Recording Keeping For Extract Brewers

Most beginning brewers start with malt extract. Compared to all grain brewing there is a lot less to track, but it can still be overwhelming at first. Our Brew Day Sheet for Extract Recipes will help you to make sense of this, and brew more consistently.

The most basic thing to track at first is the exact batch ingredients:

• Pounds and type of malt extract (dry or liquid)
• Steeping grains (optional but recommend)
• Hops, variety, alpha acid content, and boil time for each amount
• Yeast
• Other, such as gypsum, Irish moss, gelatin, flavoring herbs, etc
• It is also useful for some people to track the cost of the batch.

The main variables to keep track of for an extract brewer are:

• OG – Original Gravity, basically how much sugar you started with. This involves taking a hydrometer reading before pitching the yeast.
• FG – Final Gravity, how much sugar you were left with. To measure this, take a hydrometer reading at the time of bottling before adding priming sugar.
• IBU – International Bittering Units, how bitter your beer will be.
• ABV – Alcohol by Volume, uses OG and FG to calculate.

Calculators at this site can be used to generate these numbers.

Check out the Brew Day Sheet for Extract Recipes, it is a free resource.