Who else forgot to write it down?

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Three Sheets

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I use to write every thing down but became complacent when my methods produced reasonable beer. However in quick succession I've jagged three brews that are a cut above the rest and cannot repeat it.

Now I've tweaked a 5 litre kit and it is sensational! Pity is I know the kit, the litres and some of the hops but not the bill. This one is a keeper and I think I know it, but man I wish I had written it down.

Anyone else learnt the hard way?
 
Yep in classic mikey style we brewed a 'fugging good ipa' an english Ipa with fuggles which was fugging good obviously. It was a bits and pieces left overs brew which we have no idea now what was in.
 
THats how i brew, so long as i have a vague idea what was in there im content, as i never do the same thing twice anyway...Lifes to short for that shit.

Mind, im still in extracts, when i go to AG it might be a different story.

cheers.
 
Yep, been there,done that ,and I still haven't learnt.
Some brews have been so so,others have been fantastic but I failed to keep an accurate record and its bloody annoying.
Live and learn...the hard part is learning.
Cheers....spog...
 
I write everything down
But i drink that many beers i forget which ones were the good ones
 
I write very little down, especially at the moment. I have basic grists and ideas of hopping rates but it's like cooking. Intuition, tastebuds at the end, knowledge of process in the middle.
 
I save every promash session. Add notes to most brews that im trying to improve etc. Very anally actually but id rather not make the same mistake twice and theres no way I would remember what needed tweaking on what brew everytime. Only 2 and a bit years in of full time all grain brewing and done 36 brews, god knows how many itll be in 30yrs time. I should hope by them that I have about 10 brews nailed and know them off by heart haha
 
keep notes on everything, how can you improve your brews if you don't know what created good ones, or bad ones for that matter.
I record every detail of brew day, right down to farts delivered within proximity of mash tun or brew kettle, then write tasting notes on each brew.
Each brew I do gets better and I know pretty cloesly what it is Im trying to make each time...nearly always most of the time.
 
You can improve because you're smart and understand the brew process. I don't keep notes on anything though. My partner on the other hand is a meticulous record keeper so each to their own.
 
Software? No

Notes? Sometimes.. usually not.

the limit I go is writing the style, yeast and hops on the blackboard fridge square thingo..

Im absolutely useless at following recipes so all that time spent pouring over software etc is a bit of a waste on me. I can do it, print it and by the time Ive milled it's changed and I have to scribble what Ive done on it... odds are I'll not ever look at that bit of paper again so why bother :ph34r:
 
yum beer said:
keep notes on everything, how can you improve your brews if you don't know what created good ones, or bad ones for that matter.
I record every detail of brew day, right down to farts delivered within proximity of mash tun or brew kettle, then write tasting notes on each brew.
Each brew I do gets better and I know pretty cloesly what it is Im trying to make each time...nearly always most of the time.
haha awesome. how many farts were delivered on your best beer, yum?
 
When I started AG brewing I used an exercise book, and wrote out the recipe and then heaps of comments during brew days itself, ferment, dry hops etc. Once the book ran out of pages, it never got replaced. I have just have a huge list of recipes in BeerSmith, where I just record any key comments.

Having a laugh at the moment, back when I was still using the book I was teaching a local brewer how to AG. I was really pushing the importance of recording everything in the book and recording tasting notes on the same page. We both had our breweries up and running together so I was jumping between his maiden brew and mine. About half the way through the brew I looked at him and asked "do you remember what time I added the bittering addition" All the other guys had to over hear :)
 
I like writing notes for each brew but for some reason I must also like to omit some key area, yeast, ferment temp, there's always something
 
fletcher said:
haha awesome. how many farts were delivered on your best beer, yum?
None, don't know if that means anything or not, certainly no sulphur taste.....
 
I tend to start with a recipe then work away from it so it is almost useless, for example when measuring out hop additions, wow that citra/cascade/centennial (insert hop here) smells awesome 14 grams doesn't sound like enough I'll bump that up to 25. Oh mash temp was a smidge low after an hour I'll bring it back up and give it another 15 then raise again to mash out. I pretty much make it up as I go. Yet to make anything that wasn't good, yet to get two batches to taste the same.
 
Well I don't feel so bad now , knowing I am in good company. I am going to be a little more diligent in writing stuff down now, but suspect I will continue to be lax on occasion.

I thought farts came from drinking HB too soon Yum?

Speaking of styles Yob, I am doing a California Steam Ale (a FWK), currently its in the fermenter with the airlock bubbling away, albeit no disenable smell coming out. I do enjoy American craft beers and often wonder how they got Budweiser and Millers so horribly wrong. Hopefully the Steam Ale taste more like the former.
 
I made a brew sheet (help yourself to it - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24681282/BrewSheet.pdf) which I've started using and will probably amend a little bit as I go alonf, and if I can be a little bit disciplined, I'll stick to it. A mate of mine has logged every single brew he's made and refers back to his notes all the time. He's pretty meticulous with things like that though. More so than me, but I'll try.
 
I used to type up and print out my earliest recipes, jotting down extra notes on the back of the page as I went.

Now Brewmate keeps my recipes for me and I just add notes as the brew progresses. When it's all done, I print the whole thing out and it goes into my brew folder, lemon squeezy.
 
I have all my pre-created recipes in bewmate, actual brew day goes into a lecture pad, a new one every year.
I have detailed brew notes and tasting notes on every brew I've done.....87 to date.
Also tasting notes on almost 200 commercial beers.......and the bottles around the walls of the man cave.
 
Bridges said:
I tend to start with a recipe then work away from it so it is almost useless, for example when measuring out hop additions, wow that citra/cascade/centennial (insert hop here) smells awesome 14 grams doesn't sound like enough I'll bump that up to 25. Oh mash temp was a smidge low after an hour I'll bring it back up and give it another 15 then raise again to mash out. I pretty much make it up as I go. Yet to make anything that wasn't good, yet to get two batches to taste the same.
Im great at that....

Measuring out hops...think to myself, "self, look, theres only a tiny bit left in the packet, just tip it all in"

Then the brew notes look more like "Citra, 16gm @ 20, + a bit"

Who cares, lifes to short to drink more than 20 lt of the same beer.
 

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