HomeBrew record keeping

I use Brewers Friend for recipes and Google Sheets for water volume calcs, gravities/abv, tasting notes, yield, any change in process not noted in BF, etc.

Google drive is great for storing everything...can access it anywhere on any device.

 

All my brewday records are on paper. All my brewing records, inventory, and so on are kept in beersmith.

 

My homebrewing logs are 'old school': paper in a three ring binder.

I started homebrewing back in the 90's and my LHBS (Beer Unlimited) gave me a three ring binder with included a few pre-printed recipe sheets. These sheets have areas for things like:

• Batch number
• Brew date (and bottle date)
• Batch name
• Style
• Batch size
• Entries for list of ingredients
• Procedure including hop schedule
• Specific Gravity (Original, 2nd, Final)
• IBU/HBU (I enter HBUs at beginning of boil)
• etc.

I saved one of these sheets as a master sheet and make copies as needed. My last sheet (so far) in this notebook is for batch #425 (an Oatmeal Stout) which is presently at day 4 of the primary fermentation.

I suppose I should transition to using an electronic logbook (e.g., a spreadsheet or word list) but I have gotten used to the 'old school' paper and pencil method - this 'works' for me.

I do scribble into the margins 'extra' details like water mineral salt additions, mash procedure (water amounts), length of boil if I boil longer than 60 minutes, measured mash pH, etc.

Cheers!

 

I use Brewers Friend and all this madness...

 

Wife made me a 3 ring binder made of wood with the sleeves for sheets of paper. After I brew she rewrites it all for me on one paper and puts it in the binder. As long as i write everything down and have it for her it will be saved, sometimes I get in a hurry and forget to write some stuff down.

 

I'm almost done filling my second 3 ring binder.

I think I use the Brewers friend template. Always enter WC where they want to know which number brew it is. Who cares, shits already been drunk long before I wanna make it again.

Current beer invintory, go down cellar. Look at ageing rack, then at scattered milkcrates with tags.

Current brewing supply invintory , go to bark look in freezer, totes, trash cans and alluminum tool box an see what's left.

Yeast is in da fridge.

 

I formulate my recipes on beersmith mobile and then hand write them in a spiral notebook when I brew. I use 2 full pages per brew, leaving plenty of room for notes. My problem is that I often forget to write things down and then become frustrated when I refer back only to find the information I am looking for is not there.

This is what I do, but now that I'm milling my own grains I'm going to have a lot more ingredients on hand at home. May need to find a more sophisticated method of keeping track of it all.

Cheers

 

I mill as well and. Have lots of different grains.

Gorm tip # WC

If a you use up a bag of specialty malt, fold it up, put it in yer pocket and keep it on your gun cases. That way when you get a stack of emptys they will fall to the ground when you are reaching for a rifle or shotgun. You may. Swear and curse,,, but you will know what you used.

 

I started using an online log, Brewtoad, a few years back. Probably have 40 or 50 recipes on that site.
Then it became a real PITA to use, full of worthless suggestions, tons of advertising and just more of a hassle to use than nothing at all.

Now, mostly after 25 years of brewing (holy shit!) it's all in my noodle. Yeah it's not ideal but brewing is still an enjoyable hobby. Too much note taking seems like a job. For me anyway.

My greatest resource for brewing info, like when I need get an opinion on one yeast over another, that is right here at Beer Advocate. I do however still use any random software to calculate IBUs, knowing full well that hop utilization is specific to my system and no one else.

Cheers.
Edit- Don't go back and review your hand written notes circa 1998. Just don't.

 

I love my Moleskin notebook. Pricey but it's lasted me for almost 4 years. I use a combo approach, with a digital folder of BrewCipher recipe files and then the notebook for notes on and after brew days. Keeps me off the computer during the brew. I also use the left hand side of the pages for ideas, inventory, ingredients, wish lists, shopping lists, etc. Works for me.

 

Actually just a plain old Moleskine plus a Craft Brewed sticker from their taproom. Sorry for the confusion! @mattflippin thought the same thing.

 

I posted: "I do scribble into the margins 'extra' details like water mineral salt additions, mash procedure (water amounts), length of boil if I boil longer than 60 minutes, measured mash pH, etc."

Cheers!

 

Paper,Memory card & google drive so i can access them anywhere.

 

Love craft brewed, I didn't know they sold those.

Cheers

 

I use a diary. Everything hand written. every recipe contains what I feel is important.

Date of brew
Beer name
Water source
Grain bill
Hop schedule
Yeast energizer
Irish moss
Mash temp
Mash time
Qts per pound
O.G.-F.G.
Yeast type
Fermentation temp

Then I have a space for tasting notes and recommendations if I think the recipe needs to be tweaked.

 

BrewPal for formulating and brewday, but most of the specifics were always repeated in Google Sheets along with process notes of the brewday and tasting notes throughout the life of the keg(s). Over the years I added additional fields as well (like pre-boil gravity, ferm temp, effciency, etc). The Google Sheets also includes water chemistry now even though they are all in Bru'n Water.

I learned redundancy is a good thing the hard way, as I had to use an older backup to my phone and lost some BrewPal recipes. I was able to peice them mostly back together by my other sources and now repeat the full recipes in the spreadsheet - which is probably nice because I compare different iterations of the beer in one place.