Store each recipe or each brew?

[2bluewagons]

I am using Beersmith, but I think this could apply to any software. I am relatively new and unfortunately only brew once a month if I am lucky, but I am getting quite a recipe database going on. So far I have a few rebrews and I have been copying the recipe to a new one to keep the parameters of the two (i.e. final gravity, volume, efficiency, etc.) separate.

So my question is, how best to handle a recipe library, making a new recipe for each brew session, or just keeping a given recipe and storing the particulars elsewhere?

 

[JasonInBTR]

I just started using BeerSmith (still figuring it out) and here is what I do. I keep folders of cataloged recipes and then folders of brewed beers (IE - '2010 Brewed Beers'). When I get ready to brew I just copy the recipe to the brewed beers folder leaving the original intact. I do keep a lot of notes in Evernote as well.....

Jason

 

[samc]

In BTP I would just rename the recipe like "I2PA Dec2010" and re brew "I2PA May2011"

 

[Berock]

Create a folder for each beer you do and name each beer a different name like what is said above.

 

[motobrewer]

i have a recipe database and a brew log folder. recipe database gets messy, with many versions of the same recipe, but i always know exactly what I brewed and when.

 

[Frodo]

i have a recipe database and a brew log folder. recipe database gets messy, with many versions of the same recipe, but i always know exactly what I brewed and when.

+1. Thought everyone had those 2 folders as defaults in BeerSmith? Recipes are conceptual or the originals, and Brew Log for what actually happened (like substituted hops or yeast and whatnot).

 

[Frodo]

In BTP I would just rename the recipe like "I2PA Dec2010" and re brew "I2PA May2011"

Recipes can just be sorted by date, by clicking on the date header when viewing the list. (they can be sorted by any of the headers by clicking on the header, like to see the highest gravity beer you've brewed, etc)

 

[roycroft]

I develop/tweak recipes in the Master Recipes folder, and then copy a recipe to the Brew Log folder when brewing. I number my batches sequentially, so I rename the recipe "batch - date - recipe name" for every batch. This way I can make adjustments to a recipe, but still keep an accurate brew log of every batch I brew.

 

[2bluewagons]

Cool, thanks for all the replies. And for making me feel dumb. This new-fangled concept of folder organization, who knew???