Personal Recipe Database/Records?

[minger]

Hi guys, first time brewer here. I just started last weekend and have a "Robust Porter" fermenting.

Anyways, is there a program or database template that people use to keep track or recipes and such? I seen a couple online, but they were just Microsoft Access databases, and they cost like $15. There's no way I'm paying for that.

I'm definitely an electronics age person, and would like to have my recipes and brew data stored electronically so I can potentially run queries and keep organized. Anyways, if anyone has any tips, let me know, otherwise I guess I'll just half-ass a database myself.

Thanks,

 

[bierhaus15]

I just use Beersmith to hold/organize my recipes. If you have not already done so, check it out. It is especially valuable if you plan on creating your own recipes.

 

[Jewrican]

+1 spend the money and enjoy. although i will admit i wish someone would make it look a little more modern

 

[Revvy]

If you are just starting out and don't want to fork over the 20 bucks for beersmith yet (they do have a 10 day free trial btw) you can use what I got started using.

FREE Beer calculus... Beer Calculus . homebrew recipe calculator you can print out your recipe, and you can also save it to their "Hopville" database (you have to register for free for hopeville.

hopville . the free online community for homebrewers

On nice thing about hopville is if you find an ingredient that isn;t in his database and you email him asking for it, he'll add it, usually within a couple hours...he did for me..

It's a good basic program to start out...I used it for about 6 months when I was first learning brewing (including typing in all the recipes from the kits I was using) then when I got more sophisticated in my brewing I switched to Beersmith, becasue it is more flexible, and has a lot of handy features...

 

[homebrewer_99]

I use: The Beer Recipator - Home

It allows you to input all the info in and does the calculations for you.

After you input all the info I do a "view report" then copy all and I paste it into a WORD.DOC. Once saved as a word doc you can add more info and the template borders will expand.

 

[shaundesjardins]

I really like BeerSmith.
Even as a relative newbie I find it EXTREMELY useful for all things brewing. (entering recipes, creating recipes, all kinda of calculators, converting a 5 gallon batch to 2.5 etc. etc.)
Money well spend in my opinion.

 

[mmb]

I use a combination of BeerSmith and paper records. Printed brewsheets get all the information written down and then stored in a file behind the bar. I can pull that out fairly easy if someone asks about a particular beer on tap or in bottles.

Everything is then entered into BeerSmith for electronic records.

 

[JMSetzler]

Ditto to BeerSmith and paper records. I do both. I keep a notebook of my brewing activities and also write about them in my blog. Barring a nuclear holocaust, I should be able to find my records in one of the three places...

 

[Edcculus]

I'm 100% digital. I make the recipe in beersmith and use the brew sheet feature to calcutate my mash and sparge water. I keep my laptop nearby (in a non-splash zone) to keep notes throughout the brew in the "notes" sectoin of that recipe.

 

[Bob]

I use ProMash. Different brewers use different software. There are lots of different apps out there, some more powerful than others; expect to pay more for more power.

For the moment, I recommend using one of the free online calculators - Recipator, TastyBrew.com et al. - or a freeware app like QBrew. You can print and keep your records while evaluating the free trials of the different pay-to-play apps like BeerSmith, ProMash or BeerTools. Like any piece of specialized software, you should try as many as exist and twitch to see how they fit you and your needs. Once you find an app that fits, then plunk down your money.

Good luck!

Bob

 

[williec30]

i have been a huge fan of brewblogger since i found it. i really wasn't looking to publish my info, but the system itself is very easy to setup and run. i use the software in my public domain, you could very easily set this up to run on your pc at home for your use only.

 

[Deacon240]

I've been using Brewtillity.com. Online so I can access it at a friends house while collaborating on a brew. I mainly use them just for rough calculations though, I also have a brew-journal that I write virtually every detail of a brews process in.

 

[minger]

Wow, I didn't expect to get two pages of replies. Thanks for all the input, I might just shell out the 20 and get the beersmith; it seems to be the most common.

 

[frolickingmonkey]

i have been a huge fan of brewblogger since i found it. i really wasn't looking to publish my info, but the system itself is very easy to setup and run. i use the software in my public domain, you could very easily set this up to run on your pc at home for your use only.

I give a +1 to brewblogger. It's free and, more importantly, it's pretty slick.

 

[williec30]

I give a +1 to brewblogger. It's free and, more importantly, it's pretty slick.

i practice a profession in software similar to Geoff (founder), the application is fantastic... definitely not what i was expecting. you have everything you need to brew extract or all grain and record every step of YOUR process. supplying numbers such as pre-boil gravity will lend automated calculation results for you (just like beersmith), but it's web based! i can get to it where ever i am :rockin:

couldn't agree more on the free thing... i was so happy with the application that i have offered to help out with ideas and some code. ahhh the beauty of open-source software.