I get the feeling that a (wonderfully) mad scientist has emerged from his hidden laboratory, after silently hacking out the details of a wonderful little gem to add to our treasure chest.

Great news!

Thanks for the beer brewing example. If you and some of your fellow  scientists (mad scientist are especially welcome) come to Heidelberg in April ( http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=160388 ) and talk about or show other examples I will do my best to add a little beer brewery excursion to the plan.

Looking forward to more details on what you have done.