Skål

Skål is a modern web application for managing your mead-making journey — from crafting recipes to tracking fermentation batches, calculating ABV, managing your ingredient pantry, and getting help from an AI brewing assistant. Designed for homebrewers who want a clean, focused tool rather than a spreadsheet.

Though built with mead in mind, Skål works just as well for beer and cider.

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Features

• Recipe Management — Create, edit, browse, and export recipes with ingredients and instructions. Toggle public/private visibility. One-click clone to fork a community recipe.
• Batch Tracking — Log batches from must creation through bottling. Track OG/FG, primary/secondary/bottle dates, notes, and a full TOSNA 3.0 nutrient schedule.
• Tasting Log — Record aroma, flavor, overall impressions, and a 1–10 score per batch. Notes appear on the batch detail page in reverse-chronological order.
• Cellar Tracker — Set a bottle count and storage location after bottling. Log consumption events to track remaining inventory. A dedicated /cellar/ view surfaces all bottled batches with a last-bottle warning.
• Email Notifications — Opt-in reminders for TOSNA additions, gravity checks, racking, and bottling. Delivered daily; configured per-user on the profile page.
• Photo Galleries — Upload batch photos with captions. A slideshow of your latest brews rotates on the home dashboard.
• Bjorn AI Assistant — Ask Bjorn (your Viking mead guide) brewing questions, get recipe suggestions, and save them directly to your recipe list with one click.
• Yeast Reference Table — Compare yeasts by tolerance, attenuation, and suggested use with sorting and search.
• ABV & Calorie Calculator — Alternate formula ABV, estimated calories per 5 oz glass. SG/Brix fields stay linked.
• Pantry — Track ingredients you have on hand; recipe detail shows what you're missing.
• Export — Download recipes and batches as PDF, CSV, JSON, TXT, or SQL.
• Multi-User — Each user manages their own data; public recipes/batches are visible to all members.
• Light & Dark Theme — Stored per user profile. Automatic Gravatar support.
• Pagination — Recipe and batch lists paginate at 20 per page with search/filter preserved across pages.
• Responsive Design — Works on desktop and mobile.

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Screenshots

Home Dashboard	Recipe List	Batch Detail

Bjorn AI Chat	Calculators

Cellar Tracker	Tasting Notes	Email Notifications

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Quick Start (Docker Compose)

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose v2

Option A — Interactive Install Script (recommended)

git clone https://github.com/daytonjones/Skal.git
cd Skal
./install.sh

The install script walks you through every configuration option step by step, writes your .env file, builds and starts the containers, and optionally configures the Bjorn AI assistant.

Option B — Manual Setup

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/daytonjones/Skal.git
cd Skal

2. Create a .env file

SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key-here
DEBUG=False
POSTGRES_DB=skal
POSTGRES_USER=skaluser
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=yourpassword
DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS=localhost,127.0.0.1,yourdomain.com
DJANGO_SUPERUSER_USERNAME=admin
DJANGO_SUPERUSER_EMAIL=admin@example.com
DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD=yourpassword

# Optional — Bjorn AI assistant (leave blank to disable)
AI_PROVIDER=anthropic
AI_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

3. Build and start

docker compose up --build -d

The app applies migrations, seeds starter recipes, and creates the superuser on first run.

4. Visit http://localhost:8000

Log in as your superuser, then go to Admin → Users to approve any new registrations.

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Configuration

All configuration is via environment variables in .env.

Required

Variable	Description
SECRET_KEY	Django secret key — generate one with python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(50))"
DEBUG	False for production, True for local dev
POSTGRES_DB	Database name (default: skal)
POSTGRES_USER	Database user
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	Database password
DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS	Comma-separated hostnames/IPs
DJANGO_SUPERUSER_USERNAME	Auto-created admin username
DJANGO_SUPERUSER_EMAIL	Admin email
DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD	Admin password

Optional — Bjorn AI Assistant

Variable	Description
AI_PROVIDER	anthropic or openai (leave blank to disable Bjorn entirely)
AI_API_KEY	Your API key for the chosen provider

When AI_PROVIDER is set, a "Ask Bjorn" link appears in the sidebar for all logged-in users. The assistant is scoped to mead/homebrewing topics only. Usage (tokens per user) is tracked and emailed to admins weekly.

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Bjorn AI Assistant

Bjorn is a Viking mead-making expert built into Skål. He knows your recipes and active batches, can answer brewing questions, troubleshoot fermentation issues, and suggest new recipes.

Supported providers:

• Anthropic Claude — AI_PROVIDER=anthropic
• OpenAI — AI_PROVIDER=openai

Recipe suggestions: When Bjorn suggests a recipe, a save card appears in the chat. Click Add to My Recipes to save it directly to your recipe list — honey, yeast, additives, and instructions all included.

Usage reporting: A weekly email is sent to Django admins summarising token usage per user. You can also run it manually:

docker compose exec web python manage.py send_ai_report

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Upgrading

Use the upgrade script to safely back up your data and apply new migrations:

./upgrade.sh

This creates a timestamped SQL backup in backups/, rebuilds the image, and restarts containers.

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Usage Overview

Page	What you can do
Home	See your latest batches as a rotating slideshow; quick links to recent activity
Recipes	Browse, search, create, edit, delete, clone, and export recipes; Featured Recipe panel
Batches	Track brews from must to bottle; checklist, gravity log, photo gallery, nutrient schedule
Bjorn	Chat with your AI brewing guide; save AI-suggested recipes
Pantry	Track ingredient stock; see what you have vs. what a recipe needs
Calculators	ABV and calorie calculator with linked SG/Brix fields
Yeast Table	Search and compare yeast strains
Profile	Display name, avatar, theme preference, account settings
Admin	Approve users, manage ingredients, view AI usage

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Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature)
3. Write tests and commit your changes
4. Open a pull request with a description of what changed and why

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License

MIT License. See LICENSE for full details.