Overview of What’s Going on Here
I love homebrewing but it’s a complex process that is limitless in the number of related paths you can explore. After you brew your first batch and realize you’re hooked on this hobby, you’ll want to begin exploring many of homebrewing’s tangents. In doing so, your daily experience will include homebrewing websites, books, magazines, podcasts, videos, and other resources in an effort to improve your skill set and further engage in the hobby.
In my development as a homebrewer, I was finding great information out there but very few good process summaries. Homebrewers who have been at this for a while like the details (which are important!) but when learning something new, I find it easier to follow a simplified process that would meet my needs 90% of the time until I have the time, experience, and inclination to dig further into the details.
I also found that I was taking in so much information that I began struggling to remember where I had seen something that I wanted to try. So, I began creating my own summaries and my own Homebrewer’s Notebook so these processes were in once place. It’s a three-ring binder of instructional summaries that I can pull out and reference as needed.
An example might be helpful. In my early days as a homebrewer, I decided I should focus on yeast health to improve my fermentation and the quality of my beers. One way to do that is to rehydrate dry yeast before use. Before doing this process, I researched how to do it, made notes, and then tested them in practice. During testing, I made edits to my notes to improve or clarify them for next time. Then, I typed, printed, and saved them in my notebook. Now if I need to rehydrate yeast, I just grab that page from my notebook and put it on the counter while I follow my summarized process. When I’m finished, I put it back. I have my own personalized reference book.
Over the years, I have accumulated quite a few of these summaries and I thought others might appreciate having them as starter guides for creating their own Homebrew Notes. However, I realized that many wouldn’t have the firsthand experience that I did in creating those notes. So, I address this on Homebrew Notes by taking a dual approach. I provide a longer, more detailed and descriptive version for you to read, along with a link to a simpler step-by-step summary. The idea is that once you have a general idea from the detailed version, you can print/save the abbreviated version as your personal homebrew notes to be referenced as needed. You’re free to save my notes and modify them in ways that are more understandable to you or better fit with your homebrewing equipment and processes.
How to Read Homebrew Notes
Each of the Homebrew Notes on this site will include a few things. At the top of each page, you’ll see this:
Homebrew Notebook Page: Summary Homebrew Note
Status: Draft / In Testing / Ready to Use!
Source(s): None / LINK / information on book, magazine, podcast, etc.
Homebrew Notebook Page is a link to the simplified version of the process being described in detail in that post. It’s saved in Google Docs so you can copy, print, save, or link to that page.
Status is where this Homebrew Note happens to be in development. Is it a process I’ve heard about, drafted, and want to test out in the future? Is it something I’m currently testing? Or is it something I’ve done and confirmed that my notes should help you accomplish what you want?
Source(s) is an acknowledgement of any sources I used to create the Homebrew Note. I won’t plagiarize or steal anyone’s information but if I base my Note on someone else’s info, I’ll try to give credit where credit is due. You might also want to explore that version for better understanding.
You might ask why I would post something that is in Draft or In Testing status. It’s so that I can get feedback from you if you have suggestions for improvement. You may have tried the process before and see a flaw or a potential improvement. When I’m testing a process, I want you to see the progress as it happens. You might even want to test along with me. When I’ve confirmed the process, I want you to know that it’s ready to use.
All this means that each of the Homebrew Notes on this site are living documents. Even with processes I’ve done many times, like making a yeast starter, I might make an improvement based on your suggestions or something I discover and then incorporate that improvement into the Homebrew Note. (Even if I’ve done something 100 times, I really do keep a printed copy of the Homebrew Note with me while I’m doing it in case I want to update/improve it.)
Following those items, I provide a table of contents so on subsequent reads, you can jump to the section you need. I follow that with a brief intro on why the process is important and/or interesting and a list of the items needed in order to follow this process, making sure to state which items are optional.
Before getting into the details of the process, I include a Gallery of photos. These photos are a way for you to see some of the steps of the process visually before reading the explanation. It gives you a visual context before you get into the specifics. The gallery doesn’t have a photo for every single step but it should hit the highlights. Finally, I give you my detailed version of the process itself.
Throughout the text, you’ll also see box outs like this one with one of the following at its start – IMPORTANT, NOTE, or TIP. If something is important to remember, I’ll point it out. If there’s something else to be considered, I’ll make a note of it. If there’s a small and helpful tip to be made, I’ll make it.
One Size Does Not Fit All in Homebrewing
Keep in mind that there are often many ways to do these processes but what I’ve described is my way of doing them. This may require equipment that differs from yours and I’ll try to give you alternatives where it makes sense and doesn’t veer too far off on a tangent.
Understanding the process is 90% of the battle. Once you do, you can then take these Homebrew Notes pages and customize them to reflect your preferred process utilizing your specific equipment. I think you’ll find that the vast majority of the steps will still apply.
Now let’s go brew!