Tracking My Beer Brewing

Hi All,

I've been lurking around the site for quite some time and just a few months back decided to sign up for an account. I'm new to brewing in general and have found this site to be a great resource and now I want to give something back.

As a new brewer I took a look at the selection of software available and most times it seems over whelming. So much focuses on the creation of recipes and science behind brewing. As a new brewer though I think most software is missing the point. All I really want to track is my recipes and batches each time I brew those recipes. Basically a simple online brew log.

Since I write software for a living I decided to take a crack at what I think fullfils my needs. I've been debating on opening it up to anyone else out of the fear of it not being good enough however the only way to make it better though is to get a few of you in there to give me some of the feedback I need!

There are a lot of things still to come to aid in searching, recipe and batch management, etc. I'd really appreciate if you'd take a minute or two to give me your thoughts. Better yet though enter a recipe and track a batch using the tool!

The site is at http://www.ibrewlog.com

Cheers!
Nalidixic

I have been using a three ring binder. I log how much water , grav, temps,from 1 ferm to 2 ferm with dates.

I take notes on a little moleskine notepad while I'm brewing, hanging out with my friends, and listening to music. Later that night, I usually put in into my brewing log that I made. It is just a simple template for Microsoft Word, but it gets the job done. I have a place to put the recipe, date, batch name/number (yes, I assign numbers to my batches, usually 1107A (seventh batch of beer in 2011, revision A [second time brewing], for instance). I can note ferm temps at regular intervals, racking, bottling, and tasting. I have room for notes on all of these sections, and it is only a one page sheet!

What can I say, I strive for consistency, but I know I have to refine my processes in order to achieve it!

I use beersmith. I find very few things I need to note on recipes that it doesn't already have. It's depth is pretty good for me. Also, many tools that are necessary are included in each recipe, such as mash design, bottling sugar, etc.

I just went through and deleted my lousy recipes, and found that the vast majority are extract attempts at lagers.

So I visited the site and checked it out, I guess if you are looking for someplace to just write down notes pertaining to a recipe and process without worrying about calculations or having access to a database it will work fine but as an experienced brewer I can tell you that I would probably find this very inadequate in a very short time span. When I started brewing I just used a spiral notebook to do what you designed and within about 3 months and 10 batches I moved to BeerSmith. Entering recipes with an integrated database, having the software perform all calculations, creating brew sheets to follow for brew day, making changes, scaling, converting, creating different iterations of recipes is all pretty seamless and saves a boat load of time.

I use a waterproof surveying hard bound notebook as my log.

duboman said:

So I visited the site and checked it out, I guess if you are looking for someplace to just write down notes pertaining to a recipe and process without worrying about calculations or having access to a database it will work fine but as an experienced brewer I can tell you that I would probably find this very inadequate in a very short time span. When I started brewing I just used a spiral notebook to do what you designed and within about 3 months and 10 batches I moved to BeerSmith. Entering recipes with an integrated database, having the software perform all calculations, creating brew sheets to follow for brew day, making changes, scaling, converting, creating different iterations of recipes is all pretty seamless and saves a boat load of time.

Click to expand...

Thank you for taking the time to look at the site.

It's true that it is missing a lot of features that you find in programs like BeerSmith. The reason is it isn't there to create recipes. Other programs already do such a good job of that. The feel I'm going for is a very open system for simply tracking what your brewing.

For instance when entering a recipe your not filling out tons of fields or searching through hundreds of types of yeasts and hops to find the one you bought. Instead you just enter ingredients one per line in free flow text and the system will take care of formatting it nicely for you.

I'm hoping that the batches will be just as simple. You start a batch on a given day, pick a recipe you've entered and away you go. At any time you'd be able to log into the system to add a simple note to the batch on progress. The power here is that over time you'll have accumulated all these batches and will be able to compare notes on each without flipping through your three ring binder.

Anyways this is the kind of feed back I need. If I can find a few people looking for the same wide open system that I'd like to use I'll keep moving forward with building.

Thanks again

I use a spiral notebook to write everything down, and beersmith to do my calculations. This website has about the same information I put into my notebook, just lacking some more indepth stuff. For example, sometimes I take gravity readings from each of my sparges (I double batch sparge), or if a beer is bulk aging in a carboy for months I like to pull a sample once a month for "research". I think that information like this would get lost in the clutter of "Steps" on the website.

Obviously as you brew more you learn more about your process and will start understanding what information is important and what isn't. I think your website is a good place to start, but could easily get old quickly as duboman said.

Hey, if this works for you go for it, and I'm sure other people will find it helpful as well!

nalidixic said:

For instance when entering a recipe your not filling out tons of fields or searching through hundreds of types of yeasts and hops to find the one you bought. Instead you just enter ingredients one per line in free flow text and the system will take care of formatting it nicely for you.

Click to expand...

The learning curve for Beersmith isn't that steep and searching through the list of yeasts and other ingredients isn't really all that cumbersome. Sure it might be overwhelming when it's your first brew or you're not all that familiar with the ingredient names but after you've got a couple of brews under your belt, it'll be easy as pie. Plus, after you're done with several batches and want to start tweaking your recipe, beersmith and the other software grows with you.

I personally use BeerAlchemy which syncs between my ipad and mac. There's a neat little badge that tells you how many times you've brewed a particular recipe.

I generally use Beersmith for creating recipe sand printing out the brewsheet. I also may fill out a Brewlog as the brewing happens so I can note when things happen and if there are any deviations from the brewsheet.

Then they both go into a folder for future reference.

Frankly, I don't think I'd fill out a computerized brewing log since I already have a brewsheet from Beersmith for reference.

For someone who doesn't use brewing software I can see your site being a useful resource. I use BrewMate and enter the info that would go into your site into the notes section in each recipe. I think your site would be a good start for new brewers, but I don't see it being used for the long term.

Criticism can be a tough thing to take but I'm really grateful for everyone's feedback.

Like I mentioned the point of the project was to start off by just having a place to write down your recipes and then track batches on those recipes with notes along the way.

If you'd like to try it out with an actual batch I'd be really grateful!

A4J said:

The learning curve for Beersmith isn't that steep and searching through the list of yeasts and other ingredients isn't really all that cumbersome. Sure it might be overwhelming when it's your first brew or you're not all that familiar with the ingredient names but after you've got a couple of brews under your belt, it'll be easy as pie. Plus, after you're done with several batches and want to start tweaking your recipe, beersmith and the other software grows with you.

I personally use BeerAlchemy which syncs between my ipad and mac. There's a neat little badge that tells you how many times you've brewed a particular recipe.

Click to expand...

Yep, Beersmith looks really intimidating when you first get it. I've brewed 7 recipes with it and entered probably a dozen others I have yet to brew and I speed right through the whole thing now. There are a few things I wish weren't on other tabs, but for the most part it's pretty easy to navigate.

OP I see the value of your site as a way to quickly jot down notes, but I really prefer to have all the calculators built in to the software so I can have gravities, ibus, and water volumes automatically calculated for me.

ktblunden said:

Yep, Beersmith looks really intimidating when you first get it. I've brewed 7 recipes with it and entered probably a dozen others I have yet to brew and I speed right through the whole thing now. There are a few things I wish weren't on other tabs, but for the most part it's pretty easy to navigate.

OP I see the value of your site as a way to quickly jot down notes, but I really prefer to have all the calculators built in to the software so I can have gravities, ibus, and water volumes automatically calculated for me.

Click to expand...

Ya those automatic things are powerful. Does Beersmith track batches well enough for you so you can see trends over multiple batches on the same recipe?

I have yet to brew the same recipe twice so I'm not really sure.

nalidixic said:

Does Beersmith track batches well enough for you so you can see trends over multiple batches on the same recipe?

Click to expand...

I'd like to know this too. This is why I use beersmith just for recipe formulation, and my notebook for notes/specifics on batches.

This is what I can see making the OP's web logger useful to some.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I'll let you know when I've got more to show you.