do you record date by brew date or bottling/kegging date?

I thought it made more sense to put the brewing date on my bottle labels, thinking that it's the brew date that determines when a beer will start getting stale... but then I realized that almost all commercial beers have a "bottled on" date, not a brew date.

What do you put on your labels? Why?

I always use the "brew date" for any reference. Besides, there is no chance of my beer going stale. It is lucky I leave it alone long enough to mature before the keg kicks.....

I use both dates on my labels.

Labels??


I put brew date, IBU, ABV and malts used...

I put bottling date on my bottles, since that's the only one I care about when holding a bottle... "has this been bottled long enough to drink?"

Hard to read labels in the kegger, no light. I always go by the brewing date.

I put both. I have tags with metal twisties that I use from brew to blow. Put one on the carboy with date, name, etc. and move the tag to secondary, keg, or whatever and simply add the next info with my sharpie.....

The only real thing I use to record is BeerSmith, and it goes my brew date, therefore so do I.

Hammy71 said:

I put both. I have tags with metal twisties that I use from brew to blow. Put one on the carboy with date, name, etc. and move the tag to secondary, keg, or whatever and simply add the next info with my sharpie.....

Click to expand...

Sounds like someone needs to take a picture....

I do a little label on the carboy with name, brew date, & OG. When it goes to the keg I make another label with all of the info from the carboy tag and I add the FG, kegged date, and ABV. Once I have my chalkboard top on the Keezer I'll also record the information there along with the IBU's (this is when I'll learn all about IBU's.)

Eventually I'd like to also keep everything in a spreadsheet, but I believe BeerSmith and the other softwares have a recording system to them, so I might just wait until I'm ready for some software.

mmb said:

Labels??


I put brew date, IBU, ABV and malts used...

Click to expand...

What do you use, software and attaching to bottles, for your labels?

smizak said:

What do you use, software and attaching to bottles, for your labels?

Click to expand...

GIMP to create the label and a regular glue stick to paste to the bottle. Printed out on a laser printer with standard paper.

Label comes off super easy in a hot water bath.

I just use the 3/4 round "rummage sale" labels printed from Open Office. I include the name and bottling date on the label. My spreadsheet brew log has both dates.

curtis97322 said:

Sounds like someone needs to take a picture....

Click to expand...

of course I 'borrow these' from work.

My labels are simple Avery 8162 labels (1 1/3" x 4"). I include beer name and/or style, batch number, brew date, bottle date, OG, IBU's, and ABV. Its nothing fancy but lets me keep track of and organize my inventory.

The only thing on my bottles is an abbreviation of beer type and the date it was bottled.

Everthing is also recorded in beersmith including tasting notes, thoughts screwups etc.