I finally had a chance to work with the inventory.
First, I will say that I really like having this feature. Having one location to keep track of all the hops in my freezer is great. I tend to buy a lot of hops in September/October and vacuum seal everything. It takes some planning but I do pretty well using it up.
I have a big request for inventory items.
1. Create a new instance of the hop rather then linking back. This would allow me to add a hop to inventory, then go back and modify the AA %. Give user option to show hops from inventory, from the base database, or both when adding to recipes.
2. Add a vendor field to differentiate the hop.
3. Add a date field for the hop.
4. Add a hop storage mechanism. Allow a default in the options.
5. Provide the option to automatically adjust hop AA based on age and storage.
As things stand now.. my current process is..
1. Copy and paste a base hop.
2. Change its name to reflect vendor and year, change AA, add to inventory. For instance, I make a copy of Magnum that becomes "Yakima Magnum Freshops 2010" with the new AA.
3. Add new hop to recipe. Adust AA based on expected age at time it is brewed.
4. Once a specific (rather then generic) hop is used up I plan to delete it from the ingredient list. It will exist only in the recipes.
I think this is an area where the program can really shine by taking a lot of the work out of keeping track of aging hops in the inventory. I set up once in the fall and my hops will for the most part be effortlessly included in recipes.
As a side comment.. it would be nice if the hop aging tool had a 4th storage type, "Vacuum sealed in plastic bag". Many of us have vacuum sealers but do not use foil bags.
One final request for the inventory: Allow misc items to be specified as infinite. I don't want to keep track of how much gypsum I have.. I just want to note I currently have it so it does not get added to the shopping list. Currently I just set it up as 50 tsp.. but being able to skip the amount would simplify things. When I run out, I will replace or remove.
Thanks,
Chris
First, I will say that I really like having this feature. Having one location to keep track of all the hops in my freezer is great. I tend to buy a lot of hops in September/October and vacuum seal everything. It takes some planning but I do pretty well using it up.
I have a big request for inventory items.
1. Create a new instance of the hop rather then linking back. This would allow me to add a hop to inventory, then go back and modify the AA %. Give user option to show hops from inventory, from the base database, or both when adding to recipes.
2. Add a vendor field to differentiate the hop.
3. Add a date field for the hop.
4. Add a hop storage mechanism. Allow a default in the options.
5. Provide the option to automatically adjust hop AA based on age and storage.
As things stand now.. my current process is..
1. Copy and paste a base hop.
2. Change its name to reflect vendor and year, change AA, add to inventory. For instance, I make a copy of Magnum that becomes "Yakima Magnum Freshops 2010" with the new AA.
3. Add new hop to recipe. Adust AA based on expected age at time it is brewed.
4. Once a specific (rather then generic) hop is used up I plan to delete it from the ingredient list. It will exist only in the recipes.
I think this is an area where the program can really shine by taking a lot of the work out of keeping track of aging hops in the inventory. I set up once in the fall and my hops will for the most part be effortlessly included in recipes.
As a side comment.. it would be nice if the hop aging tool had a 4th storage type, "Vacuum sealed in plastic bag". Many of us have vacuum sealers but do not use foil bags.
One final request for the inventory: Allow misc items to be specified as infinite. I don't want to keep track of how much gypsum I have.. I just want to note I currently have it so it does not get added to the shopping list. Currently I just set it up as 50 tsp.. but being able to skip the amount would simplify things. When I run out, I will replace or remove.
Thanks,
Chris