the importance of notes

[mummasan]

what do you use to keep a written or electronic record of your beer?

I don't use a computer program to help creat a recipe. I usually bring a recipe I have found at this website or in a book to the LHBS and adjust as needed based on what is available.

I have a small notebook and write the recipe, mash schedule etc but my notes are hit or miss. I'll forget stuff, include uncessary items and generally add uncertainty and ambiguity to my beer making process.

As I review notes of recipies and beers I want to reproduce I have come to discover I should improve my record keeping.

 

[kenche]

I also have some problems keeping a record of my brews. I have all of my recipes saved, but come brew day I write some decent notes on scraps of paper that end up scattered around the house.

There has to be a better way...

 

[dblvsn]

This is something I really need to get better at. I use Beer Tools Pro for the recipe, mash schedule, etc.. but really don't take any notes of what really happened during the brew. Then again, its probably gonna be a long time before I'd ever brew the same beer twice either. Would be good to see different details of different beers to troubleshoot problems though. By the time I actually remember to type it in the recipe notes I've already forgotten all the details. (beer related memory problem)

 

[JustDave]

I have a blog at blogspot.com ... I figured it would be good to keep track of all the beers I've brewed, date, time, ingredients, when they were bottled, etc.

It only works as long as I remember to keep track! I should do it during the hour-long boil when I have a little downtime.

 

[Drunkensatyr]

All my notes go into Promash and then backed up to a server. The brew session in Promash takes a little getting used to but once you get used to it.....very detailed software.

 

[TheJadedDog]

Originally I put together a little sheet that I was using to record my recipe and notes (I took a lot of notes when I was starting out). I adjusted this over time once I learned what things were important to keep track of. Now that I design my own recipes I keep everything in ProMash; once the beer is in the keg I print out the session with all the notes and then hand write my tasting notes. I keep everything in a nice little notebook (my wife calls it the captain's log).

 

[jeff]

I use promash to plan what "should" happen, but I'm bad about recording what "actually" happened (actual mash temp, boil time, lag time, etc.)

 

[Mutilated1]

I get a copy of my recipe that I'm going to try printed out from my computer. That serves as my shopping list, and then like you I adjust the recipe based on what I end up with after visiting the homebrew store. Then I just take notes on the back of the recipe sheet with a green felt tip marker. When I'm done brewing, then I take any labels that came off the ingredients that have a recipe or something I think might be worth saving and staple it to the sheet.

When it comes time to bottle it, I stick a colored dot garage sale price tag sticker on each bottle, and I stick a matching sticker on the recipe sheet and a matching sticker on the outside of the cardboard box I put the beer away in.

Occasionally if I have a beer and its really good or maybe its not so good, whatever if I think it deserves a comment then I get the sheet with the colored dot that matches the bottle and write down the date and what I thought about the beer.

I keep all the recipe sheets in a little stack I have made somewhere, I've been meaning to get a 3 ring binder and punch some holes in them so its more organized.

 

[david_42]

I use a small notebook. Recipe & brewing notes on the right. Fermentation, aging and flavor on the left. My former brewing partner wrote down recipes, except for the hops and yeast and mash temps and ... Actually they were just grain bills and I've had a heck of a time trying to recover the actual recipes.

 

[mummasan]

I think I'm going to start using this

www.radicalbrewing.com/rbws1.pdf

and see how it goes from there

 

[FSR402]

I take the SWMBO laptop out to the brewhouse and as I do things I type it into a MS Word Document.

 

[DeathBrewer]

i document absolutely everything. i have a notebook thats pretty full, but i don't use it much anymore...i have a spreadsheet i modify for each brew.

if i'm brewing a kit, i'll just write on the recipe sheet the times, specific gravity readings, dates, and any modifications.

its the only thing i do "religiously"

 

[Driftless Brewer]

I think I'm going to start using this

www.radicalbrewing.com/rbws1.pdf

and see how it goes from there

That should be perfect for you. Just remember to get a folder or binder to keep the sheets together.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I use hand written notes that I keep with my brews as they are fermenting.

I type the info into Recipator (for the calculations, etc.) then cut and paste it into Word and save as a .doc file that I can update along the way with the date and the info for that day.

Once bottled/kegged/drunk I'll update the info (by date) and print it out. I placed the printed out ones in a doc protector and placed in a binder.

 

[kvh]

I'm about to print out my own brew sheets (my design) which I'm taking to kinkos to be spiral bound with plastic covers (for the spills).

I'll get back to you with how well it works.

kvh.

 

[EdWort]

I have a hard bound brew log. Everything is in there in pencil. I don't worry about computer crashes or corrupt backups or any of that crap. I have BrewSmith and ProMash, but I still write everything in my log for each session.

 

[Kevin Dean]

I use Wordpress (http://beer.foreverdean.info/) to document my brew sessions... So far I've not got much there.

This has several benefits for me. Firstly, I can link to each specific brew in my signature. Secondly, it's not saved in my house but on a server in Texas and mirrored in McLean Virginia. Should my house burn to the ground, I'll have all of my receipies and notes.

I've checked out SourceForge and found two projects that might be better suited to what I'm doing, in particular BrewBlogger. This has information on various Grains, Yeasts and beer styles already in there and serves as something between a brew blog and some of the tools found (from what I read) in ProTools and Beersmith and the like. I'd use it, except that it gives me a few issues which I may or may not be able to fix and supply patches for... We'll see...

I, just yesterday, found an application called QBrew that's under the revised BSD license.... It's VERY basic but lets you put in receipies. The lead developer is still interested in maintaining and expanding this to be more functional, so perhaps I'll lend a hand there too.