Crisis averted

[FedoraDave]

Here's a little cautionary tale, boys and girls. Pay attention; it may save you some anxiety later on down the road.

A couple of years back, I happened to get paired up with Knightmare on a Recipe Collaboration Exchange. We decided to work on an Irish Red Ale, making it an extract recipe with steeping grains, because that was around Knightmare's level at the time. Since his name is also Dave, we decided to call it 2Daves Irish Red.

Turned out to be a very nice beer, and that RCE was Knightmare's springboard to bigger and better ingredients. He's doing AG recipes and is no doubt brewing outstanding beer. He even converted our extract recipe to AG, and it's become a regular part of my pipeline.

Well, this week I decided my next fiver would be 2Daves, and I went looking in my recipe book. Couldn't find it. I found the extract recipe for the LBK batch we originally did, but I want to do an AG fiver. I was sure I'd saved the recipe somewhere, and it occurred to me, much to my dismay, that I may have gotten it in a PM from the Mr. Beer community. Which I can't access anymore because it's so upscrewed.

I emailed Dave from his profile on this site, but he hasn't been active on this board in over a month, so I don't know what's going on there, and while I hate to bother him, I really want this recipe. But I looked through my recipe book again, and found a printout from the original Mr. Beer PM with the recipe. I'd printed it and stuck it in the back of the book, along with one or two other recipes I found online. I can breathe easier, and now I know where to find it when I want to brew 2Daves Irish Red again.

But take note: being organized and having hard copies can save you some pain, frustration, and anxiety.

[philm00x]

Truer words of wisdom have never been spoken. I lost a cherry pie ale recipe I got from jhough on the old borg from a PM and never printed it nor stuck it into Beersmith. Everything I do now I stick into the computer so I have my own copy and don't risk losing it to the web.

[Brewbirds]

Oh BB2 are you listening???

[Gymrat]

That reminds me. I need to back up my notes again.

[Crazy Climber]

I used to have a lot of bookmarks in my browser pointing to threads at the old MB forum. Last I knew, those links were all broken (I haven't tried them since shortly after the "upgrade"). Luckily, I haven't missed out on anything crucial as a result (yet), but FD's point is well-made...relying on a single source of electronic data comes with risks. It's better to print, save a copy to your hard drive, and/or back up anything you plan to refer back to later.

[FedoraDave]

I have such bad luck (and no skills) with electronic media, I don't feel I can trust it. Technology is my enemy. This is why I keep hard copies of all my recipes. My original ones, even though I run them through QBrew, I write by hand in my recipe book. Occasionally, I print out the QBrew stats and staple them in, because it's a little easier to read. The ones I find online, I print and file away. Unless I have a house fire (in which case, I'll have more pressing concerns than my beer recipes), I know exactly where they are, and can lay my hands on them immediately.

[jimjohson]

i got a brew book every thing is in it, as well as having beer smith.

[docpd]

I have a spreadsheet with every recipe I have brewed. I back this up to an external hard drive every week so I have all the data at my fingertips at all times.

[Knightmare]

Fedora Dave, you have a private message!

[FedoraDave]

So do you, now! Thanks!

[Chuck N]

I've tattoo'd all of my recipes onto my wife's back. Makes for a real interesting brew-day. Especially when I do the newer recipes.