BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog » News

BeerSmith 2 Update Posted (Build 40)

Brad Smith — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:20:40 +0000

This will be a short note to let you know I just released an update to BeerSmith 2. I’ve posted BeerSmith 2 Build 40 (2.0.40) to the main download page here.

This is a recommended update for all users of BeerSmith 2 – as it contains over 30 fixes and enhancements for items that people wanted fixed immediately after the initial release such as boil off rate, water/grain ratios, BIAB profiles, and adding the Save As button back in. The release notes are here.

Due to a bug in the version 38 and lower (including the initial release) this update will not show up when you click on the updates button – so you do need to go to the download page to grab the new version.

To install it, simply download it and install it to the same Program Files or application directory as your BeerSmith 2 install. Do not install it to your Documents directory, however, as that could overwrite your existing data.

Happy brewing!

Brad Smith

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Countdown to BeerSmith 2 – 10 June Launch!

Brad Smith — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:23:52 +0000

Let the countdown begin! BeerSmith 2 will be available for download this Friday, 10 June 2011, starting at noon Eastern time (US) for both Windows and the Macintosh from our main site at BeerSmith.com.

That only leaves you a few days to take advantage of the BeerSmith preorder discounts (both for new and existing users).

BeerSmith 2 is the biggest product release since our original BeerSmith 1.0 way back in 2003 – a complete rewrite of the program for both Macintosh and PC, and we believe it will set the new standard for beer brewing software.

In preparation for the launch, I’ve redone the entire BeerSmith web site at BeerSmith.com, and I’ve added a wealth of resources for those who might still be on the fence regarding BeerSmith 2. I think brewers at all levels will be happy with the result.

I have a new Features page showing some of the key features in BeerSmith 2 as well as my previous post regarding features
I’ve added over a dozen video tutorials on BeerSmith 2, and will be publishing additional overviews shortly
The entire help system for BeerSmith 2 is now available online as well

Again, you can get a discount if you preorder your copy, but the preorder is open only until the official launch date.

Also, I would like to take one more opportunity to thank the (nearly 100) people who participated in beta testing!

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BeerSmith 2 Release Date, Pricing, and Preorder

Brad Smith — Thu, 19 May 2011 17:28:27 +0000

After my earlier post announcing BeerSmith 2, I received a lot of email asking when it would be available and how much it would cost. I’m pleased to announce both the BeerSmith 2 release date, pricing and also open up the preorder for those who wish to get a great discount on the next generation in brewing software.

BeerSmith 2 Release Date: 10 June 2011

I’m launching BeerSmith 2 in conjunction with the National Homebrewer’s Conference in San Diego June 16-18 2011. As I will be attending the conference, I’m currently working to release the software on 10 June. BeerSmith 2 will be available for both PC and Mac on the release date.

If you want to learn more about BeerSmith 2, you can read about it here. Also I will be posting some videos shortly on the main web site showing the program in action.

Regular Pricing

The regular price (both Mac and PC) for BeerSmith 2 will be $27.95 (US). This is a great value for the average homebrewer given all of the features we’ve packed into the new release, and is less than the cost of a bad batch of beer for most brewers. In addition I will be offering discounts (below) for those who choose to preorder as well as existing users wishing to upgrade.

Existing BeerSmith 1.4 Users

If you have bought BeerSmith 1 at any point in the last 8 years since its release, you can upgrade for$19.95 after launch. The full upgrade price ($19.95) is only going to be available until 31 August 2011. You need your registration key to upgrade.

Also if you purchased BeerSmith after 15 February 2011, you can get a substantial discount on the new version. See this page for further details on how to upgrade if your BeerSmith purchase was made after 15 Feb 2011. This program will be available until 31 July 2011.

Thank you again for all of your support – especially the (now approaching 100) beta testers who continue to help me improve the software!

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BeerSmith 2.0 – A First Look

Brad Smith — Tue, 03 May 2011 02:18:41 +0000

I’m happy to announce that BeerSmith 2.0 is well into its beta test phase, and the pre-order is now open. It took over three years and 55,000 lines of code to get to this point, but I wanted a solid foundation for the future of BeerSmith. I thought I would take a few minutes this week to share a few screen shots and some of the details of the new version, though I plan to publish a lot more in the coming weeks.

The first thing to know is that BeerSmith 2 is not an “update” to BeerSmith 1.4 – it is a complete redesign of the program from the ground up. That has allowed me to redesign the foundations for the program and also take a hard look at what features worked best and which ones people would most like to see in the new version.

Macintosh and PC Support

Rewriting the program also gave me a chance to go cross platform – for both PC and Mac. Over 60 people are testing the new program on both platforms, and the two versions are nearly identical on both systems. I intend to release the two versions simultaneously so Mac users will now have the same full featured BeerSmith program available on the PC.

PC Version

Macintosh Version

A New Look, Familiar Feel

The basic platform for BeerSmith 1.0 was started way back in 2002 – and though it has served thousands of brewers very well over the years, it was starting to show its age. BeerSmith 2.0 has a significantly updated look and feel – including a ribbon bar, liberal use of high resolution graphics and icons, and a lot of options to customize the platform.

At the same time, the new version maintains the features you are most familiar with including all of the separate tools, custom reports and detailed ingredient databases you have used over the years.

Tabbed and Windowed Browsing

One of the biggest features brewers wanted was a way to work on more than one recipe or tool at a time. After all, you can open a bunch of web pages in your web browser – why not your brewing software? So I added tabbed and windowed browsing to BeerSmith 2.0. You can open any recipe, tool or item in a tab or in a separate window and work on it the way you want. Want to work on three recipes at a time? No problem – they will open in three different tabs. Have multiple monitors? You can open as many windows as you like and spread them across all your screens.

Tabbed Browsing Details

Improved Recipe Design

The improved recipe design tool gives you a graphical look at your recipe – from the large glass showing the color of your beer to the graphical style guide comparison. Since a lot of people asked for different fields to be added to the recipe design display, I decided to make them all happy – the section in the lower right lets you pick from dozens fields detailing your recipe.

Graphical Recipe Design

Many existing users of BeerSmith are familiar with the Equipment and Mash profiles that make scaling to match your equipment or selecting a new mash profile as easy as choosing from a list. In BeerSmith 2, I’ve extended that concept to include carbonation and fermentation – you can pick from a preloaded set of carbonation and fermentation/aging profiles and apply them to a recipe.

Style Guide and "Pick your own" Fields

Formulate Recipes by Percent

Perhaps one of the most frequently asked-for features was the ability to formulate recipes by grain percentage. Now you can do exactly that – add your grains and then use the grain percent button to adjust the percentages.

Adjust Grains by Percent

Beyond Design

While the recipe design page still offers everything you need to build great beers, many advanced users wanted to be able to look under the hood to see details about their brewing session. So in addition to the design tab for building recipes, there are now tabs for yeast starters, mash details, fermentation, water and notes. As a beginning or even intermediate brewer, you may not every need to look at these details as the design tool has what you need to get started — but the details are there when you want them.

Mash Tab for a Recipe

Add More to BeerSmith 2

A lot of people liked the recipe packs and vendor specific ingredients I had as downloads for BeerSmith 1.0. But they did not like how hard it was to add them. So for BeerSmith 2, I’ve added a “Add-on” manager that lets you grab updated ingredient files and recipe packs from the web.

Download Add-ons From the Web

The Other Great Stuff You Expect from BeerSmith

I’ve carried over the best features from BeerSmith 1.4 as well. These include step by step instructions for any recipe, multiple report formats (HTML and text, including the ability to make your own reports), the ability to read and write BeerSmith 1.x files – even on the Macintosh, full support for metric, english and imperial units, in-field math and unit conversion, and much more. BeerSmith 2.0 even has support built in for translation – making it possible to have non-english speaking versions built by the BeerSmith community.

When is it Coming?

I’m targeting an early June release date for BeerSmith 2.0 – before the AHA National Homebrewer Conference in mid-June. The pricing and preorder information are available here – and if you order during the preorder period you can get a substantial discount!

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The BeerSmith Homebrewing Blog – Third Anniversary

Brad Smith — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 03:41:49 +0000

This week marks the third anniversary of the BeerSmith blog, which started on 14 Feb 2008. I thought I would mark the event by talking a bit about recent changes and also provide you a few of my favorite posts from the last year.

It has been a big year for BeerSmith and the blog this past year. Some of the big changes over the last year include:

Started up the BeerSmith email list last April, which now has well over 4,500 active subscribers (in addition to our 6000+ RSS subscribers)
Quit my day job last July to focus on primarily on BeerSmith for the last 6 months
Redesigned the BeerSmith blog in late September to give it a much cleaner look
Launched the book Home Brewing with BeerSmith in late October – now in print on Amazon and the Kindle
Started the BeerSmith podcast, which was featured in iTunes New and Notable
Cleaned up the BrewPoll.com news site and gave it a fresh start
The discussion forum continues to grow – now over 17,000 posts from 7,300 members
The combined BeerSmith sites had over 1 million unique visitors in calendar year 2010
I’m about to start testing on the next version of BeerSmith, which will be a available for PC and Mac in a few months

Some Notable Posts from Year 3

To mark the occasion, I thought I would include a few of my favorite posts/podcasts from the past year:

Beer Bloggers and 365 Beers – Yes it was only episode 2, but this one made it to the front page of iTunes new/notable
Five Ways to Save Money Brewing – A few ways to pinch pennies for the homebrewer
Schwarzbier Recipes – German Black Beer – I’ve always been partial to darker beers
Brewing Big – High Gravity Beers – Some thoughts on making the biggest beers
Yeast Starters Part 1 (and Part 2) – More than I ever thought I would know about yeast viability and starters
Brewing Fruit Beers (two parts) – How to mix beers and various fruits
John Palmer – Home Brewing Celebrity – Podcast interview with the top brewing author John Palmer
Russian and Imperial Stout Recipes – The “English” style of “Russian” Imperial Stout
The BeerSmith Home Brewing book release – A collection of some of my best brewing articles in print
Trappist Dubbel and Tripel Beer Recipes – Who does not love Belgian beer?
Aluminum vs Stainless? Best Brewing Pots – This seemed to be an endless topic of discussion on many forums

It goes without saying that none of this would be possible without your continued support – both your direct financial support and also the tons of community support you all provide.

Thank you for continuing to support the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog – and have a great week!

[Editors note on image: The cake is a lie!]

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BrewPoll Home Brewing and Craft Beer News Site

Brad Smith — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 20:37:53 +0000

I relaunched the BrewPoll Home Brewing and Craft Beer News site after a major overhaul of the site this week. BrewPoll is a social media site for beer fans where you can share your favorite sites and stories about home brewing, craft beer, and general beer brewing news. The upgraded site is running a new generation of software and has a much cleaner look, and a lot less spam. I hope the new site will attract beer and brewing fans who enjoy learning the latest in beer and home brewing news.

What is BrewPoll?

BrewPoll is a “digg-like” social site where you can submit you own stories or bookmarks to your favorite web sites and resources. It is intended for beer lovers as well as home brewers to share news, stories, tips, and useful resources.

New stories initially go to the “upcoming news” page where they are voted on. Once a story gets a few votes, it is promoted to the “published news” page where it appears on the front page and in our RSS feed. You don’t need an account to vote on the site – just click on the vote buttons. To submit a story, you do need to create an account, but that can easily be done by clicking on the “Register” button in the top right of the site.

Good News For Bloggers and Website Owners

While it may take some time to build up traffic again for BrewPoll, the site does offer some advantages if you own a beer or brewing website. In addition to the direct traffic from BrewPoll visitors, BrewPoll itself is a page-rank 3 website with what is called “do-follow” links. So if your story gets published on the front page, you get a page-rank 3 link back to your site or story, which will help you with search engine optimization and web site authority for sites like Google. Google loves backlinks.

Some blogs also republish our RSS feed on their site or sidebar, so your stories may be featured there as well.

Why The Changes?

I launched BrewPoll two years ago, and while it did well at first, I had major problems with spamming particularly in the last year. Because BrewPoll does draw a moderate amount of traffic and is a page-rank 3 site in Google, it became a popular site for spammers creating backlinks for various unseemly products. Unfortunately, it reached a point where I was unable to keep up with a number of automated bots attacking the site, particularly on the upcoming page.

So this Fall I took the site down for several weeks so I could delete as much of the spam as possible, upgrade the software to integrate multiple layers of protection and then relaunch the site. Most importantly, I put in a manual moderation system so all stories are moderated before they appear in the “upcoming stories” page.

Submit and Vote on Your Favorite Story, Tip or Web Site Here

Visit BrewPoll.com – and don’t forget to vote on the Upcoming News as well as your favorite Published stories to push them to the top. I welcome your submissions as well as long as they are related to beer or brewing.

Thank you for visiting the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog - Have a great brewing week!

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The Home Brewing with BeerSmith Book is Out

Brad Smith — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 16:18:19 +0000

Just a quick (and final) note since I have a lot of you who follow the blog via RSS/Email – I released the “Home Brewing with BeerSmith” book last Wednesday! The book is a compilation of over 70 articles from the BeerSmith blog. Thanks to the community, it has been well received so far. Quite a few of you have written me – and I appreciate it.

The book is available in printed and Kindle format from the Amazon store here as well as via CreateSpace here. It would make a great Christmas gift as well for your favorite brewer.

Als0, I made some major revisions to the BeerSmith blog last week – moving to a new theme to give it a cleaner look. I welcome your feedback if you have thoughts on it. Finally, the new podcast has been well received – in fact the last time I checked we were number three on iTunes for “Home Brewing” podcasts, even though I’ve only released two episodes.

Next week, I’ll have an interview with “How to Brew” author John Palmer, and tomorrow will be an article on how to use a refractometer.

Have a great week, and don’t hesitate to leave a comment or drop me an email! — Brad

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Home Brewing with BeerSmith Book – Its Released!

Brad Smith — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 21:41:58 +0000

I’ll keep this post short as I’ve already talked quite a bit about my new book that was just released. Its a collection of about 75 of the best articles on home brewing techniques and beer styles from the BeerSmith home brewing blog that will be available in paperback format and on the Kindle next Wednesday – the 27th of October.

What I have also done is offered everyone a free chapter from the book (Chapter 3, in PDF format) to anyone who subscribes to my mailing list. You can sign up for the email newsletter by entering your email and name into the form along the right sidebar of the BeerSmith blog, or at this subscription page. Its free to subscribe and you can unsubscribe at any time. If you are already getting my newsletter, then you should have received an email a day or two ago with the download link.

I’m offering a limited discount on the book to my newsletter subscribers who order the paperback version through the Createspace link (sorry, the discount is only on this version as I can’t set up discounts on the other stores). I’ll send out the discount code for that on Wednesday morning.

If you want to learn more about the book, you can visit the main page here. Also if you have a twitter account, you can help me out by tweeting this book page using the “Retweet button” on the page.

Thanks! — Brad Smith

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Home Brewing with BeerSmith – My New Book

Brad Smith — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:36:29 +0000

I’ve had a lot of people ask me if there was any way to get a printed collection of the articles from the BeerSmith blog. Soon, the answer will be yes. I’m in the process of editing my first home brewing book titled “Home Brewing with BeerSmith” for publication in late October.

I’m really excited about this book – as it contains a collection of most of my best articles from the BeerSmith blog over the last two and a half years including dozens of home brewing techniques not covered in other books. In fact, I’ve included over 75 articles from the blog, all organized and indexed.

It is not another “how to brew book”, and I have not packed it with illustrations or tables, and it doesn’t contain another collection of recipes – just pure brewing content. It is quite literally a compilation of almost every topic I’ve written about these last two and a half years. You can get most of the material right here on the blog for free. However, I know some people (including me) still enjoy having a complete book rather than fishing for articles online, which is why I’m publishing this.

The book is not necessarily for newcomers, though it does have a short section on brewing your first beer and some great material on extract brewing. It is, however, intended for avid brewers who want to learn more about brewing techniques, designing beer recipes and creating popular beer styles.

Here are some of the chapters: Extract Brewing Techniques, Beer Recipe Design, Partial Mash and All Grain Brewing, Hops and Hop Techniques, All Grain Brewing, Making Better Beer and then three chapters on beer styles including English, Continental and American styles.

The book runs approximately 260 pages and will be available from the BeerSmith site in printed form, as well as on the Kindle E-Reader, PDF form and from the Amazon online bookstore.

I also have a lot of other ideas I’m working on – including audio and video content for the blog, BeerSmith 2.0, and possibly some video products.

Thank you again for your continued support!

Brad Smith, PhD

BeerSmith.com

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Who Won the Barley Crusher? Giving Another One Away!

Brad Smith — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:22:06 +0000

At midnight last night (15 June), I closed out the Barley Crusher drawing, consolidated all of our email subscribers, and randomly drew a winner. The winner of the 7lb Barley Crusher drawing for 15 June is:

John Koop of Draper, Utah – Won the 7lb Barley Crusher Malt Mill

Congratulations to John, who was kind enough to give me permission to publish his name. I’ve also picked 10 people at random to receive free registration keys for BeerSmith, though I have not yet received confirmations from all of them to publish their names.

Another Barley Crusher Giveaway – 15 September 2010

Since the first drawing was very well received, I thought I would give another one away! I’ll have another 7lb Barley Crusher drawing on 15 September 2010 to one person selected at random from our email subscribers list.

How Can You Enter this Drawing?

Simply subscribe to our newsletter and stay on the list until September 15th 2010 – you’ll get a newsletter about once a week with home brewing articles, tips and links as well as notifications when we post a new article here on the blog. You’ll also get a chance to win one of the prizes. Unfortunately we can only offer this drawing to email subscribers, as we need your email to contact you if you win!

Subscribe To BeerSmith Home Brewing to Enter!

Drawing Rules: The drawing will be made at random from the list of verified email subscribers on 15 September 2010. Winners will be contacted via their subscribed email address. If a selected winner fails to respond to our email notice within 7 days they will forfeit the prize in its entirety, and another winner will be selected at random.

More Legal Stuff: Prize winners are solely responsible for all applicable taxes and fees associated with receiving their prize. By accepting a prize, each winner releases BeerSmith and their respected officers, partners and employees from any responsibility or liability in connection with any prize awarded. By entering this giveaway, entrants accept and agree to these rules. By submitting an entry, a winner agrees to allow use of his/her first name for advertising this or similar promotions and allow us to post your first name on our site as the winner of our giveaway without further compensation. Winner agrees to release BeerSmith and its partners of any injuries, losses or damages of any kind resulting from acceptance, use, misuse, possession, or loss of the prize. No Purchase Necessary. Void where prohibited or restricted by law local and national regarding contest.

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Win a Barley Crusher! – BeerSmith Drawing

Brad Smith — Sat, 01 May 2010 04:33:33 +0000

Win a Barley Crusher!

To kick off the hot summer season, we’re giving away a 7lb Barley Crusher malt mill to an email subscriber picked at random from our subscriber list. The Barley Crusher happens to be my personal choice of malt mill – I’ve had mine for several years now, and love it.

On June 15th, I’ll select one email subscriber at random from the list of all subscribers at that date to receive the Barley Crusher. This includes both those who subscribed previously through feedburner, and our new newsletter subscribers, though I will eliminate duplicate emails.

We’ll also give away 10 copies of BeerSmith!

In addition, I’ll select 10 others from the email list at random to each receive a free registration key for our BeerSmith Home Brewing software.

How Can You Enter this Drawing?

Simply subscribe to our newsletter and stay on the list until June 15th – you’ll get a newsletter about once a week with home brewing articles, tips and links as well as notifications when we post a new article here on the blog. You’ll also get a chance to win one of the prizes. Unfortunately we can only offer this drawing to email subscribers, as we need your email to contact you if you win!

Subscribe To BeerSmith Home Brewing to Enter!

Drawing Rules: The drawing will be made at random from the list of verified email subscribers on 15 June 2010. Winners will be contacted via their subscribed email address. If a selected winner fails to respond to our email notice within 7 days they will forfeit the prize in its entirety, and another winner will be selected at random.

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iPhone and Kindle Friendly BeerSmith Blog Themes

Brad Smith — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:32:57 +0000

Have you ever wanted to access the BeerSmith blog on the go? We recently added an iphone/mobile friendly version of the blog. If you access the BeerSmith blog from your iphone, blackberry or many other mobile devices, you will now see that it has been formatted into a phone friendly theme. If you want to access the blog from any web browser, you can use the new shortcut: blog.beersmith.com – recommend it to your friends!

If you prefer to use your kindle, we now have the BeerSmith blog available in that form as well. You can subscribe to receive blog articles on your kindle from the Amazon store here. As with all of Amazon’s kindle blog subscriptions, there is a $1.99 monthly fee (full disclosure – a very small cut comes back to support the blog) for delivery though a 20 day trial is free.

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New BeerSmith Apparel and Gear

Brad Smith — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:41:04 +0000

Get BeerSmith brewing apparel and gear featuring the new BeerSmith logo! Several years ago, a handful of you were fortunate enough to get our first run of BeerSmith shirts, and I’m happy to say we’ve now put together a store with various shirt styles, and even a few extras.

With the new gear, you can join the “BeerSmith Army” and also support the BeerSmith blog and other sites. Our gear store is available through CafePress by clicking on the image or at the following link:

Order BeerSmith Shirts and Gear Here

Cotton T-shirt with large BeerSmith logo
Long sleeve shirt with small BeerSmith logo
Baseball style shirt with small logo
Beer Steins
Apron for brewing in white or Khaki

If the response is strong, I can add additional designs, products or logos (leave a comment with your ideas below!).

For the thousands of you who regularly support this blog and our BeerSmith software, I thank you. If you are not interested in a T-shirt or software, you can also show your appreciation with a direct donation using the ‘tip jar’ donate buttons in the left sidebar of the blog.

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BeerSmith Blog Second Anniversary

Brad Smith — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:13:45 +0000

This week marks the end of the second year of the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog, and this is our 94th published article on home brewing. It has been a great experience to date, giving me a chance to learn about and write on a huge number of brewing topics. I’ve started a few more projects as well and may eventually publish a compilation from the BeerSmith blog once BeerSmith 2.0 is complete.

The blog has been much more popular than I had imagined. We started with zero regular subscribers two years ago, reached about 1000 at the first anniversary and have expanded to over 3000 now. We had 60,000 visitors to the blog last month, and over 470,000 visits to the blog over the last year. Its approaching the circulation of a small magazine.

I’ve tried to keep the focus of the stories primarily on home brewing and also to focus on the techniques, styles, and equipment that an average homebrewer might need. I’ve tried to stay away from too many “fluffy” articles and vary the level from beginner to more advanced techniques to keep it interesting. Finally, I’ve organized all of our articles into an growing BeerSmith Home Brewing Guide to make it easier to find what you are looking for. Hopefully you have enjoyed it.

In the next year, I’m going to try to feature additional interviews and articles by expert guests where appropriate, but keep the focus firmly on homebrewing. I also added a new domain name blog.beersmith.com which may be easier to remember if you want to recommend us to a friend.

Here are a collection of some of my favorite articles from the last year for you to enjoy:

Thanks again for joining us on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. If you have not already done so, be sure to subscribe for weekly delivery – you will receive an email once a week as we publish new articles. Your comments, bookmarks and donations are also welcome.

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Adventures in Homebrewing

Brad Smith — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:12:12 +0000

Those of you that visit the blog regularly know I’m not a big fan of advertising. Except for our own program, BeerSmith, I’ve only featured a few products in the last year and a half. However, I would like to thank Adventures in Homebrewing brewing supply for recently offering to act as a sponsor for our sites. A portion of each purchase you make when you click on this order link will come back to us to help support the BeerSmith blog and our other sites including BrewPoll, BrewWiki, our Discussion Forum and future software developments. They offer a full range of brewing supplies, so I ask that you keep them in mind when you consider your next equipment or ingredient purchase.

I do apologize for writing less thank normal this summer. In addition to the occasional summer break, I’ve been working hard on programming the next version of BeerSmith. Rest assured that I will be back to writing more as the winter brewing season approaches and BeerSmith programming winds down. I have several great articles outlined already for the new season.

Have a great summer – I will be back next week with another great beer brewing article!

– Brad

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One Year of The BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog

Brad Smith — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 01:21:51 +0000

Today marks our one year anniversary of the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog! We started just shy of Valentines day, 2008 (Happy Valentines Day!) to deliver a solid article about homebrewing each week.

I’ve really been surprised by the response to the blog. In the first year, we’ve published 60 brewing articles, over 50,000 words and went from zero to a bit over 900 subscribers (the feedburner stats vary a bit from day to day). Incredibly, the blog and its articles have been viewed by over 185,000 unique visitors more than 260,000 times. Many articles are now on the first page of google and a few even occupy the first place for selected terms. In fact I had to switch to a semi-dedicated server last Spring to handle the additional traffic generated by BeerSmith, the BrewPoll news site, our forum, this blog and BrewWiki.

I have to say that when I started this journey a year ago, I was not quite sure where I was headed. I wanted a way to give something back to the brewing community, to say thanks for helping to make our BeerSmith software a success. But could I write an article every week? Would I run out of things to say? Would anyone care to read it? Would I have time for both BeerSmith and the blog?

It turned out to be a pleasure rather than a chore. Having brewed beer for so many years, there was much to write about, and once I got going I could complete an article in little more than an hour. I still have a long list of articles I want to write. It helped when I stopped trying to do the news and focused in on my favorite topic: brewing.

I thought I would share as list of some of my favorite articles of the past year, for those of you who may not have been with us from the start:

Ten Top Tips for Home Brewing Beer – Still the most visited page of all time
Brewing and Irish Stout Beer Recipe – One of my favorite beer styles
Soft Pretzels: A Recipe for Bavarian Pretzels – They’re not beer, but they go well with beer
Best Hop Techniques for Homebrewing – A hop technique roundup
Converting All Grain Recipes to Malt Extract – Step by step process for extract brewers
How to Batch Sparge: Batch Sparging and No Sparge – Batch sparging for all grain brewers
Mash pH – Water Treatment for Brewing – All you need to know about adjusting the pH of your mash
Brewing Hops: 10 Tips for Surviving the Hops Crisis – One of a series of 5 articles I did on the hops crisis last Spring
Brewing to Lose: 10 Tips for Making Beer – My weak attempt at adding some humor
The First Wort Hop – Beer Brewing Techniques – One of my favorite hop techniques
Belgian Wit Recipes – White Beer Styles – Includes my personal recipe for Wit

If you want to see all of the articles published to date – they are listed here.

There’s plenty more to come. I have a dozen finished articles in the queue waiting to be published, and a long list of articles I’m planning to write. I’ve also been in touch with several guest authors (and welcome more) who will join us in the coming year. In the meantime, I have more articles on brewing techniques, beer styles, reviews, interviews and brewing fun to come.

Thanks again for your continued support of the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. If you have not already done so, I suggest subscribing. We offer a simple email subscription that delivers a new brewing article to your inbox once a week as well as RSS subscriptions if you use a news reader.

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An Interview with Dan Listermann (of Phil’s fame)

Brad Smith — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:20:11 +0000

This week we feature a short interview with Dan Listermann of Listermann Manufacturing. You may not instantly recognize Dan’s name, but most home brewers have seen Listermann’s line of products including his innovative “Phil’s” line including Phil’s Phalse Bottom, Phil’s Lauter Tun and Phil’s Sparger. Dan now runs a full homebrewing store featuring a line of homebrewing kits as well as his home brewing equipment business.

How did you get started?

I first brewed in 1973 at college. It was a disaster and did not get better. 15 years later, my old roommate suggested that we give it another go assuring me that things were better. He was right and I was off making my own beer. I noticed that bottle fillers displaced their own volume when withdrawn. This bothered me so I sat in a bar one night and designed a filler that would not do that.

The next day I bought the tubing to make one and when I was finished, I thought that, “that was not hard.” The wife and I decided to start making them in the basement that year – 1991. Eventually we added other products and moved out of the basement into a business incubator. By the spring of 1993, the business had grown enough that I quit my quality / manufacturing engineering job to devote full time to it.

In 1995 we decided that Cincinnati was ill served from a homebrew perspective. We found a building where we could both manufacture and sell retail. It has worked out great. The manufacturing has been scaled down in light of the growing retail business and we recently received a brewing license for the next phase of our fun.

I’m sure lots of us are wondering – who is Phil?

Phil is our oldest son. He is 28 now and has a son of his own!

You have been in the homebrewing business since 1991 – how has it changed over the years?

It has grown and become more technical. The old can and a kilo kits are becoming a smaller and smaller share of the trade with properly designed kits based on fresh bulk extract and specialty grains taking their place. There are few real excuses to not go all-grain anymore.

Many of us dream of pursuing our hobby full time – what is it like?

First I count myself as very lucky that this has happened to me. I got a lot of good breaks and wonderful support from the homebrew community. So far it has not hurt my own hobby’s urges. I am brewing a 15 gallon batch now. I also have other interests to occupy myself – pigeon racing is my latest obsession.

How do you keep coming up with new innovative products?

I pretty much quit doing that when we scaled the manufacturing back. When I get an idea, I consider the effort and payout compared to other things – commercial brewing mainly – and seem to lose interest, but never say never.

Where do you see homebrewing as a hobby going in the next few years?

More all-grain producing better beer. Very few brewers that catch the bug are willing to remain extract brewers. The hop shortage is going to change things a lot for a while. I think that homebrewers are going to start exploring the not so bitter side of the spectrum.

What new ideas are you working on now?

Since I got my brewing license, commercial recipes!

Is there anything you would like to add?

If you don’t brew your own beer, you will have to drink someone else’s beer.

Designing extract kits after all-grain brewing was a real eye opener. It was real neat to be able to take the experience of making beer from scratch and applying that experience it to extract. Very probably few brewers get this opportunity. Extract has some real advantages that are really not discussed much.

Thanks to Dan Listermann for granting this interview. For more great beer brewing articles, consider subscribing for regular free delivery.

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New BeerSmith Retail CDs

Brad Smith — Thu, 15 May 2008 04:09:15 +0000

We’re pleased to announce that our BeerSmith Home Brewing Recipe Software is now available on CD through selected retailers.

The new CD’s are professionally replicated in a slim CD case, and shrink wrapped with a UPC code for retail display and sale. Each CD comes with a personal registration key and installation instructions on the inside cover. We also have display stands available for counter-top display.

Currently the CD’s are only being sold through our affiliate network, and are not available directly from our web site. Many of our affiliates will be receiving them in the coming weeks.

You can help by referring your local brewing supply shop to us. Please visit our wholesale affiliate site for information on purchasing BeerSmith CD’s for resale, or share this article with your local store owner.

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Brewing Hops: 10 Tips for Surviving the Hops Shortage

Brad Smith — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:16:32 +0000

Editors Note: The last article in our 4 part series on the ongoing hops crisis is a collection of tips for conserving and preserving your precious hops supply.

Given the ongoing hop crisis, prices for hops are now hovering at $4 an ounce or more, up 200-400% from their pre-crisis levels. Some suppliers are rationing their hops, limiting sales, and many of my favorite English and European varieties are simply not available at any price.

I’m treating my limited supply of noble hops like gold, locking it in airtight bags in the freezer in hopes I will be able to keep a few favorite recipes in the keg. I’ve taken to calling the little sealed packets “my precious”. Let’s examine some ways the average all grain or malt extract brewer can maximize their precious hop supply:

1. Longer Boil Times - Boiling your hops a little longer, particularly for extract brewers will enhance your hop utilization and extract more International Bitterness Units (IBUs) per ounce of hops. A 60-90 hop boil will get the most bittering acids (alpha acids) from your hops. A good brewing spreadsheet or your favorite brewing program will help you in matching IBUs to beer style using minimum hops.

2. Use High Alpha Hops for Bittering – Modern, higher alpha hops such as Chinook, Warrior, Galena and Eroica can be used in much smaller quantities to add bitterness to the beer. For a complete list, see our hops listing or the hops database in BeerSmith or our online hop listing. Use one of these high alpha hops during the boil for bittering, and then use your precious low alpha aromatic hops at the end of the boil for the desired aroma and complex flavor.

3. Use First Wort Hopping – I wrote a recent article on how first wort hopping for all grain brewers will enhance your hop utilization as well as add harmony and complexity to your beer’s bitterness. To first wort hop, add a quantity of aromatic (low alpha) hops to your boiler right after the first runnings, while you are still sparging your beer. This is often done by moving your late hop addition forward to add it to the boiler very early on. The result will be not only higher hop utilization but a smooth harmonic complexity to the bitterness.

4. Reduce Late Hop Additions – Rather than have three or four different hop additions, consider using a single late hop addition close to the end of the boil for aroma, and combining your remaining hop additions into a single bittering addition at the beginning of the boil. Additions in the last 5-10 minutes of the boil are appropriate to enhance aromatic properties, but the key compounds that add aroma boil off quickly. Hop additions at 15, and 20+ minutes add much less aroma to the beer and in these hop-rationed times might be considered a luxury item. For someone on a strict hop diet, consider going with a high alpha boiling hops and single aromatic addition in the last 5-10 minutes.

4. Know your IBUs – A surprising number of brewers do not take advantage of accurate bitterness prediction. A good spreadsheet, online IBU calculator or brewing program like BeerSmith can accurately predict your bitterness (expressed in IBUs) in advance and compare that to your target beer style. In many cases, performing this simple calculation can save you several ounces of hops and also enhance the quality of your beer.

5. Reduce Dry Hops – Personally, I like to use dry hopping with many styles, but in these hop-constrained times, even our favorite practices need to be examined. A single aromatic late hop addition in the last 5 minutes of the boil will add desired hop aroma to the beer, reducing the need for additional dry hops. If you do need to dry hop, consider adding less dry hops, and only use aromatic hop varieties. One tip is to use a very large loose bag when dry hopping to enhance contact with the beer. A small tightly packed clump of hops won’t add as much aroma. Alternately you can add hop pellets directly to the secondary and separate them later when you get ready to bottle or keg.

6. Move to a Bigger Boil – Malt extract brewers frequently use small brew pots. The concentrated wort in a small pot has a high gravity which actually lowers hop utilization. All grain brewers typically boil the entire batch and get much higher hop utilization rates, requiring much less hops. If you are a malt extract brewer who enjoys the hobby, consider investing in a larger brew pot (ideally 7-9 gallons for a 5 gallon batch) as well as a propane burner. Moving from a 3 gallon pot to a full size boil will significantly reduce the hops needed. Remember to calculate your IBUs using the correct boil size (see above).

7. Store your Hops Properly – Hops lose both aromatic and bitterness as they age. In our article on hops aging and storage, we explain why your hops need to be stored in the freezer, ideally in an oxygen barrier container to minimize the effects of aging and maximize your hop potential.

8. Grow your Own Hops - I wrote a brief introduction to growing your own hops several weeks back. Growing hops in the garden can be a lot of fun, and brewing with your own home grown hops for the first time is a very special experience. While it can take a year or more to produce a significant hop crop from Rhizomes (small root-like shoots), it is a rewarding addition to the hobby.

9. Consider a “Hop Swap” – With many varieties in short supply, many homebrew clubs now sponsor a “hop swap” where members can offer hop varieties for trade. Some online forums are also offering this service, though there is always a small risk might get stiffed online. Nevertheless, this is a great way to get varieties you can’t find from your normal suppliers.

10. Substitute, Substitute, Substitute – Even if you are a world class “hop swapper”, some varieties are in such short supply that they simply cannot be found this season. If you can’t find the hop you are looking for, consider an appropriate substitute. Substitutes for almost every variety are listed in our Hops Table on the individual hop variety pages. They are also available in the hops database in BeerSmith.

The hop shortage has been painful for us all, but I hope these tips will help to save you a few pennies and also help the larger community. Conservation of our precious hops is the duty of every able-bodied home brewer. We will likely see continued hop shortages into the fall as the 2007 crop is sold off, so maximize your hop potential and minimize your costs using the tips above.

Thanks again for tuning in! Drop a vote on BrewPoll (click on the BrewPoll vote count icon below) if you enjoyed this article and subscribe for regular delivery. A thumbs up on Stumbleupon is also greatly appreciated.

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New BrewPoll Home Brewing and Craft Beer News Site

Brad Smith — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:42:07 +0000

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the BrewPoll Home Brewing and Craft Beer News Site. After launching into the Web 2.0 with BrewWiki a few years ago and our BeerSmith blog the last few months, we’ve been fascinated with the way that many new social sites are able to find and promote the “best of the web”.

Home brewing and craft beer is no exception – in fact there are over 200 active beer and brewing blogs boasting over 20,000 articles. The web has become unimaginably large – a search of simple terms like “Home Brewing” brings up 1.8 million web sites.

How can the average homebrewer cut through the chaff? Sites like Digg.com, Slashdot and Newsvine are increasingly important sources of interesting (non-brewing) news and help readers zone in on quality content.

The concept behind all of these sites is that users can submit news articles to the site, and then vote on which articles they like best. The most popular articles are promoted to the front page. Digg, the largest, boasts millions of visitors each day. Unfortunately many social sites have little or no homebrewing presence.

We loved the concept behind sites like Digg, but could not find a suitable site dedicated to home brewing or craft beer. The time seemed right to create a Web 2.0 news site dedicated to homebrewing and craft beer. Here it is:

http://www.brewpoll.com – BrewPoll Home Brewing and Craft Beer News Site

Anyone can vote on front page or upcoming stories by clicking on the “vote” count next to each story. The most popular posts from the upcoming stories page will be promoted to the front page for all to enjoy. Registered users may submit new stories via the “submit a new story” tab.

How can you Help?

We’ve seeded the site with just a few articles from our blog and the web. Visit the BrewPoll web site and vote for some upcoming stories or submit your favorite stories or web sites. We’re also looking for a few highly motivated volunteer moderators to help keep the spam down on the site.

We hope BrewPoll will help bring some of the “best of” sites to home brewers and craft beer fans. Let us know what you think about BrewPoll by leaving a comment or dropping us an email. If you want to add a voting button to your blog or site like the one on the right, visit this post on our discussion forum.

BrewPoll Home Brewing and Craft Beer News Site

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So When is St Patrick’s Day Anyways?

Brad Smith — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:08:13 +0000

St Patrick’s day is Monday March 17th 2008, right? Well it turns out that things are not so simple. Due to the early Easter holiday this year, St Patrick’s day conflicts with holy week. Because of this, Roman Catholic Church officials have moved St Patrick’s day feast up to Saturday the 15th of March.

This is the first time since 1940 that St Patrick’s day conflicts with holy week. Easter is traditionally held on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox. St Patrick’s feast and mass is traditionally held on March 17th. Another conflict is not expected until 2160!

The net result has been some confusion among event organizers. Many US St Patrick’s day events are still being scheduled on the traditional 17 March date, while others scheduled for the Sunday before now find themselves with events on Palm Sunday. Bishops are urging Catholics not to violate the church rule that no feasts in honor of a Saint be held during holy week, so the church and some cities have moved their events to the 15th or even earlier.

How will it all turn out? No one really knows, but I hope you enjoy your St Patrick’s day celebration and have a great week.

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New BJCP 2008 Style Guide and BeerSmith Batch Sparging Release

Brad Smith — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:14:33 +0000

The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) recently released an updated beer style guide for 2008. BJCP has become the most popular beer style guide for home brewing competition here in the United States. You can access the full BJCP style guide here.

The new 2008 BJCP style guide includes significant rework to many Belgian styles, revised commercial examples, updated color, OG and ABV calculations and minor changes to several styles.

The latest version of BeerSmith was just released and is available on our download page. The new release incorporates the new 2008 BJCP style guidelines as well as the complete Danish beer style guideline. You can set the style guide used from the “Brewing” page of the “Options” dialog (tools menu).

The 2008 BJCP Style information in BeerSmith consists of excerpts from the full style guide, and is excerpted with permission from the BJCP Style Guidelines, copyright 2008, Beer Judge Certification Program, Inc.

In addition, the latest BeerSmith release incorporates a new batch sparge option to generate “equal runnings” batches. Sparging with equal runnings generates optimal efficiency for batch spargers. The batch sparge mash profiles were all updated to use this new option. You can also do it manually by editing any mash profile and checking “Sparge using equal size batches” and unchecking “Drain the mash tun before starting…” in the Batch Sparge options section of any mash profile. The calculated batch sparge water amounts will be shown on your brewsheet.

Get the Latest Version of BeerSmith – with new Batch Sparge options & 2008 Style Guide

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Sam Adams offers 20,000 lbs of Hops to Microbrewers

Brad Smith — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:31:18 +0000

Given the hop shortage of 2008 we featured in an earlier article, it was great to hear that Samuel Adams will be offering 20,000 pounds of Tettnang and East Kent Goldings hops pellets for sale to microbreweries at cost. Though the 88 pound boxes are above the reach of most homebrewers, the sale is welcome news to the community. Microbreweries and homebrewers have had to bear the brunt of the hop shortage, as most large breweries have long term contracts with hop growers. We hope Sam Adams generosity will help reduce the pressure on microbreweries and brewpubs. For more details on the hop offer, visit the Samuel Adams web site.

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Homebrew Crisis: Where Have All The Brewing Hops Gone?

Brad Smith — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:54:18 +0000

If you’ve made a trip to the local homebrew store you have probably noticed that hop prices are up and many of your favorite hops simply are not available at any price. I ordered hops last week at prices over $4 per ounce for some varieties. What caused the shortage? What does it mean for the average homebrewer? When will it recover?

Causes of the Hop Shortage

The cause of the problem is threefold. First, over the last 15 years, hop acreage has declined by 50% due to a global hop glut that started in the early 1990’s. During the glut, excess hops were stored as hop extract that only recently ran out as acreage declined. Second, bad weather in Europe significantly reduced the yield of many European varieties, particularly in Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Finally, most commercial breweries obtain their hops through multi-year contracts with large hop growers. The hop growers continue to honor these contracts during the shortage, meaning that the open market for the remaining hops has had to absorb the brunt of the hops shortage.

To make things worse, when the hop shortage began panic set in with many microbreweries and regional breweries who buy from the open market. This drove prices up several hundred percent in many cases. Hops prices jumped from a few dollars a pound to over $25 a pound for some varieties.

Home Brewers Share

Homebrewers represent a microscopic share of the overall hops market, and are at the tail end of the supply chain. As a result, the 10-15% shortage in the global market has hit homebrewers hard. 2008 will likely be a difficult year for homebrewers with many European varieties (Saaz, Hallertauer, Tettnang, Styrian Goldings) as well as other popular hops like Cascade, Centennial and Fuggles in short supply. If your favorite variety is out of stock you might want to check for appropriate substitutes from our hops list.

How Long will the Shortage Last

Though processing of the 2007 hop crops has helped winter brewers, supplies are likely to decline as the year goes on. Similarly 2009 may be a difficult year for homebrewers because it takes 2 years to add new hop acreage. However by 2010 new acreage and market forces will likely return the hop market to normal, though hop prices will likely be higher than they were during the hop glut of the last 10 years. (Ref: BYO Article)

Though some varieties will be in short supply through 2008 and 2009, and prices across the board will be higher, you will still be able to buy hops and enjoy homebrewing throughout the year. There is no need to panic. You may need to modify your favorite recipe with a suitable alternative hop, or consider a maltier style. If you have some hops on hand or find your favorite hops at a good price you should freeze the hops in an airtight barrier package and use it wisely. In either case don’t worry – sit back and enjoy a homebrew.

References

Hop Variety Listing – Including Substitutes

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Updated Beer Recipes Archive

Brad Smith — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:29:41 +0000

I recently reorganized the BeerSmith home brewing recipes archive. It now lists over 300 web recipes by beer style and also has new recipe packs for malt extract, all grain and partial mash brewers.

Thanks again to all who contributed these outstanding recipes for public use. Join us on the BeerSmith discussion forum if you want to contribute your own recipes for future updates.

Updated Beer Recipes Archive – Over 300 recipes by style, plus recipe packs
Our Discussion Forum – Contribute new recipes here

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