Recent content by bertmurphy

Beerxml is very much alive. Using that schema for you needs might be overkill. It ends up being about 20 or so tables. I second the csv, but just store what u need and don't worry about beerxml as you aren't really doing any recipe management. If you are interested in the beerxml schema it...

I'm a programmer by trade looking for a project to collaborate with or maybe even start a new brewing software project. The gap I'm aiming to fill is integration with brewing supply stores for ingredients and such. I've found myself cross-referencing the northern brewer and brewmaster's...

I just broke ground on a project exactly like this. I'm excellent at backend programming but not too great with the design part so I am dreading the front end stuff. With so many other apps now I'm starting to second-guess my project though. I'd love to contribute to this project in any way...

If you're really interested in measuring temperatures over fermentation then that would be simple to do with an Arduino board and a couple of temperature probes. You'd just need to write a small program to take temperature samples at a given interval and record them to a file. What this...

I haven't gotten the scoresheets back yet, but I'll give my own opinions. It was definitely too cloudy. I don't know if this is a result of the Rye Malt or my process, but I will definitely use Irish Moss next time and be more careful when draining the kettle and whirlpooling. I think it was...

Update. This was my final recipe. Got gold in Specialty Beer category at the Bluff City Brewers Extravaganza in Memphis. Thanks for the help guys. 9.5 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 76.0 % 1 lbs Munich Malt Type II (10.0 SRM) Grain 8.0 % 1 lbs Rye Malt (3.0 SRM) Grain 8.0 %...

I'm looking for someone in the Atlanta area that can cut and weld some steel tubing for a Brutus 10 (ish) build. I'm not looking for a professional, if I wanted one I'd go grab the yellow pages. I'm just looking for someone with the equipment and a little know-how. I'll bring the steel to...

Yea, I'm sure they can track it down from the lot number.

I can't answer your question, but I think its interesting to note the difference in the data you just got and the data that Beersmith uses for Seattle water: Name: Seattle, WA PH: 7.8 Calcium: 17.0 Magnesium: 1.0 Sodium: 4.0 Sulfate: 2.0 Chloride: 4.0 Bicarbonate: 18.0 Notes: Seattle...

There are a lot of charts and calculators on the web to account for this. Do your gravity reading and then measure the temperature of the wort that you used to take the gravity reading. Plug it in to one of the calculators/graphs and voila. ex: http://www.brewheads.com/gravcorrect.php -...

are you sure thats the date on it? post a pic

You're probably right on the category. My main point was that it doesn't necessarily belong in a porter according to the style guide. The guide does mention licorice and toffee which could possibly be considered vanilla-esque. Enter it in multiple categories and see what the judges think...

In short, yes. There is no mention of vanilla in the style guide for porters. In general, using vanilla usually puts a beer in 23. When you hear of a beer being characterized with vanilla it would likely be a subtle creamy character associated with the specialty malts used in the recipe.

Scaling from 5 gallons to 3.5 gallons should be ok, especially if you're letting beersmith do the math. Scaling to much larger batch sizes (hundreds of gallons) is where you need to take additional consideration. Personally I hate working with ounces when it comes to hops. My postage scale...

You could use the oxyclean to remove the labels, then throw the bottles in the dishwasher without detergent. I've done this for my last couple batches and it works fine. The bottom rack of my dishwasher has about 50 bars sticking up that allow you to fit the bottle upside down onto each of...