I made brew notes. Please critique!

[O-Ale-Yeah]

I made an account ledger to use during a session to inform each upcoming brew session. I plan to hand them out to friends for their personal use. 6Please critique them for modification. thanks!

Brew #: Date: Beer brewed:

Grist: _______________________________________________________________________

Yeast & Pitch Rate: _________________________________________________________

Hops: weight, addition time: ________________________________________________ BU/GU: _________________

Temperature & weight of grist: _________________________________________

Pot volume & temp post mash: ___________________________________________

Mash ton water volume, temps, & durations: ______________________________________
Sparge type, temp, & duration: ______________________________________________________________________

Volume collected in HLT: _______ Volume placed in fermenter: ______ Volume collected in bottling bucket: _______

Actual OG: (__________ -1) X 100 / (100% Efficiency __________ - 1) _ = Brewhouse Efficiency: ________________%

Actual OG pre-boil: ___________________ Actual OG post-boil: ___________________

Estimated FG pre-fermentation: _____________________ Actual FG post-fermentation: ______________________

Estimated ABV: _______________ Actual ABV: ____________

Predicted SRM: __________ Actual SRM: ___________

Temp, behavior, & # of days in primary fermenter: ______________________________________________________

Temp, behavior, & # of days in secondary fermenter if used: ______________________________________________

Fermenting sugar type & volume used: ______________________________________________________________

Tasting notes

Carbonation level (1 = low, 10 = high): __________ Mouth feel: _____________

Flavors: _________________________________________________________
Notes & changes for next brew session:_

 

[magno]

I'm not sure I get the formatting... Or the intended purpose.

I keep detailed notes like this for my own use, but write up a one or two sentence blurb, if anything, to give out with beers.

The notes I keep for myself are in lined paper journals, and more recently, excel sheets. I record most of what you have, just formatted differently. in the paper log that ive been keeping forever I basically record the recipe that I actually used, and the actual volume of collected wort and OG. If any major deviations from the plan occur I'll take note of them.

 

[Qhrumphf]

That's an impressive log.

A few things I would add:

Mash pH @30 mins into mash (cooled to room temp)
Sparge water pH.
Acid adjustments for both. And any other water adjustments.
Mash temp delta between beginning and end.
First runnings gravity and pH.
Last runnings gravity and pH.
Preboil pH.
Wort pH into fermenter.
Finished beer pH.
Oxygenation rate.
Yeast generation.

Basically, if you're pulling a gravity sample, read the pH too.

 

[Calder]

Seems like too much information required, and a lot will not be filled in. Everyone has their own method, and I'm not sure you could make a standard sheet without having a lot of 'blank' items.

Use that sheet yourself for several brews and see what you think of it before giving it to others to try. Then have a few friends use your product and see what they say.

We can tell you lots of things that you 'need' to have on that list, but no-one here will use it and tell you you how practical it is or what really 'should' be on that list.

 

[Moose_MI]

OP.....

Please let us know when you find yourself regretting that you asked..

Some of us are just waiting ....

 

[Qhrumphf]

Well, as most other posters have said, if you supply this with the beer, few (even brewers) will read it. Supply it to other homebrewers, no one's gonna use it. But I emphatically encourage you using it yourself.

Here's what I list, in three sections, ingredients/recipe, brew log, and cellar/package log

Grain bill (percentage & weight), and each individual grain lot#
Hop weights and times, alpha, and lot#
Gravity, ABV, color, IBU, pH targets.
Water salts/acid added to mash
water salts/acid added to sparge
water salts/acid added to kettle
Yeast strain, harvest date, generation, and pitched slurry amount
Strike and sparge volumes anticipated
Any other ingredients

Strike temp
Mash in start time
Mash temp target, mash temp actual
Strike actual volume
Mash start time
Mash pH (30 mins) room temp
Mash end time
Mash temp change start-end
Vorlauf start/end times
Runoff start time
First runnings gravity and pH
Sparge water temp, pH
Sparge start time
Spot runnings gravity/pH checks
Sparge end time
Runoff end time
Last runnings gravity/pH
Preboil volume
Preboil gravity/pH
Boil start
Hop addition times
Boil end
Post-boil volume
Whirlpool start
Whirlpool/hopstand hop time, temp, duration
Knockout start
Knockout temp
Knockout end
Oxygenation rate/time
Wort volume into fermenter
OG and pH
Temp in fermenter

Daily (or at least every 2-3 days) gravity, temp, and pH log
Date/time of set temp changes
Fermenter cap/spund date/time
Dry hop date/time/amount
VDK pass date
FG and pH
Soft crash date/time
Harvest date/time/amount
Cone knockoff date/time
Full crash/lager ramp down date/time
Fining date/time
Package date/time
Recheck gravity and pH
Amount packaged
Carbonation level and time

 

[bracconiere]

Seems like with all the pens you'd go through writing this much stuff, it'd be cheaper to buy a copy of BeerSmith....

 

[Qhrumphf]

All fits on one sheet (front and back). Or a spreadsheet on the computer.

I love BeerSmith and use it in conjunction. But it's cumbersome to track variations between batches of the same thing.

 

[Homergah]

I personally wound love getting this with a gifted HB. Most HBer's I know have no idea of the specifics of brew day. A few more things that may be of benefit to you:

What was I drinking when I brewed this: _________

How much was I drinking when I brewed this: ________

How drunk was I when I brewed this: _______

 

[mongoose33]

I see from your signature you brewed your second beer on February 2nd. Maybe you might want to brew a third and maybe a few more beers and see how they come out before locking this down.

 

[AJinJacksonville]

I keep my ingredient info and basic brew notes for each brew day. I've gotten pretty bad about overly documenting the process. Translation: drunk and lazy.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Seems like with all the pens you'd go through writing this much stuff, it'd be cheaper to buy a copy of BeerSmith....

Personally, I found that I have moved through 3 or 4 different pieces of brewing software in my years of brewing...and now I find myself with very little record of my past brews. I now have a fairly detailed Word template that I fill out copying over the target values from BeerSmith. I enjoy having a printout on brew day where I can jot values and notes (rather than messing with electronics while I am wet and sticky). I now have my printout, as well as copies of the file replicated on two computers and cloud storage.

I have also found that you need to track BOTH 1) accurate recipe and brew process information and 2) tasting notes and ideas for improvement.

 

[Veets]

Lately I've been keeping track of equipment used, for things that I have more than one of, to help in troubleshooting. E.g., I ferment in corny kegs and serve in corny kegs. I've had a few batches where something went wrong and I was suspecting a keg not fully sealed, etc. Now I label them (corny 1, corny 2, etc.) and keep track of which ones I use when fermenting and serving. Same idea could apply to multiple fermenter buckets, etc.