The sysadmin's daily grind: Brewing helpers
Free as in Beer
Columnist Charly looked into so many mash tubs during brewery tours that he wanted to try his own home brew. He did a little research and found some open source projects that could help.
Everything a student of the fine art of brewing needs is likely already there in the kitchen; if not, you can get it for very little money at your local hardware store – expensive special equipment is not necessary. All you need now is a recipe: For my first experiments in my legal drug laboratory, I resorted to a ready packaged set, in which I found brewing malt, hops, and yeast in the right proportions. I only had to home brew, and I did so without automation, which is otherwise my hobby.
I thus created the mash by hand, filtered, poured in some more water, boiled the hops, then cooled, and decanted the results into a fermentation tank in the hope that the yeast would do its magic – all of this took around four and a half hours. The wort – this is the official term for the proto-beer – now needs a good week before I can bottle it. I used the time to search for open source projects that could assist me in brewing.
I started totally from scratch, that is, with the recipe and was totally amazed to discover that there's a kind of standard even for this: Beer XML [1], a description language for exchanging brewing recipes in a standardized format. Today almost every brewing software relies on Beer XML.
[...]
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
First Release Candidate for Linux Kernel 6.14 Now Available
Linus Torvalds has officially released the first release candidate for kernel 6.14 and it includes over 500,000 lines of modified code, making for a small release.
-
System76 Refreshes Meerkat Mini PC
If you're looking for a small form factor PC powered by Linux, System76 has exactly what you need in the Meerkat mini PC.
-
Gnome 48 Alpha Ready for Testing
The latest Gnome desktop alpha is now available with plenty of new features and improvements.
-
Wine 10 Includes Plenty to Excite Users
With its latest release, Wine has the usual crop of bug fixes and improvements, along with some exciting new features.
-
Linux Kernel 6.13 Offers Improvements for AMD/Apple Users
The latest Linux kernel is now available, and it includes plenty of improvements, especially for those who use AMD or Apple-based systems.
-
Gnome 48 Debuts New Audio Player
To date, the audio player found within the Gnome desktop has been meh at best, but with the upcoming release that all changes.
-
Plasma 6.3 Ready for Public Beta Testing
Plasma 6.3 will ship with KDE Gear 24.12.1 and KDE Frameworks 6.10, along with some new and exciting features.
-
Budgie 10.10 Scheduled for Q1 2025 with a Surprising Desktop Update
If Budgie is your desktop environment of choice, 2025 is going to be a great year for you.
-
Firefox 134 Offers Improvements for Linux Version
Fans of Linux and Firefox rejoice, as there's a new version available that includes some handy updates.
-
Serpent OS Arrives with a New Alpha Release
After months of silence, Ikey Doherty has released a new alpha for his Serpent OS.