Taking BREW Notes for the beginner.

I decided to take a crack at this and start a thread for the beginner or strangers not part of HBT lurking on Google trying to get started.

When I first started brewing I did extensive research on what I needed to know and what I should and shouldn't be doing.. Most of the info I gathered from just reading the threads here were great.
I gathered info on just about anything the novice needs to know to make good beer, anything from Temp Control to Sanitation procedures.

Then I took the giant leap and said "Screw it I can do this." Purchased my first kit and got a kettle at Walmart on sale and the rest is history.

But after bottling my first batch and letting it carbonate and cold condition,
My first sip was unbelievable, IT WAS NASTY.

That's when I noticed that I never took any notes, wish I could of gone back and saw what I might have done wrong or what in the world happened.

NOTES, NOTES & MORE NOTES.
I bought a notebook slapped some stickers on the front and wrote down my recipes and Process.

1. Recipe - As in recipe schedule, what type of water, h20 volume (Start & End) type of yeast, any other ingredients that went into making this beer.

2. Notes & Details - How long my steeping grains went, how the hoping went, any boil overs, any hair, sweat, blood or tears. Close calls with a potential boil over, and if I hit all my hopping or other processes on time or any other mishap or mistake that could of gone wrong.

3. Fermentation & TEMPS - I keep a very close eye and detailed notes on ferm temp in the first 72 hours, I use a fermometer strip on my carboy.
I jot down notes if the ferm is aggressive, lag time, temp spikes and if the swamp cooler is working. Ambient temp gets written down. Along with other factors.

4. Tasting notes - I place these in a cheap 50 Cent paper folder.
I use the BJCP score sheet, and have one of my friends or SWMBO test the beer and write down what they taste. (& Myself of course)

Here's the link for the score sheet. http://www.bjcp.org/docs/SCP_BeerScoreSheet.pdf

Maybe I'm a nutjob but I was told when I first started this hobby that the only thing that separates a Great brewer from a good brewer is consistency.
With out notes I wouldn't know how to repeat or improve my recipes, I can stress it enough to the beginners starting or thinking about starting this sweet hobby, Take NOTES, NOTES, & MORE NOTES.

You can hand write them in a notebook like myself, keep a binder with printed out templates (I'll Post the link to a few) or keep them on a software.

The best log sheet is which ever one you WILL use regularly.

Thanks for reading this and please feel free to post pics of your notebook's or recipe sheets, links to templates, or just about anything.

All Grain ​

Partial Mash​

Extract​

Maybe we can continue to add to this list with links for people to follow.

That's some of the best advice any brewer (new or old) could take to heart: "NOTES, NOTES & MORE NOTES!" I do the same thing in the notes section of my BeerSmith recipes, recording all of the bits of minutia I can throughout the process. I know it has saved me countless headaches with not only repeatability but especially when trying to answer the question, "What went wrong?!" after cracking that first homebrew.

Excellent post!

What exactly do you take note of? Sorry I am a noob waiting on the arrival of my kit and I want my first experience brewing to be a good one. Thanks in advance all!

Almost everything you can think of. How long you boiled, did you add the hops at the right times, how long the yeast took to take off, temperature during fermentation. I have a little example of what I hand write and if you click on some of the links you'll get a better understanding of how and what most brewers take notes of.

Since you're just starting I'm taking a guess you'll be brewing with extract so click on the first link under extract. Feel free too ask anything else. I'm also still new to this.

Good luck and take time to read and research questions on this forum.

The more you learn about brewing, the more you'll understand what your notes should include. For me, I usually realize I should have recorded something when I want it for the next batch and don't have it.

Here's what I write down on brew day:

• Yeast strain
• Estimated pitching rate
• Grain bill - quantity, maltster, and color of each grain used
• Water additions
• Strike water volume and temperature
• Mash time, temperature, and pH
• Sparge water volume and temperature
• Final runnings gravity (should really be pH but I never get around to measuring it)
• Boil time
• Miscellaneous boil notes (did the tank run out in the middle of the boil? Was it really windy and hard to keep a consistent boil?)
• Each hop additions (variety, amount, alpha, time, pellet or leaf)
• Time of irish moss addition, if any
• Pitching temp
• Starting gravity
• Temperature of fermentation on day 1, 2, 3, and 4
• Day on which I started a diacetyl rest, if any, and temperature
• Final gravity
• Dry hop additions, if any (variety, quantity, pellet or leaf)
• Kegging or bottling date. If bottling, include final volume of beer, temperature, and amount of priming sugar

In addition, I'll write down anything that deviates from my normal brew-day activities. For example, I almost always do a single infusion but if I am too far below my intended mash temperature, I might pull a decoction to bring it back up. Or if I don't get the attenuation I'm looking for, I might pitch more yeast. These get written down too. The more you write down, the more you can reproduce a successful brew.

I'm a lazy brewer. i should take more notes. i take some but not as detailed as you do.

I kept a virtual notebook for at first, and as I settled onto a consistent format, I turned it into a google docs spreadsheet and embedded all the calculations I use into it. I keep making updates to the sheet including a recipe formulator by percentages and and a other things that better reflect my process. Here's a old one that's completed for an IPA a little while ago.

Nap Time IPA

Here's a newer in progress one I'm filling out for yesterday's brew.

American Wheat Ale

It's a work in progress but I really like it. I can toggle between grain bills and percentages and hop types and techniques and different sparge types and it just spits out the numbers for me. I still have some stuff to do for recording fermentation temperature and whatnot, but I love being able to develop a recipe by percentages and my system parameters, have it spit out the grain bill and hops by weight for shopping purposes, then roll it right up into a brew day log, and have all of my actual numbers calculated on the fly.

I've sketched out another project where I'm going to use the google APIs to roll up a global log spreadsheet (I keep one manually right now) and maybe do some data mining to track my targets vs. actuals for mash temps and what not over time. Just to see how well I've dialed things in over time.

I used to just jump from Brewer's Friend and a bunch of other online tools to do most of this for me. There's nothing in the sheet that isn't already out there in some form, but I got a kick out of building it and it's totally tailored to my process and setup. I just fill data into the green cells as I go (on my tablet) and it does all the heavy lifting for me. I learned a bunch of stuff in the process of building it as well.

I still keep some brew day notes and photos, but all the hard numbers go into those guys now.

Thanks again everyone!

It's not until someone asks you why batch #2 of same recipe is so much different than the first time you made it, that you realize how much more you could have written down; the times you finish steeping and look to find out just how much you can attempt to boil without boil over (for us doing partial boils instead of full); the fact that upping your boil has bad affects like your ice-bath-sink method simply won't work on 4G while on 3.25G it worked fine, in the winter time; what the daily temp was and how it affected the "stable" cellar temp during the first week in the fermentation vessel.

And my personal favorite, now added in big freaking bold red nasty font letters at the top of my brew day sheet -- "TAKE THE FARGING YEAST VIAL OUT OF THE STINKING REFRIGERATOR BEFORE STARTING, YOU DUMBA$$"

interesting thread. I also take notes in a notepad, mainly things I did or didn't do that I want to duplicate/avoid in the next batch.

tyrtl said:

What exactly do you take note of? Sorry I am a noob waiting on the arrival of my kit and I want my first experience brewing to be a good one. Thanks in advance all!

Click to expand...

Best advice I can give other than taking notes is brewing is a patient hobby. Just like any of you home aquarists out there already know, "Nothing good happens fast in an aquarium," nor does anything good happen fast in homebrewing.

Take your time and have fun!

hannibalmdq said:

Here's a newer in progress one I'm filling out for yesterday's brew.

American Wheat Ale

It's a work in progress but I really like it.

Click to expand...

That is really nicely done.
Does it calculate things like IBU and OG/FG or do you fill them in from other calculators?

hannibalmdq said:

I kept a virtual notebook for at first, and as I settled onto a consistent format, I turned it into a google docs spreadsheet and embedded all the calculations I use into it. I keep making updates to the sheet including a recipe formulator by percentages and and a other things that better reflect my process. Here's a old one that's completed for an IPA a little while ago.

Nap Time IPA

Here's a newer in progress one I'm filling out for yesterday's brew.

American Wheat Ale

It's a work in progress but I really like it. I can toggle between grain bills and percentages and hop types and techniques and different sparge types and it just spits out the numbers for me. I still have some stuff to do for recording fermentation temperature and whatnot, but I love being able to develop a recipe by percentages and my system parameters, have it spit out the grain bill and hops by weight for shopping purposes, then roll it right up into a brew day log, and have all of my actual numbers calculated on the fly.

I've sketched out another project where I'm going to use the google APIs to roll up a global log spreadsheet (I keep one manually right now) and maybe do some data mining to track my targets vs. actuals for mash temps and what not over time. Just to see how well I've dialed things in over time.

I used to just jump from Brewer's Friend and a bunch of other online tools to do most of this for me. There's nothing in the sheet that isn't already out there in some form, but I got a kick out of building it and it's totally tailored to my process and setup. I just fill data into the green cells as I go (on my tablet) and it does all the heavy lifting for me. I learned a bunch of stuff in the process of building it as well.

I still keep some brew day notes and photos, but all the hard numbers go into those guys now.

Click to expand...

Thats awesome! Mind to share a blank, editable version please?

Epimetheus said:

That is really nicely done.
Does it calculate things like IBU and OG/FG or do you fill them in from other calculators?

Click to expand...

It calculates IBUs using Tinseth for boil additions. First wort hops I just peg as a 20 minutes boil utilization because that's what it tastes like to me, albeit smoother. For Hop Stands I borrowed the utilization for different temperatures from some articles.

OG and FGs are also calculated on the sheet. I have a list of malts/extracts/sugars with their potentials. I can either enter my grain bill and efficiency and have it spit out the preboil gravity and post boil gravity based on my system... Or I can input my target OG and put in my girst percentages for each type of grain/sugar/extract in the bill. Then it'll spit out the weight of each grain I need to buy.

Like I said, it's all stuff that's available online already, but I learned a ton building it myself. And I got to format it in a way that reflects how I work. It's a work on progress but I'd be happy to share it.

I'm really happy this thread took off like this and I already see stuff I wanna add to my notes!!

calebstringer said:

Thats awesome! Mind to share a blank, editable version please?

Click to expand...

Try this link.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dVGZP9qwFtoVkrvOaVPa9-n_WPOU1xAPbL2TSJ9FR-8/edit?usp=sharing

You'll need to make a copy (be sure to double check the sharing settings after you make a copy, Google is doing a wonderful job putting everyone's real name and other information out there nowdays). This assumes you have a Google account.

Oh, and there's a small dropdown arrow in the right side of the grain, hop, and yeast rows. Depending on your monitor, it may be fairly hard to see. The first four tabs, Recipe, Brew Day, Fermentation, and Recipe Calculator are editable, the last three are just reference data. The recipe calculator tab is probably the easiest place to start.

I have a note toooo... Don't go half in the bag with the radio on.. . while boiling DME

I might have something usefull to say eventually here and will edit this post to reflect it. Until then all i have to say is "subbed"

I'm planning on doing my 4th batch this weekend and it's amazing how much I forget from batch to batch. I write everything that I'm conscious of doing down and end up with 3-4 pages of notes per beer including how it tastes during each step of the brewing process. I figure it's better to write it down and never need it then to not take notes and wonder what I did wrong.

hannibalmdq said:

Try this link.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dVGZP9qwFtoVkrvOaVPa9-n_WPOU1xAPbL2TSJ9FR-8/edit?usp=sharing

You'll need to make a copy (be sure to double check the sharing settings after you make a copy, Google is doing a wonderful job putting everyone's real name and other information out there nowdays). This assumes you have a Google account.

Oh, and there's a small dropdown arrow in the right side of the grain, hop, and yeast rows. Depending on your monitor, it may be fairly hard to see. The first four tabs, Recipe, Brew Day, Fermentation, and Recipe Calculator are editable, the last three are just reference data. The recipe calculator tab is probably the easiest place to start.

Click to expand...

THANKS!! I just checked the tracking on my brew kit and it was damaged enroute. Its being sent back to Northern Brewers, so my brew weekend might be postponed. At least it gives me time to pickup great information like this.

I have a logbook from Basic Brewing that I've been using since my 10th batch (just under a year). Since my 14th batch, I've also kept up a Word doc at work with much more detailed information regarding process, mistakes, tasting notes, etc. As of batch #44, that's sitting at 30,000+ words.

I'm wordy, but it's extremely useful. And yes, I get bored at work.

hannibalmdq said:

Try this link.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dVGZP9qwFtoVkrvOaVPa9-n_WPOU1xAPbL2TSJ9FR-8/edit?usp=sharing

You'll need to make a copy (be sure to double check the sharing settings after you make a copy, Google is doing a wonderful job putting everyone's real name and other information out there nowdays). This assumes you have a Google account.

Oh, and there's a small dropdown arrow in the right side of the grain, hop, and yeast rows. Depending on your monitor, it may be fairly hard to see. The first four tabs, Recipe, Brew Day, Fermentation, and Recipe Calculator are editable, the last three are just reference data. The recipe calculator tab is probably the easiest place to start.

Click to expand...

This is pretty freaking cool. Props for getting something like this put together!

I should take notes but I only write down the bare minimum. I get too stressed out with all the details and making sure i write everything down that I don't enjoy my brew day. I just log basic information into Brewer's Friend and call it good

I use Beer Smith so I put the recipe info in there but I also keep notes like below. They have proven useful as I try to improve my process. And it was really useful the first few times to make sure I did and remembered everything. I typed out the process ahead of time and then just filled in the blanks and added notes as I went along.

Equipment
4 qt sauce pan
8 qt stock pot
22 qt stock pot
5 gal glass carboy
20 gal tub
5 gal paint strainer bag
Colander
Wire kitchen strainer (tea strainer weave size)
70K BTU camp burner
Small pond pump for water recirc.
Kitchen electronic thermometer
5 gal rectangular Rubbermaid cooler
Wort cooler of 50 ft of 5/8 copper coil
Steps:
1. Add campdon tablets to 5 gal of water the day before.
2. Put about a quart of boiling preheat water into cooler 10 min before next step 4.
3. Heated about 7.3 qts (5.62 lb * 1.3 qt per lb) water in 8 qt stock pot to 171 degrees.
4. Dumped preheat water, put 7.3 quarts of water from stock pot into cooler. Added grain and mixed. Mixture was 154 degrees after mixing. Time: 3:21 pm.
5. At 3:50 added about 1 qt of boiling water to bring mash temp from 150 to 153 degrees.
6. Meanwhile heat 9 qts of water on stove to 180 for sparge, 7 qts on 8 qt stock pot and 2 qt on 4 qt sauce pan.
7. 4:25 pm, ended mash, temp 148 degrees
8. Dumped mash mix through paint strainer bag in colander into 22 qt kettle.
9. Sparged by dumping the 9 qts of water from the 8 qt stock pot and the sauce pan through the grain in the bag/colander. Press bag in colander to get as much sugar as possible.
10. Pulled sample and put in cold water bath to cool. 25 minutes later sample was 73 degrees and gravity of 1.030
11. Checked wort in 22 qt kettle with marked measured spoon, had 4.25 gal in kettle.
12. Put 22 qt kettle on camp burner at 4:40 pm
13. 4:58 pm kettle begins to boil, added first hops addition.
14. 5:40 dumped yeast into 1 cup of 98 degree water
15. 5:43 added candi syrup and whirlfloc. Note candi syrup had been put in a jar after making it. It had hardened so I ended up dropping the entire jar in the boil. Fished it out 5 minutes later and it was cleaned out. Put copper wort cooler into boil kettle after fishing out jar.
16. 5:55, put yeast container into ice water bath
17. 6:03 pm, flame out, added other two hops.
18. Filled 20 gal tub with about 16 gal of 56 degree water.
19. 6:11 hooked up pump from tub to cooler and started circulating
20. About 6:25 removed about 4 gal of water from tub and added about 3 lb of ice.
21. 6:36 pm wort temperature reached 62 degrees and removed cooler
22. Gravity reading 1.050.
23. Dumped wort through strainer and funnel into 5 gal carboy. Had to stop and empty strainer of hops turb three times
24. Pitched yeast and swirled for about 2 minutes.
25. Placed carboy in tube of 62 degree water in basement.
26. Next morning checked and no sign of activity. Checked temp, had cooled to 59 degrees.
27. About 4:00 pm moved carboy upstairs. Over the next 15 hours the temp climbed to 66 degrees and a ¼ in Krausen developed.
28. Returned to basement and put in water bath with aquarium heater set to 66 degrees.


12/8/13: the carboy has been sitting in the basement in a water bath with an aquarium heater in it. The temp has been held steady at 67. Removed and sat directly on the floor to cool it down. Took a gravity and it is 1.010. Tasted the sample. The hops came through but it is a little thin and does not have a lot of malt structure. Very drinkable but not great.

12/13/13: took a final gravity at 1.010. siphoned from primary to a 3 gal carboy with 74 grams of corn sugar. Siphoned from 3 gal carboy to bottles, 20 12oz and 3 22 oz.

zzARzz said:

Best advice I can give other than taking notes is brewing is a patient hobby. Just like any of you home aquarists out there already know, "Nothing good happens fast in an aquarium," nor does anything good happen fast in homebrewing.

Take your time and have fun!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip bud, I truly do appreciate it. And I have acquired a comp notepad to write up what I am doing. I am also going to video record my first brew so that I can the process first hand.

It may be worth also taking note of the size of starter used. I've got a jar of WLP001, one of WLP002 and one of WLP007 all from fresh vials where I made too big a starter too save some for the next brew. Now I can't remember how big the starters were and have no idea how much yeast is in them to calculate new starter size. I think it'll be guestimate and hope.

Although that being said I can't really tell if knowing I did a 2 litre starter when I only needed 1.5 is going to help that much either but it'd be nice to have the option.