Figuring out recipes with pen and paper

Most of the important formulas can be derived from information in How To Brew. But it's a PITA to do those calculations manually.

 

The old guy at one of the homebrew shops I visit knocks that shit out on pen & paper right off the top of his head. His recipes have worked out very well for me, too.

Seeing how he could take a quick conversation with me re: what I wanted to make and write out directions that would come out like he said it would is what got me into all-grain brewing.

So while I agree with Vikeman that the basic formulas are easy to find in How to Brew and other good books, constructing a recipe from a rough idea is actually one of the aspects of the hobby that I personally enjoy.

Ultimately, this means I am not going to recommend a website if you are serious about "good old-fashioned pen & paper".

 

Designing Great Beers gives a pretty good explanation of how to do a lot of the calculations.

 

Dropbox

 

This.

Another option is to print out copies of your recipes

 

I use brewaide for brewday assistance on android (not sure if it's available on IOS). It can pull your beersmith (or any .bsm) files from dropbox.

Absent of that I'd just eyeball it and use similar weights for maltbill and hop additions. That would make it hard to really dial in your process, but at least you'll have beer.

 

I keep a brewing log sheet in a notebook with all the details of every brew in it. It is easier to change a recipe with the information I have, usually do use Excell though to make the changes.

 

Here is a suggestion. Do the computer thing, then print out the recipes. Use the margins of the sheets to write your notes during the brewing process, then file away when done.

 

This book is helpful for manual recipe formulation. I used to use this exclusively before building my spreadsheets. It contains a ton of graphs and tables designed to make formulation and adjustments easy and efficient. The book is also filled with blank templates for recipe creation. I didn't really use the templates that much but they can be useful. This is one of my most tattered books. If you truly want to go back to hand calculations I'd get this book. But I would reconsider that. All I do for back up is to print out every batch brewed and file that paper away. As long as my house doesn't burn down, I have a backup of every recipe.


Randy Mosher, Brewer's Companion

 

I remember calculating expected OG, SRM and IBUs by hand back in the day and agree with Naugled, Brewer's Companion was a great tool for it. I also used Palmer's slide calculator quite a bit.
Nowadays I actually rarely ever go into brew day with a set recipe. I usually have an idea in my head of what I want and have a general idea of how to get there. I then write down on brew day how much i used of each ingredient and what the results were. This allows me to go back during tastings and make mental notes for potential adjustments for future brews. That's my system...

 

BrewersFriend.com is pretty legit. It won't give you suggestions on how to create your recipe, but it gives you the parameters you are working with using your selected ingredients. I have been using it for a few months now and am very pleased with it. I like how the expected SRM, IBUs, and OG calculate themselves based on what ingredients you add. You can add notes to the recipes and brew day procedures, and account for a multitude of variables. As long as you can access the internet it is there stored safely for you.

 

I put mine into Google drive. You can create excel type spreadsheets or word documents and it's always saved for you. Plus it's easy to share with others if you ever wanted to.

 

Excel files, software, abaqus are fine and dandy, but I think every homebrew should be able to do simple calculations especially when it comes to grain addition. For instance everyone should be able to do this one;

If you add X lbs of Y Malt in a Z gallon batch, by how many specific gravity points did you increase the wort by?

or

If you add 1 lb of 2-row malt in 5 gallon batch, how much did you increase the SG by?

 

I've used a composition notebook to record all of my recipes and notes since batch 1. I learned to do all the calculations while studying for the BJCP test. I got in the habit of doing it all manually - partly as an exercise, partly because it was faster than entering it into the computer.

After 50 batches or so, I won a Beersmith license at a competition raffle. I now let that do the work for all but the simple beers, which I can pretty much do in my sleep. When I use Beersmith, I always print the recipe and insert it into the notebook.