Keeping track of recipes

ScottK · Post by **ScottK** » Wed Apr 17, 2019 9:19 am

I'm curious as to how you all keep track of recipes. I'm really enjoying using the Brewfather app and I like its format. But I'm looking for a better way to keep track of changing recipes. For instance, if I have a recipe for a porter, brew it, and then decide to make changes to that recipe for the next batch, I am just naming it Porter (name) #2, and so on. Maybe I could delete the original, but I also think it's good to have a history to look back on ingredients. Any good practices or methods on keeping track of changes recipes?

Post by **JonW** » Wed Apr 17, 2019 9:50 am

I use BeerSmith. I have every recipe I've brewed back to the beginning of 2010. I make a copy of each recipe even if I didn't change anything in the recipe, my gravities may end up slightly different or even added tasting notes may be different. Easy to sort by date, style or recipe name and you can then look at differences between each time you've brewed it.

MrAverageGuy · Post by **MrAverageGuy** » Wed Apr 17, 2019 10:29 am

JonW wrote:I use BeerSmith. I have every recipe I've brewed back to the beginning of 2010. I make a copy of each recipe even if I didn't change anything in the recipe, my gravities may end up slightly different or even added tasting notes may be different. Easy to sort by date, style or recipe name and you can then look at differences between each time you've brewed it.

Ditto - I'm likely not as organized as Jon - but BeerSmith makes it easy to pull down base recipes from other people, keep notes, share, etc. There's even a tab for water adjustments - but I do that in a separate folder of Bru'n Water spreadsheets, each named to correspond with a BeerSmith recipe. Maybe I could pull all that into BeerSmith.

Post by **brahn** » Wed Apr 17, 2019 12:46 pm

Brewfather will make a copy of the recipe unique to the brewday that you can make modifications to without changing the base recipe. That's what I'll use for minor modifications based on ingredients I have on hand.

If I'm making a recipe for a style I've done more than once I'll sometimes use the naming convention Style YYMM. I have relatively recent brews named SIPA 1902 and Pale Ale 1810.

I've let go of old recipes several times as I've moved from one software to the next. I'll transfer recipes I like, but I don't worry about keeping all of them.

ScottK · Post by **ScottK** » Wed Apr 17, 2019 1:12 pm

All good ideas, thanks. Brent, I think I've dabbled with Brewfather's functionality as you described. I'll have to get better acquainted with that part.

bwarbiany · Post by **bwarbiany** » Thu Apr 18, 2019 1:49 pm

JonW wrote:I use BeerSmith. I have every recipe I've brewed back to the beginning of 2010. I make a copy of each recipe even if I didn't change anything in the recipe, my gravities may end up slightly different or even added tasting notes may be different. Easy to sort by date, style or recipe name and you can then look at differences between each time you've brewed it.

Yep. When I re-brew a recipe already contained in Beersmith, I just make a copy and update the brew date to the new date. Sometimes there will be slight changes to hops, quite often changes to hop alpha acids that I need to adjust, and if my efficiency is a few points off I adjust brewhouse efficiency to account for that.

Usually I don't change the name. Because I generally have it set to sort by date, my brews are all chronologically organized anyway. About the only time I change the name is when I am actually brewing something seasonal like an Oktoberfest, so I've got Oktoberfest 2015, 2016, and 2017 all in there.

Megastout · Post by **Megastout** » Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:35 pm

I too use Beersmith but also have a custom excel form I use to hand write values and notes for the brewday, fermentation and packaging which after brewday I keep in a 3 ring binder. This affords me very quick notation of anything, including volumes and mistakes, etc.. After everything is done, I update the excel sheet so I have a digital copy also.
Can share with anyone interested.

BrewMasterBrad · Post by **BrewMasterBrad** » Tue Apr 30, 2019 5:08 pm

I use a Rolodex and the recipes are written by hand and sorted according to the specific gravity.

Actually, even at the pro level, BeerSmith works great.

maltbarley · Post by **maltbarley** » Wed May 01, 2019 7:21 pm

You were my hero for all of 3 seconds

jward · Post by **jward** » Fri May 03, 2019 8:13 am

Tracking recipes? What's that....

I am the worst. I generally print out a recipe using Beersmith for the first time I'm brewing it. If I rebrew that same sheet gets more notes. If I change the ingredients I reprint as a new recipe. All of the printed recipes are carefully placed into piles in multiple locations about my residence based on what beers are in the brew queue.

bwarbiany · Post by **bwarbiany** » Fri May 03, 2019 9:09 am

jward wrote:Tracking recipes? What's that....

I am the worst. I generally print out a recipe using Beersmith for the first time I'm brewing it. If I rebrew that same sheet gets more notes. If I change the ingredients I reprint as a new recipe. All of the printed recipes are carefully placed into piles in multiple locations about my residence based on what beers are in the brew queue.

LOL... That's why I use Beersmith. It saves them all.

Granted, given various computer migrations over the last decade+, I still somehow lost 1 1/2 years of recipes between Nov 2009 and Apr 2011.

Brewcommune

Keeping track of recipes

Keeping track of recipes

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