2 batches under my belt - now let's get serious

[Hannable1975]

First off - Thank you. I have found this site and it's members to be very helpful. Thank you for making what I have found to be a fun little hobby even more enjoyable by sharing your advice and experiences.

That said, here's the scoop:

Made a Red Ale from a kit. I DID NOT use a hydrometer, and managed to not go blind from drinking hooch or to kill any of my friends. It is just not "officially" at drinking point, having chilled the a sixer for a week come tomorrow. I admit I have peeked, tasted and "sampled" by taste through the process, and I deem it a pass.

Second batch was same the day I bottled the first - an English Brown Ale, from kit, same manufacturer - and man the wort tasted AWESOME! The "beer" tasted decent on primary to secondary day. Plan to bottle tomorrow or the next day as I gelatined it and it is pretty clear. Still, hydrometer is nowhere involved with this brew. Plan to also try putting up a "party pig" of the same.

So Now, I feel like I have a little bit of experience under my belt. I bought my supplies for batch three last weekend - a recipe by NCbeernut - Deception Stout! All the comments and notes seem to mark this as an excellent brew. I also picked up a hydrometer finally, and splurged on another brew bucket, and some other sundry toys. ( SWMBO is very tolerant, bless her heart! )

So here is my question : I am a bit of an information junky - is there a good brew software package that is freeware? Or perhaps a decent outline I have overlooked for a brewers journal? I can prtty much forsee this being a lifelong passion at this point, and want to make sure i have a decent tracking system for future reference.

Thanks again guys - and to everyone brewing this weekend - Have fun!

 

[arturo7]

Sounds like you're on your way.

Bite the bullet and buy Beersmith.

 

[CrustyBrau]

http://hopville.com/

Click on "Beer Calculus"

 

[JimmyH]

Now that you got your hydrometer your brews should get better. I am by know means a pro at this, as I have only brewed 2 batches by myself and one batch in a class. I would say stick with kits for now maybe got with a partial mash until you have the basics down.

As far a gear go get a 2nd carboy and a wort chiller. The wort chiller is my next item on my list.

As far as software couldn't tell ya, had a hard enough time logging into the devilish machine(computer).

 

[hoaxci5]

Beersmith is free to try too, but I ended up buying it because it's awesome

 

[Mmenges]

There is a section in here for brewing software. I've been using brewtarget which is free and it seems to work fairly well. There is a tutorial that can help you to get started and you can formulate and save recipes with it as well.

 

[Hannable1975]

Now that you got your hydrometer your brews should get better. I am by know means a pro at this, as I have only brewed 2 batches by myself and one batch in a class. I would say stick with kits for now maybe got with a partial mash until you have the basics down.

As far a gear go get a 2nd carboy and a wort chiller. The wort chiller is my next item on my list.

As far as software couldn't tell ya, had a hard enough time logging into the devilish machine(computer).

For clarification, I am doing the extract recipe - no way I am ready to try the whole AG thing! :fro:

But I think following an extract recipe should be simple enough - buy the goodies and it's a kt that I just happened to assemble myself, LOL.


And wort chiller - yeah - I plan to pick up the stuff to make one tomorrow morning - will definitely have one on hand before this batch comes together.

 

[vandeg]

I use hopville, can even look up other people's recipes, which I enjoy browsing too!

 

[JetSmooth]

As a MacOS user, I like Brewtarget because it's Open Source and avaialable for OSX. Bonus is the developer, Rocketman(somenumbers) is a forum member here. I've never had an issue, but use just the basics.

Extract is great for starters. Get your process down and then move to partial or all grain when you think you're ready for more control.

 

[yodalegomaster]

The software, is only a part of the process, a Good 3 ring note book, with your notes for process, tasting and observations is essential, one thing about brewing it's very writing intensive. I use Beertools tools software, I make a recipe or out line a recipe, and then add it to the 3 ring note book with all my hand written notes, with actual values of the recipes. I have 100's of these recipes and notes, which I am constantly reading to find out what I did right or wrong, and what the results are. What I do can all be done easily by hand writing, you don't need the software to make recipes, Sure the software is nice to have but not required. But I can't say that my 3 ring notebooks ain't required, they are critical to every batch I do.

 

[Justibone]

Someone on here has an Excel sheet with a bunch of formulas. That's nice because you can check his equations and learn how he calculates stuff... I need to find it, but a good forum search should locate it for ya!

 

[phishfood]

TastyBrew has some calculators that you might find useful. http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/

 

[grathan]

I keep my notes on my smart phone. There is also apps for converting measurements.

Each batch gets a batch number and that numner gets sharpied onto the beer cap.

Beer Tools Pro is great computer software. There is a sticky post in the brewing software section of these boards with a list of different brewing programs.

 

[BmillaTheBrewzilla]

Taking accurate notes is crucial. Also, Beersmith is ridiculously fun and helpful. I highly recommend downloading it and trying it. You get a free trial period, but I'd say Beersmith was about the best 20 bucks I've ever spent.

 

[wildwest450]

Taking accurate notes is crucial. Also, Beersmith is ridiculously fun and helpful. I highly recommend downloading it and trying it. You get a free trial period, but I'd say Beersmith was about the best 20 bucks I've ever spent.

It wasn't about the best $20 for me, it was hands down the best.

 

[Stuntman]

Beer Smith is the one I am going with. Sure am glad to hear you have a hydrometer. Bottle Bombs are no fun! We thought someone was shooting at us at 2 am one morning, only to figure out it was coming from the closet. I had added honey to a finished batch, and kegged. When Keg was almost empty I bottled the last and put in closet. BOOM!