homebrewandbeer.com

In order to reduce the level of guesswork when formulating recipes, I'm looking at purchasing some HB software.

So, Beersmith or Promash?

Any suggestions, please?

Cheers.

I just bought Beersmith if that's any help, but that's only my opinion.
See what others think.

I use Beersmith

Another beersmith user here, though I haven't tried promash so I don't know how they compare.

I tried both of the trial versions and went with Beersmith. I seemed to get my head around it a little easier.

I can't work out how to use promash but I managed to get Beersmith running.

One vote here for Promash - but some disclaimers...

I found it crappy for partial mash brewing IMHO - all grain brewing with Promash is pretty straightforward, one you understand how it works and how you set up your brew system water usage and efficiency defaults within it.

Cheers,
TL

Promash here.

I've been using Beersmith and have been finding it useful for a beginner. Formulated my West Brunswick Brune recipe with it, so will give a definitive answer in about 3 weeks.

Also, I am running Linux (Ubuntu) and managed to get it running through Wine (no pun intended) with little effort.

Thanks for the input fellas.

So far, seems Beersmith gets the nod for ease of use.

Am yet to make my mind up, however. Will have to take the trial software downloads for a spin (I thought I'd wait until I had some opinions, as per this forum).

Thanks again, and cheers.

I downloaded both & found Beersmith to be the most user friendly so stuck with that. horses for courses, they both have their strengths, but in the end either will do admirably. Beersmith has an updated version coming out very shortly though, so should get even better

cheers ross

I'm using promash

It has it short comings in doing things quickly but I like it none the less

Cheers

I have downloaded a trial version of both beersmith and promash, and entered in the same ingredients for a english IPA, and am getting varied results for the IBU calculations.

OG and SRM are the same for the same set of ingredients.

30g Horizon hops @ 11% = 330AAg
Boil gravity = 1.056
Hop boil time 60 minutes.
Batch size 23L

Beersmith reports 26 IBUs
ProMash reports a range from 41.5 for whole to 45.69 for pellets

So I though I would check this using palmer's How To Brew book's calculation and I get an IBU 31.36

Here are my calculations
U = .2186
V = 23L
AAg = 330

IBU = AAg * U * 10 / V


Any ideas why both IBUs are worlds apart??

They're probably using different algorithms. I know that at least in promash you can choose the one that it uses (from memory there are like 9 you can choose). Tinseth is one of the most consistent and popular.

Or have a listen to this:

Basic Brewing Radio: July 5, 2007 - Measuring and Predicting IBUs

Two chemistry professors, Bradley Sturgeon and Paul Charlesworth, join BBR veterans James Spencer, Andy Sparks, Steve Wilkes and Mark Smith to share the results of an experiment putting IBU prediction formulas through their paces.

Oh, and the Hops FAQ - Estimating Beer Bitterness

thanks for those links

very informative about IBUs. Lesson, pick a formula and stick to it.

Cheers