So, im new to the brewing process and have read many places people say that you should keep a written record of each of your brews. write down what u did and how it went. i was working on coming up with a list of things to write down for each batch and was curious as to what everyone else includes in their notes. just curious to see if im forgetting something or being way to anal about it
Thx
When I started out I took notes but after a couple years It seemed that I was just writing the same things down over and over so I kind of got away from it. I do keep all my recipes cataloged in Beersmith and make notes there if I do something out of the norm. That said, I think it’s a good idea for new brewers to keep notes to help get their process dialed in, particularly when moving to all grain.
As for what to keep notes on, OG, FG, pitching temperature, how long it took to finish, if secondaried, how long, bottle conditioning time, taste and aroma, etc. There’s a lot more variables when you get in to all grain brewing, like strike water temp, mash temp, ph, mash length, etc. so keeping notes in the beginning is important.
I’ve brewed three batches. I bought a small notebook and am taking the following notes:
Date of brewing
Yeast strain and starter size if applicable
Whether there were any deviations (i.e., late LME addition)
Whether there were any additives (Whirlfloc, Fermcap, etc)
O.G.
How soon active fermentation started and what temperature it peaked at.
My F.G. measurements
Bottling date and mass of priming sugar added
Any other notes of interest
I’m assuming as a new brewer you’re extract brewing (correct me if I’m wrong b/c with all-grain brewing there are a lot more notes to take). Some things I would write down:
Recipe: obviously nice to have
Boil off: not necessary but good to know.
Final volume into the fermenter: also good to know.
Starting Gravity: make sure to aerate your wort well before taking this.
Pitching temp: can make a big difference.
Fermentation temp: again, big difference maker.
Final Gravity: determines ABV and kind of the body of a beer.
Dates of brewing, racking and bottling: good to know for when it’s ready.
Anything that happened out of the ordinary: good to know if there are off flavors.
Tasting notes: nice to have for comparisons.
Actually all these are good for comparisons between beers. If you make the same beer twice and one tastes different you can go back to your notes and say “Oh that’s right, I was impatient and pitched the US-05 yeast at 68* as opposed to 60* and it fermented at 70* and I didn’t like this one as much as the other. Maybe I should always pitch at 60*”.
As noted above, Beersmith is great for this. Otherwise a notebook works fine or a Word document. Or you can just remember what I wrote by using the acronym RBFSPFFDAT. On second thought, I would get a notebook… :cheers:
I brew all grain and use BeerSmith so I print the brewing notes before I start heating water and crushing grains. I note any deviations on that sheet and then when I am done with my brew day I generally go enter the changes into beersmith.
I should be better at going in and putting in dates for secondary and/or kegging and/or bottling and/or prime flavor and/or kick the keg
This is what I use. member Gregscsu fixed it up. You can search for it here or take it off my website.
I like to take notes. I just do. I like having the history and I like making improvements. Over the years I’ve settled on an Excel spreadsheet I keep on the laptop. The laptop goes with me when I brew outside/inside or when I’m helping a some one learn the hobby at their house. It’s nice that it’s all in excel and I just have to input the data - calculations just follow the formulae. Mine isn’t as fancy as Muller’s - though I’m liking that alot and will most likely take him up on his offer. 
I use ‘Hopville.com’ to design recipes, print them out and then add notes, basically what ‘inhouse’ has listed. Plus whatever else different or interesting happens along each step from initial strike water to 1st taste. I think it’s important to keep tasting notes to evaluate. Each batch is always a little different and if I find something significantly better(or worse) then I know what I might have done differently. Keep all batches in a binder to refer too. Sometimes I just like to look… :mrgreen:
