All the best for 2016.

Post #1 made 8 years ago
[center]Thanks to 2015 Contributors[/center]
Many thanks to all members, old and new, who have contributed actively to BIABrewer.info in the last year :salute:.

2015 was the first year where I found myself unable to contribute to the site on a daily basis. In fact, for various reasons, there were months that went by without some key members being able to contribute. Whilst this lead to at least a halving in forum traffic/activity (something of no importance to us), it also allowed some space for some very good newer members to take up the slack whether it be in welcoming new members, offering encouragement or in answering questions really well. These things certainly do not go unnoticed and are very much appreciated by me - more below.

2015 is yet another year where the high quality culture of the forum was self-sustaining. No reprimands or bannings were necessary and any posts that needed to be edited only had to be done so as to correct usually minor factual errors. We may have missed some so always let me know if you see something that is not making sense no matter who writes it.

[center]2015 Achievments[/center]
Members who think that there have been no front end achievements in 2015 would be correct :roll:. Trying to re-write this site while it is still live has proved to be impossible. It has taken a long time for this to sink in, however, the good news is that it finally has and we are now working on writing up a whole new site from scratch. Whilst this is still an incredibly large job for a few people let alone a single person, we now know it is achievable.

[center]2016 Intentions[/center]
We (that means me and anyone else who can contribute) intend to create a whole new website that...
A) Has an information side that is fast and easy to use and covers brewers at all stages and circumstances.
B) Is far more dynamic and customisable than the current site.
C) Encourages and rewards positive participation.
D) Encourages and rewards brewing skills and the transferring of these skills to other members.

[center]2016 Hopes[/center]
Creating the above is a very tall order for me personally, especially if I have no direct assistance. What I am hoping is that those of you who are already contributing will continue to do so, as you will be given recognition in the new website. I also hope that some other members will start to participate more, not because they will be given recognition, but because it should be obvious that, especially over the next year, the more quality information passed on to other members, the faster we will be able to get this new website nailed.

Wishing you all a fantastic 2016 :salute:,
Pat
Last edited by Pat on 01 Jan 2016, 03:33, edited 1 time in total.
Are you a "Goodwill Brewer?" Pay forward and Buy Some BIPs ;)

Post #2 made 8 years ago
Pat - it's a joy to help!!! I consider myself as a student assistant under you. Wishing you and yours happiness and health for 2016. Peace to all.

Sent from my XT1053 using Tapatalk
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Post #3 made 8 years ago
Mad_Scientist wrote:Wishing you and yours happiness and health for 2016. Peace to all.
Too right MS and back at you ;). I don't usually get too keyed up about upcoming years but I reckon this one is going to be a very good one.
Pat wrote:What I am hoping is that those of you who are already contributing will continue to do so, as you will be given recognition in the new website.
I will write anything for the new site as long as it has to be over 5,000 words :lol:.

Can't wait :party: :drink:,
PP
Last edited by PistolPatch on 01 Jan 2016, 22:07, edited 1 time in total.
If you have found the above or anything else of value on BIABrewer.info, consider supporting us by getting some BIPs!
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Post #4 made 8 years ago
Taking over a year off from brewing has resulted in a drop in my participation here. Partially because I have focused attention on other hobbies and partially because I have lost some of the detailed lessons learned while brewing on a weekly basis. I have resolved to get back on the horse and brew up some frosty malt beverages this year.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the new faces that have stepped up in the absence of some of us old-timers, without your participation it would be awfully quiet around here. Keep up the great job!

I would also encourage every single member to contribute something. I see a lot of new folks joining up and alluding to the trials and tribulations that have led them here....share those stories with us! Tell us about your success and your failures no matter how new you are to this. It is only through shared experience that we can learn from others regardless of our level of experience.

Thanks to Pat and the other powers that be here behind the scenes for providing this venue and the knowledge shared herein.

Happy Brew Year to all! :drink:


---Todd
WWBBD?
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Post #5 made 8 years ago
Pat, my HTML abilities are well past their Prime, But, this a phpBB Forum Template Website.
Image
Have you had a look at the "Free"
Image
Forum Templates at http://www.phpbb3styles.net/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Or "Cheep"
Image
Forums templates from http://themeforest.net/category/forums" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You may be well pass these Templates,
Image
but Ideas can be Helpful.
Last edited by joshua on 02 Jan 2016, 22:22, edited 1 time in total.
Honest Officer, I swear to Drunk, I am Not God.
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Post #6 made 8 years ago
Hi folks, Happy New Year to all. I'm in a similar situation as thughes. I've only brewed ONCE this year and that is shocking. Last year we moved to a different house after accumulating "stuff" for over 40 years. That has literally overwhelmed me and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with all my possessions that I could not do without. I know none of you have been there. :lol: During that time, I've put myself back into some old hobbies that have been on the burner for years.. i.e., wood carving, wood burning (pyrography), ukulele and vegetable gardening. I'm just hoping all my bulk grain is still good :argh:

Anyhow, I haven't forgotten all you great people, especially the heroes that make BIABrewer work. Truly heroes.. IMO

Bill
Bill
Hop Song Brewing-Santa Rosa, California

Post #7 made 8 years ago
Happy New Year everyone!

I have been on a rather long brewing hiatus, sorry for not contributing. I'm not sure when, but I know I will get back to brewing at some point. I'm looking forward to seeing how the site will look in the future.

Hope everyone has a great year!

P.S. HbgBill, I'm hoping the same about all my grain too.
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Post #8 made 8 years ago
Hi Guys, long time no post :blush:

The last few years have been difficult for me and brewing is sadly one of the things that has taken a hit and has had to sidelined. Consequently my contributions on here have suffered and I have found it increasingly difficult to keep up and pick up on things. Don't take that as criticism of this forum, its true for all the forums I am a member of. By there very nature the best ones all move at a pace and it takes commitment to keep with it.

Brewing on a regular basis helps to keep you in touch and participate I'm hoping 2016 sees a few more brews into my fermenter, a full brew fridge :drink: and some new posts/threads from me.

As for your 2016 intentions Pat, I think its definitely the way to go and will certainly be easier than to try and rewrite this site whilst its on the go. I wish you every success and if you need anything doing even if its just an avenue for a rant to blow off steam drop me a PM.

So to all you guys new and old, Happy New Year and have a brewtastic 2016

:drink: :salute:

Yeasty
Why is everyone talking about "Cheese"
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Post #9 made 8 years ago
Happy New Year Pat! And Happy New Year to the old timers, the new faces, you fellas who haven't been brewing much but wish you could be, the daily contributors, the behind the scenes contributers, and everyone else!

Very interested to see the new site!

Happy Brewing All!

:salute: :peace: :drink:
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Post #10 made 8 years ago
All the best to everyone in 2016.
I'm in a similar situation as HbgBill. I have only brewed twice this year as the house I am in now sucks. I am planning on moving into a new house later this year and will be building a brew shed.
I have been able to find more time to hang around here lately and as Pat has mentioned I see great things happening.
With that being said I am excited for the coming year here and am willing to help out wherever I can.
All the best and happy brewing.
Some people are like slinkies. Not good for much, but bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

Weehoosebrewing.ga
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Post #11 made 8 years ago
This is a great forum. It is a safe and friendly place to share our knowledge. I have continued to brew through several long forum absences, however, I lurk here every now and then as well. I'll try to be back in the community here more.

I'm probably going to attempt to enter a few more competitions in the near future too so I can share those experiences (the good/bad/ugly :? ) and maybe learn a bit more about my own brewing tendencies. :salute:

Post #13 made 8 years ago
Happy New Year All...

I've brewed 13 BIAB batches in the past year (Dec 26 2014 to Dec 5 2015), and am probably brewing batch 14 today or tomorrow... My beer refrigerator now has 6 ea 5 gallon Corny kegs, and 4 ea Perlick Fawcetts mounted in front. I have a temp controlled fermentation chamber, two Speidel fermenters and all the items a serious BIAB Homebrewer needs. (Not all the extra crud needed for 3V, thankfully. Only so much room in the garage. ;)

Thank you all so much for all of the support, encouragement, advice and whatnot over the past year! I've learned a ton, and would not be where I am at without all your help!! Always more to learn, lots more. But way more comfortable with it now, after a year. And again, all of your help has been outstanding.

Personally I have undergone a career change in the past year. Quite challenging to change the thing you've done for 26 years - and feel you are very good at - and learn something new. But change happens for a reason. When a door closes, another opens...and the Lord will never give you more than you can take, right...? BIAB and brewing has been a nice diversion.

I help where and when I can and will continue to do so. (But like Pat, I can be a little bit long winded in responses...) ;)

Thanks again for all the help and support, and I wish the best for all of you in 2016! :thumbs:
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Post #14 made 8 years ago
Thanks, Pat and all who make this place great. It is the attitude that keeps me coming back. I have learned from the posts by experienced Brewers and questions from all over the world. Question everything, answer with respect. I no longer sparge, but I am still learning.
Last edited by ShorePoints on 04 Jan 2016, 02:37, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #15 made 8 years ago
This was my first year brewing and I cant say enough about the site and support. I continue to learn a ton and hope to start contributing more as I grow - I can definitely point out newbie mistakes (having made many). Thanks to the original creators and the rest that have given me a tremendous leap into all grain.
Happy New Year!
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Post #16 made 8 years ago
This site started me off on the BIAB journey. I initially used Biabacus but then moved to Beersmith. After a few brews with Beersmith I went back to the Biabacus because for some reason it seemed more accurate in volumes and also the hop bills were quite different in both (which put me off a bit). I've been brewing for a couple of years now and would not really consider myself as knowledgeable as some of the other guys, but I can tell the newbies what I've experienced....
I've got 3 fridges, one for fermenting, one that holds 2 cornies for dispensing and one for lagering. Personally I'd like to see more recipes on the site as this is an easy way for people to contribute - I've started to add some just recently and will continue to do so.

Regarding the rebranding of the forums Pat, if you haven't already I'd seek assistance from fellow brewers on here with IT skills, I'm sure there are a few who will know how to do this pretty quickly and it will save you a lot of time. Also that idea of using templates sounds a good idea.

Good luck with the site rebuild might you need any help in testing and of the new site let me know and I'll put aside a few hours when I can to help. If we all put a little in then it will all get done quicker.
Cheers

Post #17 made 8 years ago
Happy New Year to all;

Personal circumstances have prevented me from contributing as much as I would like over the last several months. My situation will change soon and I intend to get involved again. I have brewed only a few times this year (prior year I brewed over 200 US Gal/757 L). So I am way behind my ball game.

Pat, while I am unable to contribute in any meaningful way to the building of the new site, and if financial help will help the end game, I would like to do that. In fact, if that is the case, I would encourage anyone who may not be able to assist in any other way to help financially.

Hope everyone has a very peaceful, brewful) 2016.
OldGoat
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Post #18 made 8 years ago
Happy New Year to all forum members! 2015 was actually a busy year for brewing, by my standards. Now two years into this hobby, with many lessons learned, and still learning and tweaking things. This past year produced the following brews:
• Timothy Taylor Landlord (English pale ale)
• American blonde ales: 2 x batches of my attempt at a Big Wave Golden Ale clone
• Janets Brown Ale (an Anglicized version)
• A Maibock styled ale (Rogue Dead Guy)

A few of the lessons I learned:
• Don’t forget to mix your priming sugar solution thoroughly into the beer prior to bottling
• Hop aroma dissipates noticeably after ~6 weeks in the bottle
• Always keep a spare canister of propane on hand for those long 90 min boils
• Rotation of said propane canisters half way through the boil can help improve the vigor of the boil
• Making beer is a lot like cooking, but involves more cleaning :)

I also tried a lot of interesting craft beers, which helped me develop a sense for some of the various styles and flavors available. Useful when evaluating ones own product.

I’d like to thank everyone who has helped me with my journey, and to those members who have shared their own journey with us.

Peace

All the best for 2016.

Post #19 made 8 years ago
Happy New Year!

I have brewed 15x since starting in March, and am loving it. I 'decided' not to HBT and to enjoy the smaller pond here, but ended up sharing my brews on the hotpepperforum I frequent, and have helped 4-5x people start brewing, after a couple of folks there got me going ...

I have been using Beersmith, but I don't like it, or find it reliably accurate at the end of the day ...

As for a site upgrade, I have to wonder why not just crawl the existing site to populate an instance of Discourse? https://www.discourse.org/

I personally administered an instance via:
https://www.discoursehosting.com/pricing/

... and it was simple.

CHEERS!

Post #20 made 8 years ago
Happy New Year to all.

I too have not done any brewing of late. Illness & bereavements and the usual excuse of life getting in the way etc.

Still willing to contribute to the site though.

Good luck & good brewing to all in 2016. :thumbs:
G B
I spent lots of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I squandered
I've stopped drinking, but only when I'm asleep
I ONCE gave up women and alcohol - it was the worst 20 minutes of my life
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All the best for 2016.

Post #21 made 8 years ago
Hello Brewers,

I'm one of those long-time-listeners-first-time-callers.

This website has been a great source of info for me. I haven't posted much because I've usually been able to find a previous post with the info I was after. With around a dozen successful BIABs under my belt, I feel I might be able to provide some assistance to others now.

As others have mentioned, I am loving Biabacus - I am using it as my brewing software. It works great and I have no desire to try anything else.

My wife bought me a kegging setup for Christmas after witnessing many a lengthy and infuriating bottling session, so I'm keen to put that to the test.

Anyway, as a silent fan of this forum, I'm keen to start sharing my limited experiences with those who are even more green than me. I'm also keen to see where this website goes.

Here's to 2016. Cheers!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Post #22 made 8 years ago
Looks like 2015 was a funny year for quite a few of us. It's fantastic and very encouraging to see that those whose brewing lapsed in 2015, for various reasons, are still keeping their eye on the site.

I would love to acknowledge every post above as they are all worth acknowledging but that would take way too many hours. I have replied, I hope, to any PM's sent to me in the last few weeks and, where any of the above posts have asked me specific questions, I believe I have answered those via PM as well.

Donations Today

OldGoat's post above prompted the first donations we've seen in a while. Donations in the last year averaged about $10 per month but since this post, 4 donations came in. I have refunded two of them as I have a limit as to what I believe any one single member should donate. joshua and rockbotton, your amazing recent donations way exceed that limit and I have refunded them - amazing stuff guys. Quinbrew, thank you and I'll update your status when I have some more time as I think you must be close to $25 now :thumbs:. OldGoat, also need to check my records on you (my master donation spreadsheet got lost on a recent hard disk failure so I have to re-compile it from backups) because I think you are getting up there as well???

Don't Forget!

One of the most valuable ways to contribute is to simply welcome people to the forum. Maybe they live in your country? There is always something to talk about.

[center]To Newer Members[/center]
Feel free to use this thread to let us know if you have been looked after (or let down) in 2015. Older members always find your posts really interesting and informative.

I won't open suggestions for the new site in this thread or any other as there is already way too much on the plate. If you do have a suggestion though, can you PM me? Your idea just might create a link in a chain we need but have not thought of yet.

Thanks a heap for your posts above. They make a big difference :salute:,
Pat
Last edited by Pat on 03 Jan 2016, 23:54, edited 1 time in total.
Are you a "Goodwill Brewer?" Pay forward and Buy Some BIPs ;)

Post #23 made 8 years ago
Happy New Year to all,

I have been away (no internet, no house, and no brewing) but I hope to be around a lot more from now on.

Huge thanks to Pat and his team for the site, I still continue to learn everytimebinlogbin. And some of the Oder threads have become my 'brew bible'.

Speak soon, and thanks again.
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Post #24 made 8 years ago
I think a redesign of the forums would be a big help. I have never found the categorical groupings to make a lot of sense, so I have not used it much.

However, I think Biabacus is great and donated for that reason.
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Post #25 made 8 years ago
It really is funny this place, how slow moving it can be .. yet it's my greatest brewing asset to date. What BIABrewer.info lacks in quantity ... certainly is made up in quality individuals.

I haven't been posting as much as usual, mainly due to holiday stuff and restructuring at work (I was unofficially "promoted" in June, and have taken on much more responsibility).

Total of three brew days in 2015 (starting in May due to a move), which doesn't seem like much but my capacity was also slightly increased to an average of 1bbl per brew session as of a few weeks ago. I look forward to the new aesthetic and layout, and plan on contributing more and more as things settle at work once again.
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