried over. Also, there is some revisions to how beersmith calculates whirlpool hops. It now takes temperature of the whirlpool into consideration. Double check the hop addition if this applies.
Click to expand...
It was user error on my part. I thought that because the recipe was using my equipment profile that when I updated my equipment profile it would push to it and all my other recipes that used it. That's not the case. You need to go to each recipe and update the equipment profile in that recipe in order to get results that consider elevation and whirlpool hops.

It's working now and I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm right on the upper edge, but within style guidelines in regard to IBUs, on all the recipes I've checked so far.
 
Do we have the final word yet on whether the new licensing method requires phoning home every startup, or just once? This is pretty much the only thing holding me back (mostly on principle, rather than for any practical reason, although I suppose I might want to design a recipe on my laptop when away from wifi).
 
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mmmWord said:
Do we have the final word yet on whether the new licensing method requires phoning home every startup, or just once?
Click to expand...
I just did a 10-second test and disconnected the Ethernet cable from my computer and it seemed to start/run ok. The cloud features were obviously unavailable.
 
I am surprised the water screen only tells you the mineral content of your mash water and not your final mineral content after boil.
 
alestateyall said:
I am surprised the water screen only tells you the mineral content of your mash water and not your final mineral content after boil.
Click to expand...

Is there a program that does? I'd be dubious about it, since any program must make gross assumptions about the mineral content of the grains used and that can be highly variable depending upon where the barley/wheat/rye/whatever is grown.
 
bpgreen said:
I live at an elevation, so I like the fact that this release adjusts for that.
Click to expand...

What are the adjustments for altitude? I'm at 1000 m so water boils at about 96 C here but I'm not sure what aspect of BeerSmith this would affect?
 
trav77 said:
What are the adjustments for altitude? I'm at 1000 m so water boils at about 96 C here but I'm not sure what aspect of BeerSmith this would affect?
Click to expand...
Hop utilization/bitterness, I would think. Perhaps boil off rate, too?
 
aeviaanah said:
I cant seem to get mash pH to align with bru n water. bru n water calculates 5.3 and measured 5.3 on a recent batch. Beersmith calculates 5.57. This particular batch did not require acidification. Anyone seeing this as well?
Click to expand...

I played with it and saw the same. Did you ever figure out why BS3 and Brunwater are so different?
 

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