Official Ahb Brewer's Logbook

[Finite]

Greetings guys,

After visiting the basic brewing website last night I noticed that they are selling brewers logbooks which you can use to write details about your brew to go back later and check or go over. I though this was a good idea as most dont have laptops or computers nearby and writing all the stuff on your brewsheet can get messy.

The basic brewing one was a little, well, basic so I made up a quick mockup of what might be usefull. I have contacted Dane and he had kindly offered to help design the logbook so he will be working on incorporating the theme of the site with the logbook.

In terms of cost I wont be making any money on it. Just enough to cover the costs. My parents operate a printing company so I will probably go in and print and bind the logbooks myself to keep costs down. The price will include costs of materials, postage. Their will also be an extra $1 added to the total cost which will be donated to the site to help cover costs of the new server upgrate etc. Im hoping to keep the cost of the book under $5 not including postage for a 50 page book (BB one is $15) which will hold room for 50 beers plus maybe a planing calender and some brewing formulas or something. Please make sudgestions below.

Depending on how much its going to cost the book will be ring bound or cloth bound on the spine and hopefully a colour cover with a clear plastic peice on front and back to stop water getting in.

So if you are interested please list how many you would like or if you would be interested. Also please sudgest what things should be added or taken away from the mockup ive supplied. Also sudgest extra features you think would be good to have. Calender/brew planner, formulas etc...

Brew on,

Blake

 

[mika]

You'll need more room for Hop Additions if you want to get Doc and his followers on board

Is it going to be on an A4 sheet or smaller ?

 

[Finite]

spanned across 2 A4 pages changes like this will happen just got to mock it up and get opinions. Can rearange to fit more.

 

[Coodgee]

why not use brewing software or excel. everyone here has access to a PC. why do it the old fashioned way?

 

[hooky]

Will it be suitable for K'n'K guys or AG'ers only?

 

[MHB]

Interesting idea, a couple of observations:

Do we work in SRM or EBC?
I prefer EBC as all the grain in Australia is quoted in EBC and it easy to calculate the colour of the brew from the grain bill in EBC.
I.e. if you used 145 EBC TF Crystal
You get 145 EBC from a 10% w/v addition of the grain (plus the other grains and there relative masses), SRM I dont even know where to start.

One other:
This is totally focused on AG, wouldnt be hard to add a couple of lines to the ingredients section, so it will accommodate K&K, Partial, Extract and AG.
That way it will appeal to and be useful to more people.

Another other:
The bitterness, as calculated is good, but the "actual" maybe: "more", "less" and "just right" check boxes would be more useful, so when you brew the beer again you can tell if the bitterness needs tweaking.

I will buy a couple of dozen if they have more flexibility, I will mark them outrageously (say 50%) and sell them to my customers and donate the proceeds to AHB.

MHB

 

[browndog]

Sounds like a great idea you have there Blake, I'll take two.

cheers

Browndog

 

[tangent]

or supply the finished design as a PDF and everyone can print their own and donate to AHB.

Saves avgas and diesel.

 

[yardy]

Put me down for 2 as well.

 

[Batz]

Two for the Batz

 

[fixa]

Great idea. I'll take 2.
Will the AHB logo be on the front?

 

[jimmyjack]

I think this is a great idea! I would prefer it to be ring bound so I could add things to it such as websites or links that inspired the recipe forumlation, photos, idea scribblings etc... Also if it was ring bound all i would have to do is print out the beersmith recipe summary table.

Cheers, JJ

 

[Doc]

Here is the link to my brewsheet that I'm still using in a slightly modified version.
Even that doesn't account for the mega hop brews, but it comes close.
Something in this vein, I'd still go for.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Wortgames]

I love the idea too. How about making it an annual thing, and including info about all the year's upcoming events, competitions etc?

We would end up with a nice 'archive' of our brewing history on the shelf too...

I would be happy to pay a few dollars for a new logbook each year, and it could prove to be a useful annual fundraiser for the site.

Feel free to include my brewing reckoner thingy - it's a single A4 sheet that I keep on the back of my brewing folder - it's a handy quick reference for converting measures or calculating alcohol / carbonation etc:

View attachment brewing_reckoner.pdf

...and put me down for a new copy each year...

 

[Weizguy]

How about 2 versions?
A printed book and an e-version?

For those who prefer to record their brewing electronically, the extra hop additions can be added easily.

Hey, maybe we could have a complete AHB Brewsheet, available/licensed via this site, and AHB sponsors.

BTW, I might buy one (for a start) from Mark (MHB). Can we make the e-version as a shareable database?

Seth's 2 sense

 

[Finite]

why not use brewing software or excel. everyone here has access to a PC. why do it the old fashioned way?

I would say you still can and would. I use beersmith and would sudgest you use the program for planing and calculating the things such as efficiency etc. I wouldnt brew a batch without beersmith. However when actually out the back or in the gararge not everyone has quick access to a computer. I would be one of the biggest advocates for PC's you will find but still write notes as a hard copy and having this would make it very easy while brewing to just write it in. The other advantage of course is to easily review you recipe, make changes, brew the same one again or find out where you went wrong.

That all aside if you prefer using the PC alone then go for it, just thought it would be a good for those who still use paper.

Will it be suitable for K'n'K guys or AG'ers only?

KnK guys too! you just wouldnt need to fill in all the fields such as efficiency etc. but it will still allow for entering dry hop additions, partial mash grains, extracts etc..

Do we work in SRM or EBC?
I prefer EBC as all the grain in Australia is quoted in EBC and it easy to calculate the colour of the brew from the grain bill in EBC.
I.e. if you used 145 EBC TF Crystal
You get 145 EBC from a 10% w/v addition of the grain (plus the other grains and there relative masses), SRM I dont even know where to start.

Complete oversite from me there MHB, was 1:30am when I had the idea so thats my bad. It will be in EBC.

One other:
This is totally focused on AG, wouldnt be hard to add a couple of lines to the ingredients section, so it will accommodate K&K, Partial, Extract and AG.
That way it will appeal to and be useful to more people.

Yep will be doing that too, list some fields you think would be good.

Another other:
The bitterness, as calculated is good, but the "actual" maybe: "more", "less" and "just right" check boxes would be more useful, so when you brew the beer again you can tell if the bitterness needs tweaking.

good sugestion, ill look at incorporating that into the tasting notes section and perhaps have a review section for the beer where these boxes will be avalable. Similar to the BJCP sheets?

or supply the finished design as a PDF and everyone can print their own and donate to AHB.

Saves avgas and diesel.

That could be an option too, however if you can find a printer who can print high res, full colour, 50 page books, spiral bound for well under $5 without buying 500 of them go for it. P.S: most printers will charge a $10-$20 download fee for the artwork which will be scratched for these.

P.S: This $5 price is a ballpark and im aiming high, it may very well be much cheaper, we will see.

Will the AHB logo be on the front?

Most likley yes

I would prefer it to be ring bound so I could add things to it such as websites or links that inspired the recipe forumlation, photos, idea scribblings etc... Also if it was ring bound all i would have to do is print out the beersmith recipe summary table.

Notebook binders which have the rings you are talking about are much more expensive, the factory does have a special drill which would allow me to drill holes and supply people with the book unbound but with holes drilled ready to add your own binder. I would however like to avoid ring binding some and drilling others as such would like to settle on a standard format. Im leaning toward comb binding as it is cheaper and still relitivley strong, the wire spiral binding is tougher but they would have to outsource and that would make it quite more expensive. The other option is making a tear off style notepad.

Keep putting in your sudgestions and ill add them to my list.

 

[browndog]

Do we work in SRM or EBC?
I prefer EBC as all the grain in Australia is quoted in EBC and it easy to calculate the colour of the brew from the grain bill in EBC.
I.e. if you used 145 EBC TF Crystal
You get 145 EBC from a 10% w/v addition of the grain (plus the other grains and there relative masses), SRM I dont even know where to start.


Complete oversite from me there MHB, was 1:30am when I had the idea so thats my bad. It will be in EBC.

Seeing as though Beersmith works in SRM I would prefer it in that. I've looked for an option to change it to EBC but either it isn't there or I can't find it. Anyways SRM is fine with me.

cheers

Browndog

 

[tangent]

That could be an option too, however if you can find a printer who can print high res, full colour, 50 page books, spiral bound for well under $5 without buying 500 of them go for it. P.S: most printers will charge a $10-$20 download fee for the artwork which will be scratched for these.

some people would just use the work printer for free maybe the binder too

 

[nifty]

Seeing as though Beersmith works in SRM I would prefer it in that. I've looked for an option to change it to EBC but either it isn't there or I can't find it. Anyways SRM is fine with me.

cheers

Browndog

Just go to Tools/Options/Units/Color Units and change from SRM to EBC.

nifty

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Excellent idea finite. I would certainly be interested.

Could we also get......."A SHRUBBERY"

C&B
TDA