Damn my mess
I looked about last night to try and find my recipes and notes from my beer brewing sessions, just to go through them in my head and try to remember all the things that I had screwed up and come up with some lessons learned on my journey. Keyword here was try and find, because of all the shit I have that is related to beer and cheese making (don't get me started on the next damn project I am looking into Charcuterie
I have some of the gravities written on my whiteboard, but didn't find the papers. Hope is not lost, I really only glanced about and all of the recipes that I was working with came from my LBS recipes folder so I could always just go get new copies, the only thing I will have lost is my session notes. That makes me a little sad, but in all it is a recoverable offense.
In other and related news I had previously downloaded Beer Tools to give it a try (it is a recipe management and brewing assistant piece of software). The software is fine, and it does give you a very nice looking little handout to print up that tells you what your beer will be like based on the ingredients and processes you add to it, but for some reason I found the process a little tedious and for $30 I wanted it to be less cumbersome. I realize that software requires work in to get value out, but man I was not feeling it. Until now. If I had my recipes stored in there I wouldn't be looking for them now would I? I'm torn, $30 is a drop in the bucket at this point but for the planning your brew session it seems like it would be easier and cheaper to use Beer Calculus and do a better job of keeping track of the damn notes, also you could print to PDF and keep a digital copy of your brew session for future reference.
If I don't find my recipes I may invest in the Beer Tools, just so I won't loose my session notes again.
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Hahaha you are living the dream, first you are brewing beer, now you might start with Charcuterie. You dont need to leave the house ever again hahahaha
ReplyDeleteGrim that you can't find your recipes, but at least you can remember some of it =3
ReplyDeleteThat beer tool thing seems a little more complicated than is should be - why not just toss in all the ingredients and judge by how much of the night you can't remember after drinking it =D
The recipes are important to get repeatable results. If you find something you like it's would be nice to repeat it. Tossing ingredients may come out, but different ingredients have different effects on the outcome so everything that goes into the beer needs to have a purpose. Adjuncts (non grain additives) can be used with very specific outcomes oatmeal can give stouts a creamy feel, rice can add sugar without adding body, ect. Planning is important, and keeping track of what you did can give you clues as to what went wrong or right.
ReplyDeletei wouldn't leave the house anymore, just hangout and chill like a boss!
ReplyDeleteKeep all your notes digital so they're harder to lose.
ReplyDeleteSounds like if you've done it right, you can start a sort of a business.
ReplyDeleteOh man, did I tell you that my dad started making cheese? And then he went to curing meat (or was it the other way around?). The man sent us a package for Christmas and did not tell us that it contained either perishable item and we just thought it was a miter saw so we didn't open it right away. Oh, my dad...
ReplyDeleteOh that is so terrible.
ReplyDelete