Limit Recipes based on current inventory

[bamabrew]

The ability to display the recipes that you can make based on your current inventory of ingredients.  I've seen this in food recipe programs and think it would be slick in a beer program.  I'll usually have some base grains , extracts, hops, etc on-hand and will peruse recipe books in order to find what I can make with what I have.  Of course this is very time consuming .

It could either be incorporated into a search feature or a filter for the recipes.

Just my thoughts  

[BeerSmith]

Great idea!!

 What I'm thinking of is a search dialog with a "ingredients list" that you can add and delete items from.   When you press the search button, the system will find a list of recipes with those ingredients.

 I guess I could have another button to copy the items currently in inventory to the list so you could also quickly do a search based on existing inventory.

 Its really not that hard to do - I think I could fit it in for the next round of new features.  I'll toss the idea around a bit in my head and see what I can come up with...

Cheers!
Brad

[ibrewalot]

Please make this one an "option" flag?  :-/  I never use the inventory in the program (I know, shame-shame!) and the way I make my next recipe is to look at others for ideas of what type of beer I want to make, then use whatever I have to come close.  I tend to buy enough ingredients at a time to make several batches, so I usually have the flexibility to make what I'm looking for, but I doubt I'd ever spend the time to enter my "inventory".  Maybe it's just easier for me to keep track of since I just have various types of DME, adjunct grains for pre-boil and several types of hops.  The all-grain guys would probably love it, but please make it selectable, ok?  Thanx a bunch.

[BeerSmith]

What I'm thinking of should support you...

1. You would still be able to do a normal "find" on a recipe.
2. You could create your own list of ingredients and do a "Find" on recipes containing those ingredients.
3. You could also "fill the list with my inventory" and do a search on recipes you could brew from "in stock" items.

In any case, neither the "inventory" nor the "find only by ingredients" would be mandatory features.  You would have the option of what kind of search you want.

Naturally this is still in the concept phase - I have not started any coding on this yet.

Cheers!
Brad

[bamabrew]

I've been mulling this over a bit, and I can't really think of an elegant approach for a search function considering that ingredients are user definable you could have a lot of ingredients entered.  You wouldn't want to have a billion check boxes or drop down boxes.., not sure how you could set it up to look nice.  
To me it doesn't seem like it would take any more time to enter a qty (it wouldn't have to be a correct qty) into the ingredients that you have around, than to select what is on hand (whatever method you use).  

Just my thoughts.. just would seem simpler if there were just one button to turn on (list all that I can make with what I have / list all).  

I guess both functions would have their place.. If I were looking to make a beer that contained wheat even though I did not have any on hand the search function would be great, but if I was just looking for a way to use up the stuff I have before it goes bad a filter would be good.

[ibrewalot]

Re-reading the above posts, I can see I probably jumped the gun on freaking out.  It looks to me as there would be no change to adding recipes and keeping track, regardless of your current inventory, unless you wanted to use that feature.

(insert geek++) I do have MicroCookbook, and it does have this feature, and I have even found it useful..."I have some celery, onion, and steak in the fridge I need to use...what can I make?"...and out come all the recipes with those ingredients.  My beer supplies typically are used up faster than they have a chance to go bad tho.  

[jstgtpaid]

I have just started using the program but I am with Bamabrew on this one.  That would be an awesome feature!  

[bamabrew]

You don't buy ingredients because they are on sale?? And then figure out what to make with them later?  I bought 20lbs of Agave nectar from St.Pats when they were selling it off... Find a deal on 2-row, gotta get that, etc..  I know I'll use it... just not sure for what.

[BeerSmith]

I'll move this feature to the top of the list...apparently there is some demand.

It also looks like I will need at least two types of searches - one that looks for recipes "containing" any of the ingredients and another that looks for recipes that "can be made" from a list of ingredients (or inventory).  

Even better would be a scoring system that determines how well the recipe matches the ingredient list...but that's a bit more work...

Cheers!
Brad

[ibrewalot]

I've gotta come entirely outta the closet, I guess...I only brew with extract/adjunct grain.  ...and they are "never" on sale from what I've seen in the last 8 years of brewing.  
If I wasn't making good beer, I'd be motivated after this many years to try all-grain, but I keep getting good batches to come out and other people like it too, so I haven't made the jump to buying 50lb bags of grain.  My hat's off to those of you who brew all-grain, as it's the essence of brewing.  I'll have to be content with reading about it.  

[bamabrew]

St. Pats is discontinuing carrying ingredients.. and what they have left of the malt extract is on sale.
$13 for 12lbs of Morovian Pale, Breiss Weizen is the same price.  Like many others, I haven't had great luck with St. Pats before, so buyer beware.

[ibrewalot]

Thanx for the tip, Bama...I ordered 44lbs of the pale DME.  Surely there couldn't be problems with an order from some good-ol Texas boys, right?    

With this much DME I might even have to start using the inventory feature!  


Thanx again!

[depassp]

Has anything that enables this feature been implemented yet?