Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:48 am
I have an Excel spreadsheet which lets me design the beer, record the grain and hops bills, figure out how much extract to expect, what the ABV of the beer is likely to be, what salt additions will do to water, what the hops bitterness might be expected to be and a rough estimate of the color. During the brew I can plug in gravity readings at various points and predict gravity in the fermenter as a function of makeup water additions, dilutions etc. There are slots to enter apparent gravity, temperature and pH as the ferment progresses and spaces to enter apparent extract, true extract, actual ABV and amount of beer that winds up in the keg. From these it calculates ADF, RDF and estimates OG from which it calculates the overall efficiency - from grain sack to keg. It also record complete color data (SRM and three additional color coefficients). Printed it fits on one 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper that is the major record of the beer. It goes into a looseleaf notebook along with printouts of temperature recordings from the mash and fermentation and printouts from the instruments used during color, extract, ABV and bitterness analyses.
I also have a bound brewing log in which I record step by step what I do during the brew day, pH readings at various points, volumes of decoctions, start and stop times of various steps, how much dilution water was used, chiller temperatures (coolant inlet, outlet and beer), DO level in the fermenter and anything else I think was important. This turns out to be the source I consult most.
