brewMine.com

[Chris Alvey]

I come with hat in hand to ask the group for some help or at least a kick in the ass. I had started working on http://www.brewmine.com/ longer ago than I care to admit and had shelved it for a case of what amounts to website writers block. I was watching The Social Network last night and was shamed into remembering a time where I too could write a whole small website in a night while drinking beer. Lately I mostly just drink beer and have been forgetting to write the website too.

SO, I am resurrecting the brewMine project and would like to ask the club's help and opinion on a few things. If I do a good job the purpose of the website will be self-evident to anyone who visits. That's not the case currently so I will explain. The vision is a place where brewers can go and post their recipes, search through the existing recipes, and rate existing recipes once they have brewed them (brewer's code I guess here.) Members would gain worthless points for performing these activities with weight going toward posting a new recipe and these points would be part of their profile that they could show off and be used in rankings. Maybe if you were brewer of the month (most points earned or something) I would award a special badge (unique graphic) that a user could choose to display in their profile.

Signup and login should be working so if you have some time please sign up and poke around. I'll warn you, it's a mess and is not even in what I would consider pre-Beta, but the basics are there.

1. What in the hell do I put on the first page? Seriously - I am dead stuck on what would be best.
2. Recipe format - it's a mess and is only a wireframe mockup at this point. I'm having a hard time with this too from a design standpoint.
3. Ranking and Points- it's implemented in the database somewhat but what would be a cool way to display and use this.
4. Fonts - sometimes I think they suck. I have half a mind to destroy my style sheet and start from scratch. I'm no good at design.
5. Anything else - do you honestly think people would use this website? I'm thick-skinned - please tell me. I have several other projects I could devote time to - breadomatic.com for instance which will be a bread and pizza dough recipe and calculator website (just a free template is up there now.)

I appreciate all of your input and please, be brutal if necessary.

Oh, if you want an example of better design, check out this guy... http://www.heislerbrewing.com/


Thanks

[Don]

Thanks, but I have a long way to go to catch up with your talents. I've just had several weeks off work with good drugs and got real creative. I'll check you out, always looking for as much brewing and equipment information I can find.

Likes:
I do like your drop down boxes when adding ingredients, and your help hints.

Add:
In the beer style how about a drop down box with the BJCP styles.

Problem:
While adding Final Volume: it won't let me add 5.25 just 5.2 you have this cell set at 3.
Some of my Fermentation Notes are missing from My DonWeiser

Don't like:
Ranking and Points-
I'm one that's not into trying to rack-up point (get credit) for doing something, to get an edge on others, or to post more than others. (But that's just me) It will probably be a way get get more inputs from the public and the more information you have the more people will want to come to your page.

[jefrey3]

Pictures of naked women will help both sites.

[Don]

Pictures of naked women will help both sites.

If you look real hard you may find one of me in my speedo while in the Mediterranean Sea

[jefrey3]

So your recent surgery was a sex change?

[Chris Alvey]

Jack you have actually given me a good idea for the front page...

Don thanks. Ill fix thay field length. I do have all the bjcp styles loaded but the autofill keys off first letter... I need a better component there. Jquery ui to the rescue maybe. I see what youre saying about rankings and will keep that ancillary.

[Don]

One more thing:
I noticed the page didn't save my used name or password.
I had to re-register to get on again today.

[sirgiovanni]

Without first looking at it, I would say get your functionality in place. Make it a valuable tool I want to use repeatedly. Then work out the interface and fonts. I'll try to spend some time on it as soon as I can.

[Jeremy Dunn]

It'd be nice to have functionality to import and export the recipe(s) in BeerXML Format.

I could help out with this project if you're interested.

http://www.beerxml.com/

[Chris Alvey]

Good idea Jeremy. I had considered that for both this website and Brew365.com. I think I would consider it secondary | feature on my priority stack but it is something that ultimately would add value to the website.

I just might take you up on your offer to help when the time comes - much appreciated.

[Don Armstrong]

Hey Chris,

Cool idea! I built a recipe and here are a few thoughts:

1) I like to use 8lbs 13 oz, not 8.8lbs. That is more convenient for my process.
2) I couldn't figure out how to edit my recipe once it was saved
3) I did not find a field for mash info - temp, time, etc.
4) It would be nice to have a field for hops alpha acid %

Also, I use Hopville.com quite a bit and they have a handy feature that shows if you meet the BJCP style and why not if you are off.

I would like to see a brew log feature that lets you track changes from brew to brew of the same recipe.

I will definitely use and promote the site if you get it cookin'

[Chris Alvey]

All excellent suggestions Don - thank you very much for your input.