So what makes for good notes? I always hear and read take good notes but don’t know what would/should be included… so to the more experienced do you take notes? What do you always to make sure to include in your notes?
I’m not sure exactly which kind of notes you’re talking about – probably mashing/brewing notes? It can be very beneficial to take down all your temperatures and times, mash pH, things like that. Good beer can be made without these notes as well, it just involves a little more luck and can be harder to learn from mistakes. I’ve found it useful whenever making a mistake or seeing an unexpected result to document it right away and keep an eye on it just in case it makes a difference in taste later on.
If you’re talking about tasting notes, well I do a lot of that as well. Aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel, and overall impressions are all the major sections on a BJCP judging form. However not all of these things are necessarily a big deal. The timing since bottling or manufacture, storage conditions, etc. can also make some difference as well.
In the end, do whatever you think is useful and what makes you happy. If you’re happy brewing and drinking without taking a whole bunch of notes, then don’t bother. For nerds like me, though, it has proven very useful to take detailed notes when appropriate. I don’t always take notes, but when I do, they’re pretty darn detailed, just in case. Sometimes I never read them again. But often times, I do.
I’m sure everybody does it differently. I make a print out - I write out expected Preboil OG, Post boil OG, FG, Strike Temp, Preboil volume, Postboil Volume in the left column. Right column gets the actual measured values of these categories during the brew day, so I can identify any correctible issues. Under that I write the complete recipe, including grain/water ratio, pH, volumes. On the back I write tasting notes of the beer and any other thoughts, so I can reference it the next time I brew it. I brew a lot of styles so it really helps to be able to look back accurately at what happened on the prior batch the next time I make it. I’m OCD, hopefully in a good way. I channel it into brewing. 
I use Promash to create recipes. Then I transcribe them into spiral notebooks so I can take note. Besides grains amounts, I write down hop amounts, alpha% and timing, water treatments and predicted pH, mash amount and ratio, grain temp, strike temp, actual pH, conversion efficiency, mash runoff gravity and volume, sparge volume and temp, boil volume, boil gravity and pH, mash efficiency, boil length (may boil longer if needed), final volume, time of pitching, temp at pitching, pH at pitching, brewhouse efficiency. Plus notes about any brewing anomalies.
I think there may be one or 2 other things.
I print off my beersmith brewing sheet (which once completed goes into a 3 ring binder) I jot notes on the measurements - pH, actual strike/mash temp, FG, etc.
I often go back and input in the ‘notes’ section of Beersmith if there was any really noteworthy tasting/flavor notes - good or bad - i.e. this hop combination doesn’t work at 1:1 or in the case recently of my Citra/Equinox IIPA O.M.G.
I do pretty much this with the exception of adding notes back into Beersmith. Maybe, if it’s something super significant. Mostly those just get written on the sheet.
I hole punch everything and keep a three ring binder, so I can leaf back through it and check my notes on earlier batches of the same recipe.
I should probably add that I type all my applicable notes into my favorite software (I use StrangeBrew) for easy access later. I used to have a 3-ring binder but that thing was a pain to maintain, not to mention it got thick real quick. Electronicize and you don’t have to worry about losing anything and can access it very easily later on if you need it.
I’m decidedly not OCD. I print out a copy of my recipe if I use software or literally write the grain bill etc. on an envelope from the recycling bin. I put these in a drawer and never look at them again unless I forgot to label the yeast I harvested and need to figure out what it is a month or two later. When the drawer is full I throw them away. I used to take more and better notes in a spiral notebook but then realized that I never brewed the same beer exactly the same way again. The things I find important I manage to remember.
I’m not suggesting that this is a good idea, and I take good notes (volumes, weights, etc) when trying to dial in something new in my system or figure something out, but I’m just saying you can make good beer without feeling like you need to be a certain type of person who takes good notes.
without a doubt, everyone has their own way of recording their notes. And it is personal as to what you wish to record. I’m sort of between laissez faire and OCD.
Now here is an example of someone who is very OCD about notes and records. http://www.horscategoriebrewing.com/2016/04/homebrewing-notes.html I met Dave at NHC this past year and he is a nice guy with lots of knowledge.
The notes I find most useful are ones I do at the end of the brew day or on the next day summarizing what went well and what didn’t.
Ok, he has me beat hands down for OCD. It’s impressive (and a ton of work). I get everything on the front and back of a page.
I also include most of these things as well. I hand write all of my recipes down into a journal. I am also sure to write down brew date, cold crash period/temp, and packaging date so I can determine how much time a recipe needs before it peaks (mainly for competitions).
I keep handwritten notes in a looseleaf binder of many of the details already mentioned–and I find these very helpful as I play around with recipes and improve my process.
But what also is enjoyable is how notes about other matters slip in–the weather on brew day, something my wife or kids say about my brewing, and so on. In other words, I find my brewing log becomes a kind of accidental journal–which makes it valuable in a different way.
Here’s a link to the Google Docs spreadsheet I designed for my beers. If you enter the grain bill, batch size, and boil time, much of the rest auto-fills for you. It’s formatted to print out on one page so you have a hard copy too. Even if you don’t use the spreadsheet, you’ll get an idea of what sort of info I can track using this method.
I used to log my batches using a much less-efficient format, but I have evolved to this over the years. I use a free brewing program (BrewMate) to work up recipes, then do the water calculations using Bru’nWater.
I design my recipes in Beersmith, then work my water in Bru’n Water. Summaries of both get printed, and I use another sheet of paper to take notes. I’m not the best at taking notes, usually only noting times/temps, any deviations from the plan, fermentation temps/temp changes/times, and sometimes tasting notes. All three live in a clipboard while the beer is in the pipeline, then I transfer everything to a binder later.
I pretty much do what is typed up here. I have many beers that I never go back and look at recipes. But then I have that ah ha moment and need to reference something from a past brew. Or I’ll reference my notebook to add threads on this forum. I use a Five Star spiral notebook… for a few reasons. They have nice folder on the inside to house printed recipes, they are very durable, and when the cover is closed they are relatively spill proof lol.
One thing that I add to my notes is the weather. The glorious thing about brewing in Ohio is that I’ve brewed when it’s been 100 degrees, and I’ve brewed when it’s been 0 degrees. So, when I brew next January and it’s ball freezing cold, I can reference last January’s notes and see if I came up shy on a target mash temp and see how many degrees I need to compensate with my strike temp.
I build the recipe in beersmith and the water profile in Bru’n Water then transfer it all into my blog where I add notes. I like to include my thought process on the recipe along with brewday and fermentation notes. I go back later and add tasting notes. If I didn’t blog I’d probably keep the notes in written form.
IMO you can’t be too detailed in your notes. It’s better to have those notes if you need them than to want to figure something out about a past brew only to find you don’t have notes on what you’re looking for.
Beer smith and Brunwater here - then try to remember it all while I walk to the garage brewery. I have printed it out occasionally, but usually not anymore. I do write on a large desk calendar on the wall the date of a brew, so I can track it😉
I usually take notes of:
Brewing salts used additions in grams or ml and a snip of tab 5 in brunwater
how the mash went volumes starting temp, strike temp, temp log every 15 mins after mash starts, pH every 15 mins, adjustments if necessary and what those are
preboil OG, log additions at exact times, start of wp/chilling time, post boil og, and pH at time of pitching yeast
Pitchrate and strain info
Fermentation and temp log
carbonation level and priming sugar used
storage temp for carbing
then tasting sheet from craftbeer.com for each batch.
One really nice thing about my Google Docs spreadsheet is that I can access the files from my phone, from anywhere. So although I do print a version, I really don’t need to. I can pull it up and add comments, measurements, etc. while I’m brewing. I can also pull it up later if I’m having a beer with a buddy and they want to know details. Or if I’m at the brewshop and decide on a whim to grab supplies for a recipe, I have access to all of that through the magical cloud. 