Best place to keep tasting notes and ideas for recipe development?

pym9

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The more recipes and brew sessions I have on Brewer’s friend, the more confusing it gets looking at the various versions of recipes, keeping track . Often I will start with a recipe from a book or magazine but have to make some kind of substitution based on what I have on hand or what I can get. It is hard to keep track of what the original recipe was, the substitutions/notes from any particular brew session, and my tasting notes on the beer and ideas for subsequent recipe development. If I think a recipe in general would be better off with less roasted malt in the future, where should I make that kind of note?

“My Recipes” doesn’t collect different versions of the recipe or have a notes section on the recipe.

“My Brewing Sessions” has a notes section for that particular brew session but doesn’t collect or show your notes from different versions or the recipe.

“My Notes” isn’t directly connected to recipes or updated from notes on brew sessions.

I’m sure there’s some sensible way to keep tasting notes and recipe modifications together so that you can review the variations on a recipe and your notes about how it turned out and what you’d do differently in the future, but I have trouble keeping track of everything.
 
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I keep a separate hand written brewing notebook. My wife bought me this cool notebook that has hops on the cover, so what better use could it serve?
 
Every time I brew I print out the recipe and use that as a place for my brew day notes as well as a chronological list of all my brews. When I am brewing a recipe I have brewed before I note which batch of the recipe this brew represents (e.g. English bitter 2020 #3 ) so I can trace a bottle of beer, which has the same batch info on the cap, back to a particular brew. By looking at batch 1 for a recipe I have a record of the original recipe and through the subsequent brew day printouts I can track any changes I have made.
 
I made a Xcel spread sheet to keep track of my brews. You can down load and use it as is or modify to suit your needs or not use it at all.

Each version is kept in my brewing files (a box in my basement). I will occasionally go back and revisit different recipe versions. It helps me when I can't remember the recipe, but can remember something about it I want re-create or avoid. I also print out the recipe from brewer's friend and staple it to the back of these sheets.



https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-60w_IvRv3BelJnWmdraWZWbTRXWFVyQk1PS1Z4ZGlpX2pn/view?usp=sharing
 
I add a few tasting notes to each brew session log. They're the most likely to contain notes on what could change for the next batch. In the brew session notes I'll add comments on the process and suggest changes.

So when I go to brew a recipe again I go to the brew sessions section, search on the recipe name, look at the notes and tasting notes for the most recent session. Depending on what the change is I may have a look at the older batches. When I do it's generally to see if it's undoing a change I made previously. Then I'll update the master recipe, if needed, and kick off the next brew session.
 
I have struggled with the very same thing. My current process is to keep a master copy of a recipe and make snapshots of the recipe when I brew it. That helps me make detailed comparisons of recipe versions. For an overview of changes at a glance, I update the recipe notes section on the bottom left of the recipe editor page. There is an additional step, that I frequently forget, of updating the master copy's notes section. I also paste the url of the source recipe so I can refer back to there original author's recipe; assuming they haven't modified it.

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Every time I brew I print out the recipe and use that as a place for my brew day notes as well as a chronological list of all my brews. When I am brewing a recipe I have brewed before I note which batch of the recipe this brew represents (e.g. English bitter 2020 #3 ) so I can trace a bottle of beer, which has the same batch info on the cap, back to a particular brew. By looking at batch 1 for a recipe I have a record of the original recipe and through the subsequent brew day printouts I can track any changes I have made.
I do this as well, and developed a sheet to printout out to grade my beer, and make notes for improvements. I keep them in a binder in plastic sheet holders. My score sheet is loosely based on BJCP guidelines.
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