How do you organize your beer journal?

Personally, if I were doing the same thing, I would categorize by style, but to each their own. Good Luck!

 

I was considering doing the same. And ya, I would use a 3 ring and organize by style.

 

I just let BA and/or Untapp'd keep my records for me.

 

I keep mine by brewery, not only with the beers I've had from that brewery, but a description of the brewey, a history of the brewery, including who founded the brewery, the brewers, etc., and the beers that brewery brews, but that's because I'm planning on maybe turning my journal into a book, but who knows. Either way, I enjoy writing in my journal.

As to what the journal physically is, right now it's just a collection of loose-leaf paper from which I upload to a WORD file. And from that I upload my review to BeerAdvocate.

 

Well, not quite a journal, but a spreadsheet, but perhaps my sorting would be helpful...

Being a spreadsheet, this is all very fluid and I can sort however I want, but my default sort is by style, then by score (my BA rating), and then by name of beer (if they have the same scores)... If I were going hardcopy, I'd probably go style, then name of beer...

 

Do you use "style" as a subset of "type?"

 

I keep a very basic list organized by country and then brewery. If you organize by style, you'll run into more grey area and questions regarding where something should go.

 

The only beer journal I keep is for my homebrews, otherwise I don't really see a need for one with the capabilities of websites like BA. Why not just fill out a review for each beer on this site, then print that page and file into a journal. I've had well over 1200 commercial craft beers over the years and feel fine with BA keeping up with the ones I've rated...a scrapbook with that many beers would be ridiculously thick and be visual proof that I drink too much, no need for that!

 

My suggestion would be to go electronic as well. There are some nice apps available. However, even if you want a little more control over your journal, a spreadsheet or Google Sheet might be the way to go. You then have the search feature and can organize your journal by name/style/year etc. You also can then have it with your on your phone or device without hauling around a 3-ring binder.

I use Untappt for beers I have consumed, but use a Google Sheet for my cellar. When I want to search quickly to see if I have something on hand for a potential trade, I want to be able to alphabetize by brew/brewery/style for the sake of ease.

Here is my cellar - HERE - I organize my in a similar fashion to the screenshot above. Makes it very easy to use.

Cheers!

 

Doing it by brewery would be by far the easiest to refer back to, organize, add to, etc....the spreadsheet that Greywulfken has is pretty darn neat...However, if you want to do a lot of writing, get a 3-ring binder and some paper. I think that it's nice to go old school and fun to write reviews by hand and such if you want, or computer print-outs...even like a label/ photo collage if there is any use for it...like an old time scrapbook...

 

I used to have it on Microsoft acess, becasue that's how I keep all my fishing logs. It's cool becasue it's a database. You can make it so you just type in a key word and it brings up what you want, if you set it up right. For example I could search rye barrell and anything aged in rye barrells would come up.... I've since moved on to just using the Beeradvocate app. It's just more simple and I can do it on my phone if I'm out

 

Perhaps the biggest reason I am here on BA is because I use this site as the means to store my tasting notes.

 

I have mine online, it´s categorized by style, that makes it easy.

 

I keep a spreadsheet almost identical to the one @Greywulfken posted above. I also have a similar one for the Beers of Fame list since I often like to seek those beers out and keep track of what I've had as I (slowly) make my way through the list.

I would love to keep a written journal but just think it might be too big of an endeavor to keep up with.

 

I simply used a diary format with good old Navy memo books. I still use them. I like to write things down. sadly over the years I got so many green memo books its hard to keep track. since I used mine for more than just beer....
Still I like date, place, time. name of beer, type of beer. Type of beer I though it really was. notes about said beer, sometimes notes about said beer after I had 3 or 5 more, lol. its your log, no 1 reads mine but me, oh others have seem them and say wow, you must have had a great time here......and there.

but starting out in a format you want is cool also

my goal was to remember the experience. sometimes in pictures, but it was never to list of them or to make sure I had every beer they had....etc.

computers programs are good for that.

cheers!

 

Organize ?

 

Kinda - But it's not real precise - actually I threw in that "type" column so I could sort and compare all pale ales or stouts or barley wines or whatever without only viewing one particular style at a time - do you know what I mean? Like If I want to see what my favorite stout is from among all the various styles of stouts there are - regular, RIS, double, Baltic porter, etc., my "type" category allows me to sort them that way...

 

That makes perfect sense. Good idea. I sometimes view styles a bit like that.