Summer Heat

[brewmeisterintng]

I am waiting for a break in the heat before I brew again. I was foolish enough last year to try it. At least I have beer to carry me through.
I guess what I saying is unless your brewing extracts on the stove in an air conditioned house... you ain't brewing either.
I am guessing that is why Beer Tools forum is dead right now.

[ColoradoBrewer]

It's been dead for a while now. I don't know if it's heat related or not, but from what I've been reading on other forums people still seem to be brewing. I was actually wondering if the slowdown in BTP development wasn't playing a part in lack of traffic.

[brewmeisterintng]

Is the program really that good? I have read a little here and there about it. It might be me but I feel that there are still bugs in it. I subscribe to Beer Tools and have been pleased with the recipe calculator. I usually am with in a point or two of my gravites as well as it makes sure that I stay within the style. Guess it the old dog concerned about learning new tricks thing.
I know that it's in the high 90's here which means that I am not brewing for awhile as I am an outside brewer. I do have plenty on hand so I will keep for a few months.
My hops are a loss for this year. I have been trying to water them but between the heat and no rain... their a loss for this year. I will be moving them next spring and will install an underbed soaker hose so I won't have this problem again.

[slothrob]

BTP is a nice program. I use it almost every day. I'm VERY happy with it.

I think one of the reasons the forum has quieted down is because, as ColoradoBrewer said, it's been a while since a new version, and the new versions always bring up new comments and questions.

I wouldn't say the program has many, if any, real bugs at this point. It certainly seems to work as seamless as most software on my computer as of the most recent revisions. A lot of people are waiting for particular features that they've requested, many of which will probably appear in the next major revision, but this lack of particular features doesn't really qualify as bugs, and none of them really interferes with BTP's usefulness.

I think one of the reasons that the forum has quieted down is that so many of the bugs were ironed out that people have fewer issues to resolve on the forum.

[billvelek]

Is the program really that good? ... snip ...
I know that it's in the high 90's here which means that I am not brewing for awhile as I am an outside brewer. I do have plenty on hand so I will keep for a few months.
My hops are a loss for this year. I have been trying to water them but between the heat and no rain... their a loss for this year. I will be moving them next spring and will install an underbed soaker hose so I won't have this problem again.

BTP is a very good program, though weak in good help documentation. I'm sure that it will be even better when the next version is released -- hopefully with an inventory feature. But alas, I can't get my program to work at all anymore, and am hoping that the new release will remedy that.

I agree with Colorado that this forum has gone into hibernation due to the lack of questions and comments re new releases of BTP. Although I cut back on brewing a bit in the hot weather, I still brew and still continue to talk about it. In fact, I brewed about 10 days ago.

As for the heat, I _boil_ outside, but I mash, bottle, and do everything else inside in the AC, so the heat isn't much of a factor except for trying to keep the fermenter temp down. It has been in the hundreds here in Arkansas for the past several days, including one day that it reached 106F here and 107F in another part of the state. We're almost a minus 6" in rainfall for the year, too, so my hops are now going downhill REAL fast, despite frequent watering. I give them plenty of water, but I guess it either evaporates or quickly spreads to the soil under the lawn or deep in the ground. Anyway, I've used some time yesterday and the day before to harvest, and I'm getting a reasonably good crop for my first year.

Speaking of growing hops, if you are not a member yet then you really need to check out my Yahoo Group which is dedicated exclusively to growing hops, barley, and brewing herbs. Visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grow-Hops where we already have over 300 members.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

[brewer13210]

Check with the owner of any homebrew shop, summers are absolutely dead. Once the weather turns cool again, most people don't mind firing up the king cooker, but when it's 90 degrees and 98% humidity, I know it isn't high on my list of things to do.

Todd