How do you keep notes?

[Calichusetts]

Beersmith plus this journal:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1463593155/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Beersmith is great for planning but I like the journal to keep track of the actual brew day/fermentation/bottling, etc.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Beersmith, then printed out and hand written notes added during brewing and the sheet saved in a 3 ring binder.

 

[Clarke]

I design my beers with an excel spreadsheet that I created using the formulas from here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Beer_math

Then I hand write my final recipes into a little black book I acquired, I keep track of everything with this book, recipes, tasting notes, recipe changes, thoughts, ideas. It is a bit disorganized, my every brew thought goes into this book and it is one of my personal treasures. I like to thumb thru it and remember good and bad beers and off thoughts, I like seeing the book age as it wears and dream that my daughter will one day have this book and think of me. Silly I know.

 

[unionrdr]

Not really. That's pretty much what I do. There's enough in there that I'm using it to jog my memory to right a book on home brewing.

 

[Vegetarisk]

I take notes in what I guess you could call a journal format. Brew day I'll take note of the recipe, and usual stuff like steep times/temps, boil time, wort cooling time/temp, OG, yeast pitched,etc., as well as describing anything else I did (or didn't do) while brewing like how I aerated the wort, did I filter or not, etc. I'm still new enough to home brewing that I'm slightly neurotic about my process so recording seems to ease any anxiety I have by the time I'm done!

Then once fermentation begins I'll take note of the lag time, how vigorous fermentation is, did I use an airlock or blow off tube, and the temperature. I'll monitor and record anything I see for the first few days and then leave the beer alone!

Bottling day I don't record much other than the amount of priming sugar I used and how bottling went. Recipes I will either save to Beersmith 2 or if it's something I put together off the internet, I'll save a pdf copy of the recipe.

 

[jrc64]

Good Old fashioned handwritten notes. Here's a tip... one of the most important notes is the tasting notes. This is where you can mark the adjustments of future batches . Take detailed taste notes.

 

[Quaker]

I use Beer Alchemy. On brewday I jot the recipe/process on a 4'x4' whiteboard I got for $5 at our office junk sale. Throughout the brewday and fermentation I update actuals in green. In the end I take a photo and upload in the BeerAlchemy photo section on the recipe.

This pic was a partigyle session

 

[Transamguy77]

I use the Brewersfriend brew day sheets, it's got the basic info and then I hand write my other thoughts and tasting notes.

 

[planetscott]

I use Brewer's Friend. I can access it on my lap top, Android phone and Nexus tablet. I can print the recipe when buying ingredients. I can send a link to the recipe to others who wish to use it. I am a premium member at Brewer's Friend and it is worth it.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/

 

[KeninMN]

I use the Notes function in Facebook, using a format I designed myself. I'm able to add hyperlinks and upload photos. I can also access them anywhere I have access to the Internet. You can either share them with the world or mark them as private.

 

[Konadog]

Beersmith, then printed out and hand written notes added during brewing and the sheet saved in a 3 ring binder.

That's exactly how I do it. If I'm real good, I go back and enter everything in the note section of the Brew Log.

 

[m1k3]

Same here.

BeerSmith (what I planned) > Paper > BeerSmith (what I actually brewed)

Here is a shot of my notes from last brew day:

 

[balrog]

Excel for notes and auto-correct SG measurements, but written notes on recipe sheet from LHBS, desperately want to start using beersmith correctly/fully but just haven't

 

[wbarber69]

Notes?

 

[MaxStout]

Beersmith, then printed out and hand written notes added during brewing and the sheet saved in a 3 ring binder.

I do the same. Beersmith printout to keep me on track for timing of additions, etc., then I scrawl all over the back of it. Later, I enter it all into an electronic brewing log (just a Word file I keep in the cloud).

 

[metanoia]

Google Drive for everything. I've got a whole brewing folder that's further broken down into master recipes, individual batch notes, yeast strains, inventory and shopping lists, and more. It's also a great place to stash brew name ideas, keep track of domains, and set homebrew (and eventually professional brew) milestones.

I can plan things out ahead of time, access and edit the data on my computer or tablet or phone, and it's always available no matter where I go. As I'm a software developer by nature, making an app for all of this sounds great, but the simplicity of a word processor and spreadsheet is just as valuable.