Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
Renewing My Faith in the Promise of the Internet
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: How to Avoid Huge Ships I’m dating myself when I say this but… to me, the promise of the internet is a joke that everyone writes the punchline for. All the reviews on here – admit this. Even the pricing arbitrage bots get into the jokes – 3rd party pricing goes from …
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Powerless
Garrick’s Beer Fault Map
I pulled this together as part of my BJCP prep course last year. I’ve found it quite handy to have it during tastings thought you might find it handy as well.
Your Minimum Viable Product is Processing Credit Cards
If you’re building any sort of web service or mobile app and you can’t yet receive money from people – stop. Right now. Stop. For all that is right in the world – stop. If you can’t process credit cards right now – you don’t have a product and you barely have a business. Your …
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Brew Day for the 2012 Hop Clearance
Today was brew day for the 2012 Hop Clearance and it could have gone much better. I forgot to put the false bottom in the brew pot (that’s step 1, even before turning on the burner). So, the weight of 19 pounds of grain and the heat from the bottom of the brew pot burned …
Big Beer Year: #1 The Hop Clearance American Barleywine
One thing that beer class confirmed for me – I have a strong preference for the rich, full, maltiness of big beers. Hops I’m ambivalent about, but if a beer doesn’t have a prominent malt presence – it won’t make my Ongoing Beer List. With this in mind, I’m planning 8 beers for 2013, each …
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How Kubb Saved My Life
In the summer of 2011, my third child had just turned a year old. I was just beginning to feel reconnected with the world and something approximating normal. My business was having one of its best years, in no small part to my part-time assistant. Yet, despite the optimistic signs all around me – I …
First World Problems Suck
A century ago, Suck.com defined good writing on the web: short sentences, self-deprecating humor via self-referential links, and the biting humor of a playful wolf pup. Thankfully someone’s brought that to 2012: Need a first-world problem solved?
Quick – Respond
“QR codes are a link. Plain and simple. Except they’re not plain and simple, they’re weird and complicated.” – Joel Marsh