1.09 Launched – Random Beer Brewing Goodness
Thursday, April 19th, 2012Latest release is live, version 1.09! This is our 10th release since last December. The 1.09 release is a random amalgamation of improvements. The system is better than ever with the ability to sort hops and grains after you enter them, dry hopping in days, eight new hops, and 3 new grains. With this release out of the way we can focus on water chemistry, mash water management, and more calculators.
Recipe Editor Improvements:
- Ability to sort hops and grains (see buttons in each box). Hops sorting is based on the order the hops would be used in the recipe. Grain sorting is by weight. Several users wrote in about this, and it started bothering us too! Now you can add/edit hops all you want, and hit the ‘Sort Hops’ button to get a nice and tidy listing.
- Selecting a hop use of ‘Dry Hop’ will change the time box to ‘days’ instead of ‘min.’. All existing Dry Hop entries have been set to 7 days (just this one time because of the change in this release).
- Added URL field to Recipe Editor below the notes field. The input field is only visible if you are logged in and have confirmed your email address. This will help keep the content at Brewer’s Friend of a high quality and deter spammers. When a URL is set, it will appear under the recipe’s name on the recipe view page.
- In Other Ingredients section allows grams and ounces to be specified for both US and Metric units.
- Added Extra Light DME, Extra Light LME, and clarified Canadian 2-row in grain list.
- Added 8 types of hops and updated the average AA value on several others. Thank you John H!
- Fixed bug with backspace key reported by Brian at https://thebrewmentor.com/.
- Added ‘Rebuild’ tab to Brew Session which allows you to recompute the brew steps and water requirements without deleting a recreating the brew. This is useful if you changed the recipe or profile settings after the brew was created. This also resets all the brew steps that were checked off.
- Added ‘Recipe View’ tab to Brew Session. This makes it easy to see the ingredients in the recipe without having to navigate away from the Brew Session page.
- Temperature adjustment field allows more than 3 characters.
- Mobile support improved on recipe view and search pages. Try it out and send us feedback.
- If you have not confirmed your email address, you will now see a red status about this in the upper right hand corner with a ‘resend’ button you can use to trigger the email again. Certain features, like adding a URL to a recipe are blocked until you confirm your email address.
Early Release Coming to a Close Soon:
The bad news is, the early release is coming to a close in a few months. Brewer’s Friend saves you time, keeps your recipes highly organized, and helps you brew your very best, every time. Customers who purchase will get a free month for every month they were signed up prior to the launch.
13 Responses to “1.09 Launched – Random Beer Brewing Goodness”
Having issues with the new release on Chrome. Can edit recipes, add log entries and the tabs don’t work correctly. Tried logging out and logging back in, and restarting the browser. Works on Firefox.
By Bill on Apr 20, 2012
It was a browser caching issue. Try clearing your cache. I just pushed a change that should help users avoid that going forward. Apologies!
By Larry on Apr 20, 2012
Do you have any idea what you will be charging for your wonderful service?
By Brad on Apr 20, 2012
The number we posted on the signup page is $15/year. It might be you need to signup for more than one year to get that price. We are also considering subscription lengths of 1 year, 2 years, 4 years, etc with a sliding per year discount.
We’d like to hear some feedback on this! Glad you think it is a wonderful service.
By Larry on Apr 21, 2012
Working now. Thanks
By Bill on Apr 21, 2012
Thanks for the site guys. Working great.
I don’t know where to recommend changes, so, here goes.
I would like to be able to measure the grains out in pounds and ounces. So, instead of putting 5.125 lbs., I can have a box for 5 pounds, and a box next to that for 2 ounces. This would be easier because I order most of my grain online which can only be ordered in pounds and ounces.
Cheers.
By Mitchell on Apr 23, 2012
We will look into supporting ounces for grain weight entry. Real estate is at a premium in that section at present, but yeah, makes total sense and it is on the todo list.
By Larry on Apr 23, 2012
why not make it a one time fee? $15 a year can add up quick. it quickly makes other beer brewing programs a better deal
By Joshua on Apr 23, 2012
With the subscription approach, users get all the updates automatically. No hassle of re-installing new versions, or having to continuously buy the next version every so many years. When I think of how many copies of Adobe or Microsoft products I have had over the years that really ads up. Makers of boxed software have an incentive to make their own program obsolete so they can push the next version. Otherwise they put themselves out of business. The subscription model is worry free for the user, and gives us an incentive to continually improve it for all users. Plus with the subscription model, data is housed in the system, which means you can access it from any internet enabled computer, tablet, or phone! (We do plan to build a feature where you can download all your records and keep them on your own machine so you are not locked in.)
We see Brewer’s Friend as a one stop shop for brewing. The ability to design and share recipes, make snapshots for specific brews, plan your brew day instantly, track log entries, plus all the quick calculators, printable resources, blog posts, etc goes beyond what a conventional installed program can offer.
By Larry on Apr 24, 2012
$15 a year would be just fine. Also the idea of having multiple year subscription with a discount is good too.
Thanks
By Brad on Apr 23, 2012
I’ve been using this site for a little while, and I’d certainly be willing to pay for it when it goes live. I’d suggest a flat lifetime fee (even if more than $15) for the following reasons:
-As far as I can tell, your main competition comes from software like Beersmith, which is only a flat fee. Your target demo is probably the middle class male who is very likely to take up brewing for a life long hobby. As such, they would likely look at the recurring fees fairly adversely, giving something like Beersmith an advantage.
-Also, you are competing with mobile devices (i.e. beer brewing apps written iOs). Apple’s model is a one time charge…all updates are free. There’s already at least one App that costs $9.99.
Nice work on the site though!
By Rusty on Apr 26, 2012
I love everything you’ve got on the site! As far as subscription I think you definitely have enough tools and helpful advice to make it worth purchasing a subscription. My only request (if it’s not already there and I missed it), is the ability to edit batch code numbers. I mistakenly entered the wrong batch codes and am kind of stuck with what I entered. Also if someone changes their numbering scheme, they’re stuck with what they originally entered.
By Ignium on May 1, 2012
Renaming the batch code – added to the TODO list! Should be pretty simple to get accomplished, either this release or the next.
By Larry on May 1, 2012