Recording Your Brews - What Do You Use?

[pint of lager]

I started off using pen and paper, moved across to promash with printed out recipes, then moved back to handwritten notes.

I got sick of turning on the pc just to enter in an sg sample.

Long term, I want to go back to printouts as they are much neater than my handwriting. Up to the 83rd mash.

 

[johnno]

I onlu use a pen and paper as well. One day I'll get around to using some software.

cheers

 

[morry]

I have a word document that I write everything into. It does the job for me.

 

[roach]

well after using Promash for 18 months, and reading this thread I have joined the opposition and purchased BeerSmith. BS looks to be much more intuitive with all the info accessible on one screen.

Interesting to note that after purchasing it that TDA and Chiller are on the Beersmith payroll No wonder they are promoting it on this thread!! h34r:

Seriously it looks to be a gr8 product.

 

[Sparrow62]

I only put down two brews, so I can.t realy tell you if it is good or not, but I found and evaluating "Home Brew Kit Master". Http://www.theabsolute.net.

I had a look at promash, but it looked too involved for me at this stage. Keep it simple stupid is my motto.

 

[chiller]

well after using Promash for 18 months, and reading this thread I have joined the opposition and purchased BeerSmith. BS looks to be much more intuitive with all the info accessible on one screen.

Interesting to note that after purchasing it that TDA and Chiller are on the Beersmith payroll No wonder they are promoting it on this thread!! h34r:

Seriously it looks to be a gr8 product.

Excellent to see you have made a wise decision Roach

If you look in the credits for Promash two regulars on this list are beta testers for PM as well.

I actually enjoy testing brew software so I'm also on the test team for StrangeBrew.

It means I have to brew twice as often to provide recipes and feedback to Brad and Drew.


Steve.

 

[NRB]

I'm just playing around with ProMash now, but was wondering if anyone has already entered all available Australian kits/enhancers/modifiers and would be willing to share the files in order to help me avoid mundane data entry?

Looks like a fairly comprehensive program and am keen to play around with it. I'm currently only doing my first brew (K+K) and am keen to modify recipes using steeped grains... I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do AG recipes by simply using a 15L stockpot which is all I have at my disposal.

Cheers guys.
Nick

 

[bradmcm]

NRB,

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...1511&hl=promash

 

[bradmcm]

Oops sorry NRG, you were after brew kits etc - not unhopped extracts and grains.

ProMash is not really suited to kit & kilo brewers - as there is very little calculation required.

I suppose you could use it just to document your brews but as others have said, perhaps just a word processing program would be just as useful.

 

[NRB]

Thanks Brad,

At the moment I'm a kit brewer with my first brew incomplete, but I do have plans to move towards partial mashing/partial additional fermentables and will need to know all the specifics to enter them in Promash.

Simple things like the additional sugars (including dextrose which isn't listed) and extracts to my recipes would be handy, especially when they call for potential SG's which I'm unaware of.

For all I know I might eventually have a good AG setup, but at the moment I'll leave it to kit plus specialty grains/extracts.

Am I going overboard? I'm one to try and get as much information as I can about things to help me be the best I can in my endeavours!

 

[SJW]

BEERSMITH! Also thereis a new version out, it looks real good too.

 

[SteveSA]

Beersmith for me too. I find it much more user friendly than Promash, better lay out, etc.

Brad is also talking about setting up a recipe exchange on the website. Another plus is recipes can now be saved in a variety of formats making it compatible with other brewing software. Something Promash has been either slow or reluctant to pursue.

Steve

 

[Doc]

I've been playing around with creating custom reports for Beersmith the last hour or so.

I've created a report template based on a form I have been using to manually record my brews previously. So now it will pre-populate alot of the info and I won't have to fill in the blanks.
Here is a report based on the template.

Here is a sample report

Beers,
Doc

 

[Plastic Man]

Doc

My heads spinning after reading the grain and hops bill. How do you keep up???

 

[Ray_Mills]

Doc
How do you manage to measure 6.25 grams or what ever of hops
I am a bugger
Ray

 

[Doc]

Doc
How do you manage to measure 6.25 grams or what ever of hops
I am a bugger
Ray

With my current scales it would be 6gr or 8gr.
Usually on the high side which I comfort myself with the fact that they have aged and are a lower AA than they should be.
Birthday present next year will be a set of precision scales.

Doc

 

[Doc]

I've just realised for all of you it will actually look very ordinary and a couple of the fields aren't as intended as the page was created with a font you won't have.
You can download the font the template was created for from here

Beers,
Doc

 

[Doc]

I've fixed it up so it displays better if you don't have my special font installed.
Sample is at the same location here.
If you want a copy of the template to modify for your own brewery you can find it here also.

Enjoy,
Doc

 

[johnno]

The best reason I've seen so far for getting brewing software.

Here is the grain bill / brewing notes for my last partial mash APA made last Wednesday.

I usually write everything in a log but the last couple have escaped me.

:chug: :chug: :chug:

cheers

 

[NRB]

You might want to delete that address/phone number and post the pic again? :unsure: