[Kevin]

Or you can forget about cell counts and go for vitality.  It works for many of us.

^^^ This ^^^

Plus, per the verbiage you provided "made to contain" is not the same as saying "contains"

[joeinma]

Wonder if this guy is why White Labs QC reports are much more generalized now and only say "up to x number of cells" instead of listing the actual cell count on day yeast was tested, like they used to be.

[Bob357]

Better than throwing BeerSmith, or anything else Saccharomyces bad mouths, away would be to ignore this pompous ass. He has biased about almost everything and his ego elevates them above reality. Your choice, Saccharomyces or reality.

[MNWayne]

I've been brewing for about 25 years.  I've never used brewing software and usually just ignore all software discussions.  But I'm interested, why do people use it?  Maybe this should be a new discussion.

[BrewBama]

I've been brewing for about 25 years.  I've never used brewing software and usually just ignore all software discussions.  But I'm interested, why do people use it?  Maybe this should be a new discussion.

We can move this to a new discussion if required.

Here’s why I started using software:  No other reason than to say I was inexperienced and didn’t have someone guide me through. I learned by reading and watching videos (still do).

So, when it came to recipes, the way I learned was to take an existing recipe and input it into my software of choice which applies my system limitations and idiosyncrasies to get the desired outcomes (OG, IBU, color, etc).

I have since learned to do those calculations manually but old habits die hard and software is SO easy. Which is why I still use software: I can take a recipe from another brewer and have it redesigned for my system and ingredients in ~ a minute. IBU, grain bill percent, water profile, SG:BU ratio, etc all done quickly.

I also like the style guidelines reference and old recipe storage built in.

[Richard]

I agree that the recipe formulation is only one small part of why I like BeerSmith. I like the recipe storage with notes.  When I want to make a new batch I can pull up the old recipe, read the notes and very easily generate the new recipe with any changes I want. It also has a huge database of grains, hops and yeast that make life a bit easier. It can keep track of inventory and generate a shopping list for a recipe based on ingredients and inventory. I could do all the calculations of OG, SRM, IBU by myself, but BeerSmith combines them all in one.  It took a bit of time to get all my system losses and characteristics dialed in, but now I hit my gravity and volume targets very accurately every time.

[KellerBrauer]

I agree that the recipe formulation is only one small part of why I like BeerSmith. I like the recipe storage with notes.  When I want to make a new batch I can pull up the old recipe, read the notes and very easily generate the new recipe with any changes I want. It also has a huge database of grains, hops and yeast that make life a bit easier. It can keep track of inventory and generate a shopping list for a recipe based on ingredients and inventory. I could do all the calculations of OG, SRM, IBU by myself, but BeerSmith combines them all in one.  It took a bit of time to get all my system losses and characteristics dialed in, but now I hit my gravity and volume targets very accurately every time.

+1 to this!

[Andy Farke]

I agree that the recipe formulation is only one small part of why I like BeerSmith. I like the recipe storage with notes.  When I want to make a new batch I can pull up the old recipe, read the notes and very easily generate the new recipe with any changes I want. It also has a huge database of grains, hops and yeast that make life a bit easier. It can keep track of inventory and generate a shopping list for a recipe based on ingredients and inventory. I could do all the calculations of OG, SRM, IBU by myself, but BeerSmith combines them all in one.  It took a bit of time to get all my system losses and characteristics dialed in, but now I hit my gravity and volume targets very accurately every time.

+1 to this!

And another +1. I *could* do it all by hand, but having it all in one place works best for my workflow.

The main areas where I use BeerSmith:
1) Recipe design -- having a giant library of ingredients, with automatic calculations of everything I care about, is key.
2) Brew session tracking -- I take all of my notes in the software, and at least for me it's way easier than having it on paper or in separate files. If I save recipes, it's easy enough to retrieve them (and my notes) later.
3) Inventory tracking -- I like to have a stockpile of ingredients, including bulk purchases of base malts, so I find it SO handy to track an accurate accounting of what's on-hand.

I don't strictly *need* the software, but it sure does make my life easier by keeping everything in one place. I will say that I've stuck with the "offline" version, as I have little use (or trust) for keeping my brewing life in the cloud. This is largely the same reason I avoid all of the wifi/bluetooth enabled brewing gear -- I ain't paying good money for hardware that is one Android update or one company bankruptcy away from being an expensive brick.

[RC]

The only thing lost by using software over the hand-calculating everything is nostalgia and old-schoolness. These aren't useless, at least psychologically. But when it comes to this hobby, I'll take the digital over analog any day. Personally, I don't want my brew day to be the adult version of homework.