Long before beer blogs and long before either BeerAdvocate or RateBeer (and their lack of spacing between adjectives and nouns) there was Home Brew Digest. I am on the email list for the digest but I have to admit I have not read one for longer than I can remember. So I was a bit shocked when I read this notice this early Sunday morning

Financial Projection as of 25 January 2013
*** Condition: Cautiously Optimistic ***
501(c)3 status rescinded. Refiled 1023 for retroactive status 25 June 2012. Per the IRS, our case must be assigned to an agent. IRS is currently assigning applications received in March 2012. Ours was received in late June. To current financials, HBD is officially bankrupt in July. Due to recent developments, HBD.org will likely have to be dissolved per the bylaws once funding runs out.
Projected 2012 Budget $3,145.01
Expended against projection $ 85.95
Unplanned expenditures $ 0.00
Projected Excess/(Shortfall) ($1,194.50)

As always, donors and donations are publicly acknowledged and accounted for on the HBD web page. Thank you.

I feel quite badly about this, not having been aware of this. When I was a fledgling home brewer starting a decade and a half ago, HBD.org was the first place and in many cases the only place one could go to find information in a Web 1.0 or maybe even 0.5 world. As you can see, the sums involved are modest so it would be good to see this source of brewing wisdom saved.

And here is the thing. It is not that it is like some old beer can that once had a purpose so now is deemed to be worth thousands. Two features alone are worth not only supporting HBD.org but relying on it. First, the Beer Recipator is a free and complex tool to design and describe home brew recipes. The real gem, however, are the discussion forums and digital archives going back to 1986 which contain every consideration about beer and brewing you may have thought of and about 57 times more that you have never heard of. Here are twenty years of discussion on gruit. Here is a 1986 review of Michael Jackson's new Pocket Guide to Beer. And here is Jeff Renner explaining to me what a botch I made of my first Irish Moss experiment in 2001. Here is a search tool for the archives.

It is worth saving. Donations can be sent to HBD Server Fund, PO Box 871054, Canton, MI 48187-6054. You can also email Patrick Babcock, the head janitor, at patrick.babcock at gmail.com for more information. I have sent an email to see if there is a PayPal account set up.