The "Beer Me" Blog

Beer Me!™ mobile for Android, version 1.11.1

2013-04-18T17:35:00.002-05:00

This new version of Beer Me!™ mobile for Android fixes a problem some users were having with brewery searches failing when GPS was not enabled.

Automatic updates should begin tonight. But you can't get an update if you don't buy the app!

A new chapter

2013-04-09T13:08:00.000-05:00

I'll be leaving in an hour or two for Okoboji, Iowa, as my career begins following a new tangent.

Premier Stainless Systems is a brewery equipment manufacturer in Escondido CA. They've been phenomenally busy building and installing new systems, so they posted an ad looking for a new installer. I answered the ad, and I guess they liked what they heard, because they asked me to join them at West O Beer for my "first training install". I'll go along with one of their installers to several customers for training, and if I don't screw it up, they'll start sending me out on my own.

I'm pretty excited about this. I've been out of the brewery business for almost four years, and I have wanted nothing more than to get hands-on again. And everybody I've talked to has nothing but praise for Rob and his crew, so I think I've hooked up with some real good people.

I just hope I get to Okoboji before the weather gets nasty.

Version 1.11.0 problems fixed

2013-03-12T12:32:00.002-05:00

I've received reports of "Network error" messages when users searched for breweries using the app. I'm pretty sure this is fixed, and a new release won't be necessary. Let me know if it's working — or not — for you.

Beer Me!™ mobile for Android, version 1.11.0

2013-03-10T14:59:00.000-05:00

I just uploaded the latest version — 1.11.0 — of Beer Me!™ mobile for Android. It should be available on Google Play by this evening.

Changes in 1.11.0
=================
- Now you can actually try again when you see the "Network error, try again" message
- Clicking on a link in a Beer Note will take you to the appropriate screen in the app instead of to beerme.com
- The hardware Search button works again
- Brewery names are not included in map searches, resulting in more accurate results
- The Beer Detail screen displays more details about the beer
- Entering your own Beer Notes should be a little easier now
- And more...

Down

2013-02-24T11:16:00.003-06:00

Beer Me! is down at the moment due to database issues.

Beer Me! mobile uses the same database, so it's not working either.

Thanks for your patience while we get this resolved.

Android app version 1.10.0

2013-02-04T19:59:00.000-06:00

Version 1.10.0 of the Beer Me! mobile app for Android will be available for download sometime this evening. If you've already purchased the app, thanks! You should be getting an automatic update shortly. If you haven't purchased the app, what are you waiting for?

Hockey night in Omaha

2013-01-29T20:33:00.002-06:00

Version 1.9.6 search bug

2013-01-11T18:33:00.000-06:00

I just got a bug report regarding ClassNotFoundException
in BaseDexClassLoader.findClass().

It looks like this will only happen if you're trying to search while in landscape mode, especially if you're using a large-format device like a tablet.

It shouldn't take me too long to fix this; in the meantime, if you search in portrait mode, you won't see this problem.

Beer Me! comes of age

2013-01-05T11:24:00.000-06:00

With all the excitement the past couple days, fixing app bugs and attending the grand opening of a new brewery, I forgot to note a landmark date:

Thursday was Beer Me!'s 21st birthday!

Actually, some of the very very early files were posted around 1990, but I consider that to be the gestation period. The first (dated) beers in my notebooks are from January 3, 1992. There's a brief history of the site here.

The occasion seems worthy of some schwag. I'll get some designed and uploaded later this week.

Thanks to everybody who has helped with the site over the years!

Beer Me! mobile for Android — Version 1.9.6

2013-01-04T15:21:00.000-06:00

A few users were experiencing crashes in certain situations; fortunately, it was an easy fix!

Changes in 1.9.6
================
- AND0093: RuntimeException in Handler.<init>()

See http://beerme.com/forum/index.php/board,20.0.html for details.

9,000

2012-12-31T19:11:00.000-06:00

River North Hypothesis is in the book as tasting note number 9000!

(It's only beer #7550 due to duplication, but what the hell.)

Two-Day Brew

2012-12-30T14:42:00.000-06:00

Well, I haven't posted much here since I became an unemployed brewer, but yesterday's homebrewing fiasco deserves a mention.

Mike Roehrich and I brewed a Tripel for the upcoming Extreme Beerfest. Fourteen pounds of Weyermann Pilsner malt, a pound and a half of Weyermann Wienermalz, and a pound of Weyermann Carapils, along with a couple pounds of candi sugar in the boil. The local shop didn't have the Wyeast 3787 yeast that I usually use, so I picked up the 3864 instead.

The mill clogged once, then let the malt fall through uncrushed. Turns out the drill was running backwards. Forgot to set the gap back to its usual setting, so we ended up with a lot more fines than normal.

Mash-in went well, and the vorlauf started smoothly, but soon slowed. A lot. When we switched over to running off, we got just a trickle into the kettle. Poking at the mash suggested that it wasn't stuck, so we suspected clogged pipes. But disassembling the plumbing didn't turn up any leaks; the only thing left was that the screen must have clogged, so we dumped the mash into the kettle, cleaned out the screen, and reassembled everything. We heated up some more water to add to the mash to lower the viscosity.

Forty-five minutes later, when the water was hot, we poured the mash back into the mash tun and restarted the vorlauf, which ran for about a minute before the mash stuck for real this time. We figured out a way to float the mash (rigging a piece of copper pipe and blowing into the underlet) and decided to skip the vorlauf and start the runoff right away.

While the wort was running off, we decided to make sure we could get flow through the counterflow chiller. The temperature hadn't risen above 32°F for some weeks, and the inside pipe was blocked with ice. The kerosene heater helped some, and we took turns blowing through the outlet trying to dislodge any blockages, but no luck.

(By the way, I managed to put an extra half-gallon of warm water into the kettle while it was boiling, thereby adding fifteen minutes to the boil time.)

Near the end of the boil, we decided to throw a third pound of candi sugar in, because why not. Boiled a further fifteen minutes. Original Extract: 20°P.

Gave the chiller another fruitless try. So how should we cool the wort? We wrapped tinfoil around the top of the kettle, put the lid on top, and duct-taped two layers of blankets around the whole thing. With the temperature dropping to 7°F overnight, I knew the wort would cool down, but I didn't want it to freeze. That was at about 6:30 last night.

The kettle was surprisingly slightly warm to the touch at noon today. The chiller was still clogged, so I just drained the kettle into the carboy.

It's in the house now, and we're waiting for the fermentation to start. It's going to be an interesting glass of beer.

Beer Me! mobile for Android, version 1.6.0

2012-06-19T20:56:00.000-05:00

I just uploaded the newest version of the Beer Me! mobile app, version 1.6.0. If you've already purchased the app, you should get an automatic update in the very near future. If you haven't already purchased the app, what are you waiting for? It's available at Google Play.

App version 1.5.0...for Android tablets!

2012-05-29T19:16:00.002-05:00

I uploaded version 1.5.0 of the Beer Me!™ mobile app this afternoon. Thanks to Asian Bill's generous loan of a Samsung Galaxy, I was able to figure out the settings that needed changing so that the app would be available for tablet devices in Google Play.

So if you use an Android tablet, buy the app and let me know how it works!

Beer Me! mobile version 1.4.1

2012-05-20T20:48:00.000-05:00

I just uploaded the newest version of the Beer Me! app for Android devices. If you already have the app, you should receive version 1.4.1 automatically sometime soon. If you haven't purchased it yet, you can get it at Google Play for less than you probably spend on one beer.

Here's the changelog for version 1.4.1:

Changes in 1.4.1
=====================
- AND0057: IllegalArgumentException in com.beerme.android
- AND0064: ANR keyDispatchingTimedOut
- AND0058: Old location is used, even though GPS is working
- AND0074: android.os.NetworkOnMainThreadException
- AND0075: Fix BeerList layout

See http://beerme.com/forum/index.php/board,20.0.html for details.

Android app: Problem with location

2012-04-23T12:34:00.001-05:00

Some Beer Me! app users have reported problems with the app losing track of where they are, or not finding their location in the first place.

I have fixed, broken, fixed, and broken the location-finding code, but I'm pretty sure I'm on the right track now. I'll have it fixed and published as soon as I can — as long as my so-called real job doesn't interfere.

The next time the app updates, the fix will be included. Look for version 1.4.x sometime soonish.

Watch this thread for news: http://beerme.com/forum/index.php/topic,676.0.html

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Brewmaster Mark Carpenter Celebrates 40 Years at Anchor

2012-02-07T12:39:00.001-06:00

Via the Brookston Beer Bulletin:

Last year, Brewmaster Mark Carpenter celebrated his 40th anniversary with Anchor Brewery. According to my notes, he started on September 30, 1971. During GABF, a film crew interviewed a number of us during some side events, and they put together this video that includes some luminaries from the craft beer industry. Congratulations Mark.

Congratulations indeed!

Click through to the Brookston Beer Bulletin for a video tribute.

Site updates

2012-01-28T19:14:00.000-06:00

I've just found out about — and fixed — the problem with your updates not getting sent to me. It looks like anything sent after 9:30am CST on January 25 ended up in the bit bucket, so if you've tried to send anything in the past 3½ days, please send it again.

Thanks for all your help!

Backlog

2012-01-22T20:28:00.002-06:00

If this site would make some money, I'd hire a data-entry staff...

Maybe I'll get caught up someday.

Schwag!

2012-01-11T18:08:00.001-06:00

Beer Me! 20th anniversary commemorative t-shirts are now available at beerme.spreadshirt.com.

Celebrate the 20th anniversary of beerme.com and the first-ever Omaha Beer Week at the same time.

Fifteen Million

2012-01-08T14:51:00.002-06:00

Visitor number 15,000,000 stopped by Beer Me just now!

At 2:47:28 PM CST, someone hit the site through the Amazon EC2 portal. I don't know who it was or what they were looking for, but I appreciate the support.

And thanks to the other 14,999,999 of you, too!

Twenty years

2012-01-04T15:38:00.000-06:00

(I thought it was today, but it turns out it was yesterday.)

Twenty years ago, January 3, 1992, I started keeping notes on the beers I've tasted.

The first beer: Blitzen Barleywine, from the defunct La Jolla Brewing Company in California.

The notes in their entirety: "Light barleywine — good." OK, not the pinnacle of eloquence, but it was a start.

I remember this trip well; there was an annular solar eclipse at sunset on January 4, and I drove from San Leandro down to San Diego to see it.

(Click the picture to see the whole spectacular scene. Photo credit: biggestoffreds.)

I managed to visit a few more breweries along the way:

Twenty years. I think this calls for a beer.

No more "Beer in TX"!

2011-12-21T16:06:00.000-06:00

This is great news for Texas brewers and beer lovers!

As of result of yesterday’s ruling, beer in Texas may now be labeled as “beer” and ale may now be labeled as “ale”, regardless of alcohol content. Breweries and distributors are also no longer prohibited from independently telling consumers where their products may be purchased, or from communicating truthful and accurate information about their alcohol content.

Congratulations to Jester King and their co-plaintiffs for standing up to TABC.

An excerpt from the ruling:

TABC’s argument, combined with artful legislative drafting, could be used to justify any restrictions on commercial speech. For instance, Texas would likely face no (legal) obstacle if it wished to pass a law defining the word ‘milk’ to mean ‘a nocturnal flying mammal that eats insects and employs echolocation.’ Under TABC’s logic, Texas would then be authorized to prohibit use of the word ‘milk’ by producers of a certain liquid dairy product, but also to require Austin promoters to advertise the famous annual ‘Milk Festival’ on the Congress Avenue Bridge.

Great stuff. Read the whole article at Jester King's site.

Bud Light Platinum -- and I thought Miller Clear was dopey

2011-11-10T14:23:00.001-06:00

Bud Light Platinum, a 6%-abv-137-calorie monstrosity, is one of the dumbest, most insulting things to come out of any marketing department anywhere.

Lew Bryson rants about this stupidity at Seen Through a Glass. Read it, and despair for the mainstream beer drinker.

Labeley: Beer Label Design App

2011-10-17T21:15:00.002-05:00

This looks kinda cool:

Hi there,
I got interesting news for all the beer brewers and lovers, and off course, the beerme.com. We have just released free web app for designing beer labels online. Check it out at labeley.com, and feel free to contact me for the more info.
Kindest regards,
Roger Brady

Give it a try at Labeley.com.