Sabco Select Sankey 7.75 Fermenter Review

My new house has far more space to spread out and really get down to brewing.  After moving I decided that some of my gear could use an upgrade.  Near the top of the equipment upgrade list was a new primary fermenter.  I really wanted to get away from the classic Ale Pale.  I know it works and there is nothing wrong with it, but it just always felt cheap to me.  I wanted something more durable and preferably stainless.  Around the same time I really started to become interested in pressure fermenting.  The specifics of pressure fermenting is a topic for another post but if I ever wanted to give pressure fermenting a try I would need a fermenter that could hold pressure.

At first I really gravitated to conicals they are stainless and just so damn cool.  In particular I was very interested in a 7 gallon conical from  Stout Tanks and Kettles.  If anyone is interested in a conical I would recommend giving them a look.  Their lead times on some items can be long but prices are great and I only hear good things about quality.   The main problem I had with most conicals, in the size and price range I was comfortable with, is that they were not rated to hold pressure.

iBrewmaster Review (iPad)

I have been using the iBrewmaster App on my iPad for a few months now and thought it might be time for a review.  My main reason for looking for some brewing software is that I wanted a convenient place to store and develop new recipes.  I also wanted something for my iPad because it is really portable and would not get in the way on a brew day.  So after using this for about four actual brews and creating a dozen or so recipes here are my impressions.

Pros
Large database of ingredients (you can also add something in if it is not listed)
Easy to formulate recipes
Instant feedback on how a change to the grain bill or hop schedule will affect your beer
You can compare your beer to BJCP Style Guidelines
Pretty good recipe database if you do not want to make your own
The batch scheduler and calendar are pretty handy if you have multiple batches going at once
All of the auto-calculated values (OG, FG, ect) seem pretty accurate
Pretty Stable App
Just about everything configurable (if you can figure out how)

Cons
Price, This is a $15 app which is a bit pricey
Although I haven't tried it I don't see it being too useful on the iPhone's smaller screen
Configuring some values such as boil off rate and mash profiles are not intuitive
Example recipe database is not updated (or hasn't been since I loaded it)
Example recipe database is pretty heavy on certain beer styles (lots of APA's and IPA's)

Summery
Overall I am very happy with iBrewmaster.  It is a whole lot better than the old notebook I was using.  Sometimes it can be a little frustrating to navigate to the exact setting you want to change and I would like to see new recipes appear in their database from time to time, but my overall experience has been a good one.  The price is a bit steep.  If this were a $5 App I would tell everyone to run out and buy it right now but at $15 I would say the value is only good, not excellent.  All that said, if I had to do it over I would spend the $15 again, its a pretty handy little App...