Logging my recipes

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Dave the Brewer

Dave the Brewer

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How do you keep you recipes, prices for brews, gravities, efficiencies, all those little thing you write down to keep track. I use Microsoft word, but mines just getting messy and hard to read, I've got quite a few beers down and growing. I need a better system, anyone have any ideas or suggestion?
 
I use BeerSmith. All my recipes, ingredient inventory, notes from brew days, and overall brewlog are in there.

I print out the recipe/brewsheet and take notes on it during the brew, then enter them into Beersmith when I get around to it.
 
I keep a recipe in folders on the computer...just marked beer, wine, mead and so on. The basic Recipe is on top, (Just a word Doc) and then notes on the bottom. I also use an excel spreadsheet that has "Active Brew" on it.
It's all cheap...in fact free, and I haven't jumped to beersmith yet, but it works great for me.
 
I have a section of a notebook for recipes and other beer information. Ones that have been actually brewed have a date and detailed notes after whatever technical information i gathered from beertools.com and my own measurement taking.

Ideally I would love a program on my own computer (linux) that gives me a list of the recipes in a drop down menu...
 
I export from Beersmith to a Word Doc that is synched up with my Treo. That way, I alwyas have my recipes with me.

Then, whatever I plan on brewing, I copy the Word text to Excel, create my ratio chart and print that sheet for brew day and make notes.


Here's a snap shot of the excel tab for a recipe.
Log.jpg

Here's a hard copy for brew day.
ClipBoard.jpg
 
Old school here as well. I have a leather bound journal I take all my notes in. I like doing it that way because I find it relaxing and I like to review the scribbled pages with the occasional beer stain or crumbled up hop leaf in the page.

It is more of an ambiance thing for me.
 
Boerderij Kabouter said:
Old school here as well. I have a leather bound journal I take all my notes in. I like doing it that way because I find it relaxing and I like to review the scribbled pages with the occasional beer stain or crumbled up hop leaf in the page.

It is more of an ambiance thing for me.
Click to expand...

I print out the recipe sheet from Beersmith and take notes on it during the brew. I enter the notes into Beersmith later, but I don't look at them much. Instead, I find myself rummaging around the stack of hardcopy brewsheets when I want to look up something from a brew day. Seeing my handwriting, the stains and watermarks, seems to stir my memory more than words on the screen.
 
yeah, i love the writing out of things, walking over to look at something, etc.

pathetic perhaps, but there are nights where i dont feel like watching tv and i sit next to swmbo and just go through my beer pages.
 
I like to use qbrew for recipe formulation because it's open source, then print it out and tape it into a nice hard covered lab notebook to be used while brewing. Something like this, or even this would work great. I'm a chemist so I've learned the value of having every little detail written in one place the hard way. Loose pieces of paper make me cringe.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
chemicalcraig said:
I like to use qbrew for recipe formulation because it's open source, then print it out and tape it into a nice hard covered lab notebook to be used while brewing. Something like this, or even this would work great. I'm a chemist so I've learned the value of having every little detail written in one place the hard way. Loose pieces of paper make me cringe.
Click to expand...
:off: Welcome to HBT! :mug:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I printout the brewsmith brewsheet and attach any source docs from where I got the recipe (many are from this forum) and keep it in a 3 ring binder. The binder is tabbed with 12 months and I separate based on the month brewed. In 10 months, my lowest month is one brewday, largest month was December - 4 brewdays.

I just started brewing last June, so I don't know what to do next... maybe I'll keep an archive book tabbed by year.
 
brewing notebook, printed promash reports, printed web pages, printed promash reports...i take notes on whatever i have on brewday. it all usually ends up in promash.

i really need to update my files right now. next thing i want to do is create an online spreadsheet (probably google) to keep track of my brews. I forget what days i rack sometimes and whatnot, and i hate digging through all that paperwork. plus, i regularly brew in 3 seperate locations so it gets a little crazy.

i should start doing that stuff on my pda. haven't used that thing in a while anyway :)
 
Another beersmith user, but I also print out my brew sheets and keep them in a folder. that way when/if my computer ever bites the dust I have a hard copy elsewhere.
 
When I take notes, and/or use a plan, I do much better. I recently downloaded the trial of Beersmith, and I like it. I have also used an excel spreadsheet to keep track. At the very least write every step down as you do it, and follow you plan if you can.

Beersmith is def. worth trying out. I'm considering purchasing a license for it, and using it to keep records and help plan my brew days. I do like a paper copy too though. You can set up your recipe in the software, and then print a "brewsheet" to help you stay on track. I'm still learning it, but it looks like a huge help for me.

Downloadable excel spreadsheets are useful too, if you just want to keep electronic records of your process.
 
Sweet, thanks guys. I will come up with something pretty soon. I've never been all that organized maybe I can get use to this; I'm constantly writing up recipes on scratch paper that usually get thrown out. The next few days I will practice my logging organization. Thanks again!
 
I downloaded trial versions of both, they seem to be very similar. They will take a bit of getting use to. I will buy one of them by the time I get them figured out. I will also get a note book I can use to create recipes at work, or anytime I don't have a computer around. My SWMBO said she would help me with that, she has a scheduler/planner/note book for everything!
 
SRFeldman79 said:
pathetic perhaps, but there are nights where i dont feel like watching tv and i sit next to swmbo and just go through my beer pages.
Click to expand...
Most nights, I think I'd rather sit next to my beer pages, and just go through SWMBO. (It's a lot funnier if you imagine Groucho Marx saying it!)

I use Beersmith, and print out a brewsheet when I'm ready to go to work. When I'm through brewing, I notate any minor changes I made to the recipe or procedures, and use the "copy to log" function. I do keep the brewsheets in a binder, just in case the Y2K bug makes a belated comeback and wipes out my computer.
 
I use Promash and then use Primopdf to print the brew session as a pdf file. I back up the file on a seperate disk from the Promash files and once a year burn all the pdf and Promash session files to CD.

Redundancy on computer files. Most of us know how quick they can go.

It is amazing to go back even 1 year and see how your thought processes and brewing habits change over time. Hopefully for the better.

Barry
 

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