The Bearded Brew Project

The Future of Beer

Alice Louise Eagle / October 6, 2015October 19, 2015 / Idea Development

In order to stay on track and have the most incredible time-management skills throughout this project, Alex and I thought it would be a good idea to plan for every week in advance, so we knew exactly what needed to be done and when. I have spent some time drawing up some weekly schedule plans, that include information about what needs to be done on what particular day. This will enable us to get the most out of this project, at the same time as balancing our other modules. A lot of work needs to be done, however we are excited about it and look forward to ticking off each job as we go.

Below is an example of what this week’s plan looks like. I have left space in case we need to add anything or rearrange things. So far we are on track!!

Beer and stuff.

– Alice

Hops, Malts and Beer : Pheasantry 2.0

Alice Louise Eagle / October 5, 2015October 19, 2015 / Added Research

The day we went to visit the Pheasantry was not just about meeting with Luke and discussing elements of design, we also wanted to learn more about the actual process behind the lovely golden ale. Luke gave us a guided tour of the machinery used and spoke to us about the ingredients that they have on display.

Hops are one of the main ingredients, they are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though they are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicines. Malt in a germinated grain that undergo a process known as ‘malting’, this process is really extensive and quite complicated, but basically the malting develops enzymes that turn starches into sugars and enzymes that allow proteins in the grain to be broken down into forms that can be used by yeast.

The photo above shows the machinery used to brew the beer. It can take up to an entire day to finish the mixing process and then up to 10 days for the ingredients to ferment.

The Pheasantry has a shop just above the restaurant and it is amazing. We would love to incorporate some of this exhibition design into our own events evening, as it would maintain the general feel of the beer and the personality we are trying to create for it.

Overall, it is a beautiful place and we look forward to our next visit.

– Alice and Alex

Agisoft Photoscan

Alice Louise Eagle / October 5, 2015October 19, 2015 / Added Research, Design Ideas

THE SOFTWARE DOWNLOADED AND IT’S AMAZING!

Whilst in the studio, we thought it might be fun to try out some 3D stills of ourselves. This involved us having to stand still in front of the back drop, maintaining the exact pose, whilst the other took photographs in a 360 motion. We firstly tried importing one of the series of pictures of the beer into the software, but this didn’t work so well. Therefore, we thought if we practiced with the images we took of ourselves, we could later come back to the beer and have another go.

The initial result :

It’s the first time we have used this software and it’s already pretty impressive, we think our lighting may have been off in the studio though, hence the image not being as clear as we would like. The software itself is really simple to use considering how complex the idea behind it all is.

We will hopefully be back with another post about how our pictures developed through this process, with pictures of beer next time though.

– Alice and Alex

– Just a quick update

For some reason the photos we took in the studio weren’t working as well as we’d hoped. It may have been down to the lighting we chose, but we are unsure. However, after playing around I managed to get a bottle of the brew to look kind of ok. Obviously we still have a long way to go, but the software is amazing!

Hopefully i’ll have an even better update!

Alex

Photography Studio + Beer

Alice Louise Eagle / October 5, 2015October 19, 2015 / Added Research, Design Ideas

Hola,

So this morning we spent some time in the photography studio, taking some pretty awesome pictures of the Bearded Brew. We decided to take a couple standard pictures, using two soft boxes and a white back drop…

We also found some gingham material in the studio and thought the picnic approach worked quite nicely.

The main purpose of this studio time was to take some 360 degree stills that we could later import into ‘Agisoft Photoscan’ and have a mess around with it to see how the software works. We want to be able to show 3D images on the website itself, so when potential customers are viewing the product, they have a more immersive experience.

We are currently downloading the software and have our pictures ready to upload!!

– Alice and Alex

Visiting the Pheasantry

Alexander Brown / October 4, 2015October 19, 2015 / Added Research

So, Alice and I thought it would be a good idea to run our initial thoughts and ideas by Luke at the Pheasantry, which is where he brews his amazing golden ale.

Prepare for lots of exciting photos documenting our trip!

Luke was completely supportive of our ideas, and gave us some great information about his beer, and the Pheasantry in general. Look! Here we are having a serious discussion!

The whole trip was really productive and helped us smooth out some of our plans for this semester. We are really excited to start getting into the making of this website and watch all our ideas unfold on screen.

– Alex and Alice