How do you document your brewing?

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MrSaLTy

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I'm new here so be gentle... :)

I was wondering about taking notes etc as you bew.... Do most brewer keep notes when brewing? Things like date, gravities, times temps etc. I guess like a brewing journal. Does anyone do that? Just wondering what most people do. Seams like a good idea so you can look back and compare things as you do more batches.
 
A fine idea ! I keep a brewlog and record each brew as I do it. Ingredients, time and temp, smells, flavors, airlock activity, gravity readings, etc. It's way useful to replicate a good brew, or ( I suppose) to find out what might've gone wrong with a bad one. Never made a bad one, but some were better than others. By all means, keep records.
 
I keep an excel spreadsheet with all my recipes as well as a brew notes tab for each batch. I also have my LHBS prices for common ingredients linked in the sheet so that I can price out each batch as I put it together. The notes section is for the brew session info- times, temps, oops, and obsesrvations like time to cool, time to boil, any boilovers, yeast activity after proofing, gravity, etc.
 
I keep an Excel spreadsheet for each brew I do. I have a workbook with a couple of worksheets, one I use when doing partial mashes that accounts for the low efficiency I get to help get a starting gravity. Also this serves a recipe template. I have one worksheet where I enter my SG readings and the temp and it has the formula in it to convert to an accurate reading and the final ABV at the end. There is usually another column, or another worksheet where I keep observations of date yeast pitched, initial flavor observations, lag time to fermentation start, any fermentation observations, date racked to secondary, more flavor observations, date bottled and more flavor observations, and then once fully conditioned date of first beer opened, with more observations of course. If I could ever let a batch mature over a long period I would update those observations as well but they seem to dissappear fairly quickly. Its pretty handy, completely unnecessary, but handy. Most people keep paper and pencil logs I believe, and I think programs like promash and others facillitate bookeeping stuff.
 
I think keeping notes seperates the brewers who are just lucky and the brewers who are constantly improving. You cant improve much if you dont know what you have done. Taking good notes is important in this respect.
 
did you guys create the excel spreadsheets yourselves... or do you have some sort of template that you use..?? I am about to start my first brew soon and always like to start out right... hate to find out in a month or so I forgot to record something crucial... hehee... Thanks in advance...

Jester
 
I just use a plain old notebook and a pen. Keep things like ingrediants, gravity, step by step instructions and so on. If i do it, then i write it down. I assume it would be easier to do it on the computer but id be pretty upset if my computer crashed and i lost everything...
 
Whitay said:
I just use a plain old notebook and a pen. Keep things like ingrediants, gravity, step by step instructions and so on. If i do it, then i write it down. I assume it would be easier to do it on the computer but id be pretty upset if my computer crashed and i lost everything...

This is how I do it. I have a very large formatt art book I think it is and just write everything I can about it. Man I wish I could find the notebook that I keep many years ago.
 
I made a pretty elaborate spreadsheet as well--it has formulas where I can enter in my recipe stats and it will figure how much sparge water I need, BU:GU ratio, it figures my efficiency, and if I enter SG/FG it figures the ABV%.

It has some bugs with some of the formulas that I am slowly working on, but it is pretty cool. A little labor intensive too but I enjoy preparing one for each brew session.

I'll share it with you guys when it is complete but right now some of the formulas are messed up.

Orfy also has a really nice spreadsheet he uses--it might be on the link in his profile. Hopefully he adds to this thread as well.

Here is a screen shot of mine:

brewsheet.jpg
 
I bought an exercise book and use it as my brew log.

I try to write down everything I do to the brew, hydrometer readings, the way I clean/sanitise bottles, room and fermenter temps etc. So if it turns out really good or something goes wrong hopefully I should see what (or what not) to do next time.

I also leave a page after the one with notes on it so that I can note down what the brew tastes like as it ages and stuff.
 
Dude! That spreadsheet you have is really cool. That must have taken you a long time to do. Really nice. :D
 
I use stone slate and chisel, takes a little longer than an Excel spreadsheet, but not much.;)

Dude, that spreadsheet rocks! I have been meaning to put something together like that for a while, but for now it's a pen and pad.
 
It isn't that great....it has bugs...but thanks guys... :D

I tinker around with improving it almost every time I brew, but it is slowly getting to where I want it to be.....I'll post it for download once that happens...
 
That's an awsome spread sheet you have there Dude. I guess you just eclipsed everybody else's method with this ;) . I like how you gave the graphics for mash and gravity. Do the bars move when you change the numbers?

With this said, I use a note book where I record the receipe, fermemtation and tasting. I like the idea that I don't have to power up a computer to add notes. The recipe calculations are done in Beersmith.

Kai
 
Kai said:
That's an awsome spread sheet you have there Dude. I guess you just eclipsed everybody else's method with this ;) . I like how you gave the graphics for mash and gravity. Do the bars move when you change the numbers?

The bars move, yes. But manually. It is actually fluff because all of the info is recorded on the spreadsheet elsewhere. I took the graphics from Radical Brewing because I thought they looked cool. I'm a "graphical" dude....I like pretty pictures.
 
Dude said:
I'm a "graphical" dude....I like pretty pictures.

I like pretty pictures too...

HoneyApricotALE%20copy.jpg


Shameless plug for the all time best label designed by milholen. Just couldn't see her wading into the archives.
 
I put mine all in a MySQL DB. Most of which is posted for all to see HERE.

At some point I'll post more of what I'm recording and have some scripts to do calculations like ABV and ABW. But as it stands I usually forget to get the reading so those fields in my db are usually blank. . .
 
desertBrew said:
I like pretty pictures too...

<image snipped>

Shameless plug for the all time best label. Just couldn't see her wading into the archives.

Nice label. However, I think you might have wasted some effort by putting text on it. I looked at that label for a good 45 seconds, but when I was done... I had no idea what kind of beer the label was even for.

:cross:

-walker
 
Going to have to go edit that post (design by milholen). I didn't create it and would hate to take that credit. Agreed with the commentary however; was that for beer?
 
I messed around with this a bit more after I got some more equations from a dude on the NB forum....now I got it to figure out how much your yeast attenuated by using the SG/FG....That freaking rocks....

It will also fgure out ABV and ABW percentage.

I am tweaking the boil off specs based on an equation I am working up on my own. If it works right--you'll enter the relative humidity at time of brew, and it will automatically figure out how much in gallons you will boil off per hour. I'm getting close. 1 or 2 more brew sessions and I think I'll have it.

One more thing I might work on is based on your mashtun, if you enter what mash temp you want, it will tell you what temp your strike water should be. That one would vary based on the thermal mass of your cooler, but it would be easy to figure out after 1 brew.
 
Dude.......can you send me a working copy of that? I usually get about half way through the notes and the beer kicks in, so i finish brewing on my reflexes. I forget to take the rest of the notes.:tank:
 
If it is your first batch (as I think the original post says) taking elaborate note isn't really important. Here's the only things (I think) you need to bother with on the first several batches:
-Your recipe (and any deviations you made)
-Original gravity and final gravity
-Lag time from pitvhing to bubbling
-Temeratures, when pitching, steeping, fermenting etc
-Any obvious mistakes

Other than that I don't think you need to stress the note taking until later. It is better to concern yourself with cleanliness and familiarizing yourself with the techniques than notes. At this point.
 
Beermaker said:
Dude.......can you send me a working copy of that?

Ugh...just saw this post.

Yes, I will send it eventually, just give me a bit more time. I'm not 100% confident in some of the formulas. When I am, I will make it accessible for all.

:mug:

The formulas get tested again today.
 
Dude said:
Ugh...just saw this post.

Yes, I will send it eventually, just give me a bit more time. I'm not 100% confident in some of the formulas. When I am, I will make it accessible for all.

:mug:

The formulas get tested again today.

Thats awesome of you..!!!!!!
 
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