I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dave Parker, the creator of BrewPal — a bit of software for the iPhone that I’ve posted about before. I’ve raved pretty extensively both on this site and to people in person about how awesome this app is. There’s definitely some geek speak going on in the interview — discussion of operating systems, user interfaces, etc. — but there’s also plenty of brew talk as well. What’s really amazing is that Dave built this software on his own time, and he’s only charging $0.99 for it. If you have an iPhone and you brew, there’s really no reason not to have a copy.
Here are the results of the interview:
So Yeah Dood: How long have you been brewing?
Dave: I actually started just over a year ago. My friend got a Mr. Beer for Christmas (in 2008) and we used it on December 28, 2009, so it was a year old, and of course the yeast was no good. It was a disaster, but I loved the process
Dave: ended up buying more yeast and dry malt extract at the local homebrew shop
So Yeah Dood: Nice!
So Yeah Dood: What was it that inspired you to build the app?
Dave: I have a collector mentality, so it doesn’t take much to push me over the edge… I think it was about two weeks before I had a starter all-grain setup.
So Yeah Dood: That’s impressive.
Dave: My day job is computer programming and I really fell in love with brewing quite quickly. Always been a beer guy
it seemed pretty natural. I found I was constantly looking stuff up in How To Brew or online, and I wanted it in the palm of my hand.
So Yeah Dood: Did you start out using some other application like BeerSmith, or ProMash?
Dave: Nope, I had only — and have still only — used online calculators and such. (more…)
So I take my BJCP exam on August 9th. Three hours, ten essay questions, fifteen judging process true/false questions, and four tastings. 20+ style categories, with multiple sub-styles in each style.