Long time, no update. Sorry folks. I’ve been overwhelmed by how many of you have written me one way or another to ask about various things I’ve done here. It’s a small but growing community.

I’m working on a few things right now. Maybe too many things. That’s kind of how I operate. For once they’re at least mostly related though, so it doesn’t feel like my normal habit of doing several disparate things.

First up, there’s the Cocktail Calc. I had some features I wanted to add and hired a guy from Upwork. Seems like a good guy actually. I then got busy with camper season and probably wasn’t able to help give him much guidance. Our first year was so much busier than I anticipated, and I found myself working on events from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep a lot of weeks.

If he’s still up for it, I’ll work with him to improve it. If not, I’ll get ‘er done myself somehow. I used to program the internets, after all. I am sure I could do it again. I want to make it a site/app for sharing batched cocktails. And get it professionally designed, because it ain’t pretty. In fact, it’s probably taken a step back aesthetically and I need to revert it.

Then there’s a book on batching drinks. I’m going to self-publish it, because previous experience with professional publishers wasn’t great and self-pub has come a long way since then. It used to be something you did when you just couldn’t get a “real publisher” and now it’s a serious consideration even when you can. I’ve now got a season of full-time experience batching cocktails under my belt, and I’ve learned quite a bit. I’m doing a few seminars on it in the near future. I’ve got some improved equipment recommendations and a ton of new recipes to share.

I’m also working on a store for both equipment and homemade ingredients. My goal is to sell keg-sized syrups. That’s not easy. Selling packaged food products requires a ton of paperwork and licensing with the state. It’s my winter project though. My initial products will probably be my lime and lemon replacements, ginger beer, and tonic. The latter two you’ll buy in 1 liter bottles and add to a keg, fill with water, and carbonate. Boom, keg full of all natural, delicious mixer.

On the equipment side, I want to sell most of the things you need to do batched cocktails for professional service. I’ve been ordering the stuff myself but man is that no fun. I order stuff from AliExpress and wait a month or two. Or I pay ridiculous homebrew store prices. Those are the options.

So, I’ve been busy. I haven’t been ignoring you, dear readers.