What are your methods to keep good brewing records?

[mabrungard]

I just heard about that Pinterest site on NPR this morning. You are the first that I've known to use it. I'll have to check it out now. If its OK for cooking and other things like that, wouldn't it be good for our interests too? I understand its dominated by the fairer sex, but maybe its suited to us too?

[dontblake]

My routine:
Develop/copy recipe, etc in Beersmith
Use palmer's spreadsheet for salt additions
Use my own spreadsheet for batch sparge calcs
I have a "beersmith notes addition" text file that has standard stuff for salts e.g.
___g CaSO4 ___g CaCl2 etc

as well as brew day timing stuff e.g.
___ flame on ___ gal;
___ Mash in _____°F Mash temp = ______°F
and so on

I paste these generic text snippets into the beersmith fields for tasting notes and general notes.
I made a beersmith report that is somewhat minimal, but contains the aforementioned notes as well as recipe specifics and fits on to one page. Print this thing out and use it to take notes on during brew day (changes to recipe as needed, temperature specifics, etc.). I also log fermentation details here, too. After brewing, I load most comments into beersmith, then file the paper in a filing cabinet.
At some point I probably should throw out the paper, but as Bug mentioned, that saves things when computers fail.

If anyone's interested in my note addition text stuff or brew day log sheet, let me know

[1beerbaron]

I use beersmith. I add everything that I can't change or modify to the notes field. To be careful not to lose anything, I copy my beersmith folder to three, separate, external hard drives, a USB drive (I keep on my key chain), and my parents computer (about 120 miles away, through remote software (teamviewer)), any time I make a change. It seems like overkill, but I use the external hard drives to store different things, along with the USB drive. <20 MG of space doesn't seem like much to 'waste' as a backup when the smallest drive is 250 GB and the USB drive is 8 GB. The drive on my parents' computer is also a drive I set up to automatically backup their stuff (pictures, email, etc) so it's not much to stick mine on there as well, for off site storage. I also unplug the 250 GB drive whenever I am not actively changing files on it. The other drives seem to shut down when not in use, but this insures that I am 100% sure, at least 1 drive is not running unless in use. This is for mechanical failure. The USB drive is also unlikely to die from mechanical failure. This may seem like overkill, but I'm already doing the same with things like my pictures and other important documents. So what is <20 MB worth of additional space.

[scotchpine]

No software yet. I use Hopville's recipe and process calculator and other online calcs for water and hydrometer temp conversions, ect. I have a spread sheet for grain and hop inventory stored in my hard drive. I still brew like I play drums. Head, hands and feet

[Bokonon]

I use beersmith. I add everything that I can't change or modify to the notes field. To be careful not to lose anything, I copy my beersmith folder to three, separate, external hard drives, a USB drive (I keep on my key chain), and my parents computer (about 120 miles away, through remote software (teamviewer)), any time I make a change. It seems like overkill, but I use the external hard drives to store different things, along with the USB drive. <20 MG of space doesn't seem like much to 'waste' as a backup when the smallest drive is 250 GB and the USB drive is 8 GB. The drive on my parents' computer is also a drive I set up to automatically backup their stuff (pictures, email, etc) so it's not much to stick mine on there as well, for off site storage. I also unplug the 250 GB drive whenever I am not actively changing files on it. The other drives seem to shut down when not in use, but this insures that I am 100% sure, at least 1 drive is not running unless in use. This is for mechanical failure. The USB drive is also unlikely to die from mechanical failure. This may seem like overkill, but I'm already doing the same with things like my pictures and other important documents. So what is <20 MB worth of additional space.

I keep my beersmith in a Dropbox folder. I can access it from any of my computers.

[Chemiker]

I started with a lab notebook since that's what I'm accustomed to using at work. It worked great, but recently I have started taking all my notes in the "notes" section in Beersmith so that I have everything in one place. I haven't done the template thing, but I love dontblake's idea.

To me it's not as much what I take the notes in, but that I record the right info, and then review it. No matter where I take notes, I'll keep forgetting stuff unless I re-read it.

[1beerbaron]

I use beersmith. I add everything that I can't change or modify to the notes field. To be careful not to lose anything, I copy my beersmith folder to three, separate, external hard drives, a USB drive (I keep on my key chain), and my parents computer (about 120 miles away, through remote software (teamviewer)), any time I make a change. It seems like overkill, but I use the external hard drives to store different things, along with the USB drive. <20 MG of space doesn't seem like much to 'waste' as a backup when the smallest drive is 250 GB and the USB drive is 8 GB. The drive on my parents' computer is also a drive I set up to automatically backup their stuff (pictures, email, etc) so it's not much to stick mine on there as well, for off site storage. I also unplug the 250 GB drive whenever I am not actively changing files on it. The other drives seem to shut down when not in use, but this insures that I am 100% sure, at least 1 drive is not running unless in use. This is for mechanical failure. The USB drive is also unlikely to die from mechanical failure. This may seem like overkill, but I'm already doing the same with things like my pictures and other important documents. So what is <20 MB worth of additional space.

I keep my beersmith in a Dropbox folder. I can access it from any of my computers.

Oh I do that as well. Forgot about that one. Wow, I feel like I'm a little paranoid about losing things now. I also just got another 2 TB that for the moment is going to be like my 250 GB and only be plugged in to back up things. I don't really need the space yet, but it was super cheap, and I have things I'd like to have backed up that would fill up the 250 GB. So it will be; original files, dropbox (what will fit), 4 external hard drives, jump drive (what will fit), and my parent's computer (main drive and their external) for offsite. My parents almost lost about 10 years worth of digital pictures though. I had recently backed them up to one of my hard drives, so they didn't lose them, but it makes me feel justified in my over zealousness. I also regularly back up their important files to the same places I put mine.

I am a firm believer in having an external hard drive to use for nothing but backing up. That should be its only use and the only time it should be plugged in is when actively transferring files. I've seen too many people lose important files and almost saw my parents lose 10 years worth of photos. Disconnecting it when not in use helps prevent mechanical failure of the drive and extend its life. USB drives are cheap as well and I think everyone should have one of those to back up anything that is smaller (not big picture collections, etc). I put my taxes (encrypted), gnucash files (again, encrypted), beersmith folder, some of my most important pictures, and etc on there. At minimum this gives you 1 backup for bigger files/collections and 2 backups for smaller things. Both of which should be fairly well protected from mechanical failure (rarely plugged in and not mechanical in nature).

[lunitick1976]

I just use Beersmith, and all I do is create point versions of the same beers and make brewing notes in beersmith. You can make 1.0 beer, then when you brew it again make it 1.1 or 2.0 or what ever you want. I do keep a hard bound book (now) with the printed out versions of my brews.