For a long time, I didn’t take any homebrewing notes consistently for my brews. I did scribble some information down for a few of my first brews back in 2005, but after that I didn’t do it much.

I have a blog, don’t you know.

Seriously though, most of my note taking was on the blog. If I had questions later on, I would just search Brew-Dudes and then find the recipe or the brew day that I was looking for.

The thing is, I wasn’t capturing every last detail in blog posts. I was typing them up later on that day or most times a few days later. By that time, the small details were probably forgotten or I decided not to include them in the post.

Earlier this year for my birthday, my wife bought me a nice Moleskine homebrewer’s journal that I have been using ever since. It’s a good size – it doesn’t take up much space on the table when I am measuring ingredients and it’s easy to carry around.

Homebrewing Journal Homebrewing Note Taking

This particular journal has a nice template for the brew day with information for the recipe and space to jot down notes on how the session went. There other templates in there including one for tasting beers. It’s pretty cool and a thoughtful gift. I know I wouldn’t have bought it for myself. It is interesting to know that the hobby has become popular enough that this kind of journal – specialized for beer brewing and beer tasting. Maybe I shouldn’t be so naive.

Anyway, homebrewing note taking is something that I think is important to do if you want to keep getting better at your craft. Even if you have a great memory like I claim I have, you aren’t going to remember every thought you have and you should write down things to keep in mind for next time.

If you want a good home brewing log sheet, download the one Mike posted.