Show HN: homebrewvault.com

[rickd]

Hi guys, long time lurker, first time (non-comment) submission.

I've been working on homebrewvault.com (mostly nights) for what seems like forever. I'm just about finished with the core product and am almost ready to do some promotion. I've always followed the "Show HN" submissions because they seem to produce really valuable feedback. So before I take the plunge, I'd love to hear what you guys think. I'm also going with the "if you aren't embarrassed by your first release, you aren't releasing early enough" philosophy I first learned of here.

For a little more background: As a homebrewer of about 5 years, I was frustrated by the lack of online features in home brewing software. There is really only one software solution from a single incumbent that seems to have a virtual monopoly. It's windows only client software and very complex. My aim was to create a site that would be easy to use and allow brewers to create and store recipes online, so they could more easily share them and access them from anywhere. There are an estimated 3 million home brewers out there, so this seems like a somewhat niche market that is still big enough to benefit from some disruption and new ideas.

Feedback appreciated! Rick [e-mail]

[drkpwn]

I also got the PHP error when I clicked Shared recipes.

Some other random feedbacks;

- Add a "home/ take a tour" button in the navigation menu, even if when I click your logo I got send back to the landing page. It add a free "feature" to your website

- Don't repeat the Help / Login at the bottom. It's confusing for me. Everybody is used to logged from the top right corner or somewhere in the middle of the page. Not the bottom left corner ;)

- Keep the basic color of the sharing icon. your color scheme doesn't do them justice :) Also, For instance, your Twitter is all blurry after your modified it

- For your Sign-up process. If you want to add more "sharing/social" feature, it is maybe best to be able to sign-up through Facebook/twitter connect too.

- remove the credit cards logo under the Buy now button. They are not very nice looking and just use the basic Paypal button. Everybody know that you can pay through a bazillion ways through Paypal :) And by seeing the Paypal name they are reassured you are not a "scammy little website"

- Your recipes, batches and ingredients pages look a bit empty. Just add the footer like you did on the about page to promote.

Otherwise I like the design and process of your website, About the idea I don't know, I'm just not into brewing myself :)

cheers!

[profquail]

Hi Rick! The website looks great.I don't know much about homebrewing (but I've been interested in learning about it for a while); I think it'd be helpful if there was a section of your site with some beginner-level information about homebrewing. Or, make that a bigger feature of the site, with free beginner-level articles and require a paid-for account to read intermediate/advanced-level articles.

Another idea would be to allow your users to view and post reviews of homebrewing equipment. If I wanted to get into homebrewing right now, I'd imagine it'd take a while to get up to speed on which manufactures/models to look for or avoid. Since you're targeting a fairly niche market, this might provide a real value to your users.

Also, when I read the word software, I immediately thought of little apps like recipe calculators -- maybe you could build a small "apps" section on your website (for users only)? If you already had formulas and things on hand, it'd be trivial to code them up with JS. This feature would be even more useful if you eventually made a mobile version of the site so you could log in and use the apps (and see recipes, etc.) on your smartphone.

Hope that gives you a few ideas! Good luck with the site!

[rickd]

Hi Prof,

Thanks for the ideas! There are so many forums/discussion boards out there, I thought a forum or a review area would be a bit redundant but it is certainly worth another look.

I definitely plan to get all the calculators out there so that people can do one-off calculations or maybe even include them as widgets/etc on other sites.

The current next step is to create an html5 friendly version of the site (probably in jquery mobile) so that it's more easily accessible via phone, this was the major spark that got me working on the site in the first place, so it's definitely my next move. Perhaps native apps after that, or not if the mobile version feels native enough.

Rick

[revorad]

This looks beautiful!

How are you planning to drive traffic to the site? I think as profquail suggested, content is king. Building a community around learning and teaching about beer brewing will probably do you a lot of good.

In the demo video, please show a real recipe instead of filler text like "Demo". Your users should not get the feeling that you don't know anything about beer brewing.

Add more recipes under "Shared Recipes". When I clicked on the only one there is, I got an error:

http://skitch.com/hrishimittal/raf6b/homebrew

[revdinosaur]

Hey this is seriously great. I've been using spreadsheets forever and using some pretty dodgy brew calculators over the years. One request, though, for a cider guy like myself: any chance of expanding it into wines, ciders and meads? I love the layout of the brew stats, though. Cheers.

Edit: just saw the bit abou the custom fermentables. This would make the site indispensable for me.

[rickd]

Hi Rev, thanks for the feedback.

I actually have the BJCP style info for meads and ciders loaded, but I've never done either so I still need to do some research to make sure the site calculates everything correctly. But it's definitely on the list of things to do... which reminds me, I need to post that list up on the blog.

I also plan to enable entering custom info for all of the ingredient types, I just wanted to start as simple as possible- but it will be something that gets added eventually!

Thanks again, rick

[pkamb]

Clickable: http://www.homebrewvault.com/

[sagacity]

Great work!

While I don't know what sort of traffic and/or other benefits it'll yield, I'll be happy to place your banner at the site below, let me know if you're interested:

http://www.TheDrinkMaker.com

[MPiccinato]

Rick, awesome job on the site! I am not a homebrewer but I know plenty that would love this. The design is great for a first release and as you get feedback it will definitely improve.

[pbj]

From one beer fan to another, congrats! I really like the design. I haven't got into homebrewing yet but it's on my list of things to try soon.

[rickd]

Thanks pbj! I highly recommend it as a hobby for anyone that appreciates a decent beer ;) Papazian's book "The Joy of Home Brewing" can usually be found for under 15 bucks and it really has everything you need to know to brew in a quick and easy read.