So So Disappointed - It has major problems! – BeerSmith Mobile Home Brewing Review

First let me say I was stoked to find this app to managed my brews from a tablet. I've seen Brewsmith referenced in numerous forums and had great expectations. So how disappointed was I when I paid my money and download it, VERY. First, the general design and layout is not very intuitive. The human factors aspect is rather poor, and with very little work it could be greatly improved. I feel not much effort was made in its design. It really needs a complete rethink. Setting this aside, the biggest bugaboo is with the water analysis feature. It is borderline useless, and in fact so bad I was forced to use a different program, defeating the object of getting this app. Let me explain. Water is treated as an ingredient, which makes sense. You can define your water profile. There is also a water analysis tool, great you say, not so fast. First it disconnected from your recipe, so it does not pick up on the amount of water needing to be adjusted. Moreover, there is no way to select a target water profile to adjust your actual brewing water against. There is a drop down list of many water profiles, but if you select one it assumes that this is the water you are using in the recipe. There is no way to select a target water profile, and make an adjustment against the actual water you are brewing with. Yes really! As I said this tool is useless. There are so many good water analysis tools to use as a design reference. There are even tools that automatically work out the mineral adjustments, nirvana, but I would settle for the absolute barebones functionally of manual adjustment. There is another major problem with the app. First if you like to BIAB you will find now way under the equipment section to account for wort absorption. Moreover, if you keep the grain quantity the same and increase the final wort volume in an attempt to account for absorption the pre-boil SG remains unchanged. I'm of the opinion that this entire section is broken. I would hold off getting this app, it's not worth the frustration as you will find yourself using a different program.
Review by BirtieBrewMonster on BeerSmith Mobile Home Brewing.