Messages

61

Events / Re: NHC 2013 Entry Problems - Possible Solutions?

« on: February 28, 2013, 08:39:58 AM »

There are two separate issues here.  Obviously, demand has been increasing every year... all regions filled up within 3 days last year, and a few hours this year.  There has been lots of discussion on how to fix this.

The other problem is that the registration software that the AHA switched to this year is garbage.  Looking at the company behind it (zkdigital.com), it's some guy in Colorado who probably knows beer but lacks any technical background other than some web design skills.  You need to be licensed to do my taxes but any random guy can still write server software?  C'mon, it's 2012.

62

Equipment and Software / Re: Aerating wort with oxygen and open flame kerosene heater

« on: February 27, 2013, 07:55:50 AM »

Turn off the heater for 10 minutes just to be safe in case of leaks.

63

Going Pro / Re: Starting a brewery

« on: February 27, 2013, 07:53:12 AM »

Also, IMO if you're getting complaints about the beer being bland, you may want to rethink brewing as a profession.

Someone should tell that to New Belgium re:Fat Tire. I'm not really sure why people think you need to brew only "good" beer to be successful. Most successful breweries make decent, consistent beer, but do it profitably. That's really all it takes. You're kidding yourself if you think New Belgium could've gotten as big as they are with the Lips of Faith series alone.

And that's another reason not to open a brewery. I want to make good beer, not run an assembly line and mess around with focus groups.

The ideal situation would be to have a local brewpub, stay small enough to brew whatever the frick I want, and survive off of people's love of good beer and cool places to hangout.  It's been done but the term "labor of love" seems fitting.

64

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 08:09:07 PM »

Fine, I'll jump on the bandwagon and pay again.  I suppose it will be easier for Janis to issue a refund for one than to fix the mess if the system automatically deletes my entries tomorrow.

65

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 07:38:47 PM »

At this point, the site says that they have halted registration.  Paying twice is only going to create more problems for them in the long run.  If you have a receipt, I would be shocked if they didn't honor your payment.

66

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 05:13:24 PM »

I think they fixed the payment confirmation later on.  The earlier payments didn't seem to register on the site.  Since they have the credit card transaction and payment emails, they should go back and correct that.

At the moment, I can't even login to check.

67

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 03:01:15 PM »

Enough people gave up that you can register now.

Yeah, considering that it doesn't seem to enforce any limits, Ohio is pushing 950 now...

68

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 02:35:51 PM »

Yeah, I got the email too.  I assume the site is just messed up (a fair assumption, I think).

69

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 02:26:52 PM »

So, I just paid for my entries, my credit card was charged, but it redirected to a 404 "Page not found" and the site still says that I haven't paid.

70

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 02:16:39 PM »

Hey, it magically works now.  Maybe they upped the max connections to MySQL 

71

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 01:58:08 PM »

Whoever wrote this software should be impaled with a mash paddle.  With modern hardware, if you can't get your site to handle a few hundred connections at once, you should find a new career.

72

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 01:35:08 PM »

Methinks AHA needs to get a better hosting solution.  Seeing mysql errors about too many connections is so 2001.

73

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 01:07:37 PM »

503.  The constant clicking of reload begins...

74

All Grain Brewing / Re: where do you take mash pH?

« on: February 14, 2013, 11:04:51 AM »

The main reason is that it's bad for your probe.

75

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: The Mad Fermentationist's Top 10 Myths

« on: February 10, 2013, 10:19:54 AM »

Dinner doesn't take me 8!hours of constant monitoring followed by several week of babysitting. Items at the grocery store are also competitively priced and not marked up at a hobby shop scale.

In fact, I can make dinner at home in less than the amount of time it takes me to drive to a restaurant , get seated, and drive home!

Sorry, don't buy it.  Don't you have delivery down in the bayou?  That takes no time at all.

8 hours is for 10 gallons, not one dinner.  Beer ingredients don't go bad in a week, either.  On the other hand, going to the grocery store or farmers market bi-weekly to keep fresh food around takes time.  And the prices for bulk grain and hops are comparable to Costco food prices.

 I don't even have cell phone service or cable let alone delivery. Dont live in the bayou, live on the Cumberland plateau.

I sure hope you are coming to NHC this year. We need to arm wrestle!

I'll be there. 
I call FTW now!