Homebrew: the notebook

A brewing notebook in your name

A coil-bound A4 book for the brew day, set up in the browser and re-set as you change it: a spread for every batch, your water, your year, your name and logo on the cover. Printed to order and posted anywhere, or the whole book as a PDF to print yourself.

Open the notebook builder

The notebook's cover: a deep blue field with the Train Effect mark, the words Brewing Notebook and the year 2027.

What is inside

A spread for every batch
The plan sits on the left page, with the fermentables, the hops by stage, the mash and the ferment, the water and the yeast, and the log is on the right, with what happened on the day, the gravities and the tasting. There are twenty-four spreads in the one-year book, each numbered and listed in an index at the front.
One batch spread of the notebook: the plan page on the left with fermentables, hops, mash and ferment rows, the log page on the right with gravity, timing and tasting rows.
Your year
There is a calendar spread for each year the book runs, with the days you choose ringed or dotted, club nights set by a weekday rule, and a brew plan beside the calendar for the year ahead.
Your water
The water you brew with, its salts and the targets you brew to go on a page that the batch spreads refer back to, or there is a blank profile to fill in by hand.
Reference pages
A style quick reference, the New Zealand hops with their alphas and what to swap for each, yeast, a brew day checklist and a gravity table, and any of them can be left out of the book.
The cover and the owner page
Your name and logo go on the cover in your colour, or a monogram drawn from the name if there is no logo yet, with an owner page inside the front cover and a club edition that names the club.

The book's loose sheets, a batch sheet, a brew day checklist, a water card and a tasting sheet, are on the journal at no cost, and the builder sets them in your own name.

How it is made

  1. Choose the shape: one, two or three years, or batch sheets only. The page count and the price follow.
  2. Put in the name, the colour and a logo if there is one, the year it starts, the days to mark, your water.
  3. Watch the book re-set itself beside the form, spread by spread. A link saves the draft to open on any device.
  4. Have it printed and posted: the price is quoted live for your country and copies, and the card is charged only when the book goes to print.
  5. Or take the whole book as a PDF at no cost, covers included, ready for double-sided A4 and a coil at any copy shop.

The shapes

  • One year: 24 batches, the year, your water and the reference pages. About 72 pages.
  • Two years: 48 batches and two year spreads. About 120 pages.
  • Three years: 72 batches and three year spreads. About 168 pages.
  • Batch sheets only: an index and 24 batch spreads, nothing else. About 56 pages.

What it costs

From about 27 AUD a copy with the pages in black and white and the cover in colour, or about 33 AUD with the pages in colour, plus postage, which is priced for your country on the last step. The book is printed to order and posted by the print partner, in a laminated card cover, gloss or matte. Ten copies to a club come to far less each: postage is shared and the price per copy falls.

Charged in Australian dollars, the printer's currency, with the figure in your own shown beside it. Nothing is taken until the book has been checked and goes to print; a book that cannot be printed is never charged.

The builder

The notebook builder on a desktop and a phone: the steps down the left, the form in the middle, the book set live on the right.

notebook.traineffect.co.nz. There is no account to make, and the draft saves on your device as you go.

Get in touch.

A club edition, a larger order than the builder takes, or a question about the book: email, with the club or the name on the cover.

[email protected]+64 21 184 1960