Reprinted with permission from:

Rob Nelson - beer.guide@miningco.com

Dateline: 06/29/98

I'm dirt! I'm scum! I don't deserve to walk among decent people!

Within hours of uploading last week's feature, I received e-mail messages from a legion of loyal readers (OK, three of you) telling me that I'd omitted a fine software product from my reviews. This ruffled my feathers a bit. I had diligently mined the web, seeking out and testing every software product I could find. I missed one. Unfortunately, I missed one of the best.

The product is called Pro Mash. It is the product of the fertile mind and programming skills of Jeffery Donovan. I am deeply sorry I missed reviewing it last week. I will risk the wrath of my editor by covering the same topic in back-to-back features. I can hear him now. "Where's that article about every Belgian beer ever brewed you've been promising?", he'll write. I don't care! This is the product that pried my checkbook from my good wife's clutches and had me rummaging for a stamp.

Let me back off just a bit here. Pro Mash is not a program for the new brewer. It is so rich in features and calculations that it might be just a bit intimidating. As I reviewed the other products last week, I found myself wishing that each had some feature found in another. Pro Mash has them all. I tested it like I tested the others: I installed it and started clicking around, seeing if my instincts were correct. I'm pleased to report that Mr. Donovan thinks like a brewer and writes like a programmer.

Let me list the features I found the most impressive:

• All of the databases may be altered by the user. Should the AHA decide to add Memphis-Style Mild Ale to its growing list of beer styles, Pro Mash will let you add it and set its color, bitterness, and gravity figures. I like this!
• Pro Mash allows you to keep an inventory of materials you have in your stockpile. As you formulate your recipe, it will reduce your inventory as you deplete it and produce a short and sweet shopping list for the items you need to buy. You can even tell the recipe formulator to only show the ingredients you have in stock. I'll use this!
• You can use Pro Mash to calculate how much infusion water you need to raise your mash to a certain temperature. It even has a "thermal mass" factor to compensate for the design of your mash tun. Yowsa!

I could continue waxing rhapsodic about this product but I'll leave the decision to you. Point your browser to the Pro Mash home page and download an evaluation copy (2.2 meg) for Windows only. It will allow you to create only two recipes but it will let you tinker with all of the features.

My apologies to Jeffery for missing this fine piece of work. My apologies to my readers for leaving it out of last week's feature. My thanks to those who brought my omission to my attention. I owe you a beer!

Best in beer!

Your beer Guide -
Rob Nelson