I use BeerSmith, now, but for a long time I simply kept a log of the brew day in an open text file. I still do that, actually, in addition to the BeerSmith records, and reserve the BeerSmith notes section for tasting comments, notes about the ingredients list, and so forth. My most recent brew day notes are below, and the BeerSmith report is in an attachment if anyone cares to look. I'm not always this careful with my notes, but I try to keep detailed records of the events the whole way through.
Oh, and I print the ingredients list on my labels, too, along with brewing and bottling dates. Those seem to be what the others at the local hombrewers' group seem to ask about most often, and I can't always remember the details of a given batch.
Peccavi India Pale Ale
----------------------
5 gal. filtered water
1 tbsp pH 5.2 stabilizer
1 Whirlfloc tablet
9 lbs. Maris Otter malt
1 lb. Cara-Hell Malt
1 lb. 10L Caramel Malt
8 oz. Aromatic Malt
8 oz. Biscuit Malt
8 oz. Victory Malt
Wyeast Thames Valley Ale yeast (1275)
1 oz Kent Goldings leaf hops, FWH
2 oz Kent Goldings hop pellets, 60 min. boil
2 oz Kent Goldings leaf hops, dry hopped in secondary
Equipment:
1 large (30 qt.) pot
1 medium (20 qt) pot
1 small (16qt) pot
1 10 gal. cooler lauter tun with mesh false bottom
1 6.5 fermenting bucket
1 5 gal. fermenting carboy
1 2 pint pyrex measuring cup
1 1 Quart pyrex measuring cup
2 thermometers (one glass, one bimetal - both go about 4 degrees F too high)
1 hydrometer
1 12oz. Spray bottle with StarSan solution.
1 copper counter-flow wort chiller
2013-02-16
----------
0830 - Cleaned brewing area.
0900 - Cleaned mash/lauter tun.
0930 - Filled 5 gal. and 3 gal. boilers with filtered water. Added 1 tbsp. pH stabilizer to 5 gal.,
and another 2 tsp. to the smaller boiler.
0950 - Began heating 5 gal. mash water.
1000 - Filled 8 gal. boiler with 4 gal. of sparge water, adding 1 tbsp. of pH stabilizer.
1010 - Began heating 3 gal. mash water.
1050 - Reached strike temp. of 170°F. Began adding water and grain to mash tun. Stirred mash
to reduce clumping.
1100 - Mash reached 154°F, began mashing time.
1115 - Moved 4gal. sparge water to 5 gal. boiler.
1120 - Added 6.25 qts. filtered water to the small boiler, with 1 tsp. pH stabilizer, for mash-out.
Began heating mash-out water to boiling, covered.
1125 - Began heating sparge water to 168°F.
1130 - Checked temp. (154°F), and stirred mash.
1200 - Completed mashing. Added boiling water from small boiler for mash-out. Started yeast smack-pack.
1220 - Mash-out complete (it went unusually long because of a break for lunch). Began vorlauf.
1235 - Began sparge.
1250 - Finished filling large boiler, added first wort hops in a hop bag. Put on low heat to
maintain tmp. of 158°F.
1255 - Sparge completed (a bit fast, unfortunately, I need to be more careful about it).
There is about 2.5 gallons of additional wort in the small boiler. Began heating small boiler for boil.
Composted grain and cleaned lauter tun.
NB: The extra water comes from a misreading of the instructions given by BeerSmith. It gave a
total mash water amount of 6.27 gal., but this was to be split between the actual mash water and the
mash-out water. This means that I added 6.25 qts. - roughly 2.5 gallons - extra water. This will have
to be taken into account in future brewing sessions.
1300 - Turned large boiler up to full heat.
1315 - Moved hop bag to small boiler. Took gravity sample from large boiler.
1330 - Small boiler begins boiling. Moved hop bag back to large boiler.
1430 - Moved 2.5 qts wort from smaller boiler to larger. Removed 1 pint of wort from large
boiler, covered, to cool for additional yeast starter.
1450 - Large boiler reaches boiling.
1500 - Took gravity reading from chilled wort sample (1.044 at 50°F, adjusting to 1.043).
1515 - Sterilized thermometer. Checked temp. of yeast starter cup (120°F, still too high to
pitch the yeast).
1525 - Moved 3 qt. from small boiler to larger boiler.
1600 - Moved remainder of contents of smaller boiler into larger boiler. Removed FWH hop bag. Threw hop
leaves into compost and cleaned hop bag. Cleaned small boiler.
1605 - Pitched yeast into pint Pyrex container and re-sealed, spraying StarSan solution on exposed areas.
1735 - Wort is now at tthe 28 qt. level in the large boiler; pitched bittering hops and set timer for 50
minutes.
1745 - Ran PBW solution through wort chiller and into fermenter.
1825 - Added Whirlfloc to wort and stirred. Emptied fermenter, then ran StarSan solution through wort
chiller into fermenter.
1830 - Poured ice into wort chiller bucket and filled with cold water.
1835 - Wort now at around 26 qts (oops - mis-timed the end of the boil!). Ran wort through chiller into
medium boiler, giving it a temp of 130°F. Ran wort through again from med. Boiler to fermenter.
Temp. now 85°F. Took sample for gravity test.
1845 - Cleanup.
1900 - Original Gravity @ 68°F is 1.060. This is 0.007 short of the intended gravity. Total
volume is almost exactly 5 gallons.
2013-02-20
----------
1400 - Cleaned and sanitized secondary fermenter.
1430 - Transferred wort to secondary, adding the dry hops by hand partway through the transfer.
2013-02-21
----------
1500 - Stirred hop leaves into wort with sanitized paddle. Primary FG, 1.017.
2013-03-06
----------
1300 - Cleaned and sanitized bottles.
1430 - Racked beer to bottling bucket.
1500 - Bottled.
View attachment Peccavi IPA BS report.pdf
Just the template (blank form) would work, or any link to a website which may have something like this. I could get some from work but decided it would be interesting to see what others have and use. Obviously I'm bored
