Whisky tracking

@Nelom Tracking? I just drink the stuff, and try to remember which ones I liked...

@Spitfire Sure, that's one way to do it. :) And lets face it, that's probably the sanest approach. I tend to be a bit obsessive about my hobbies, so this spreadsheet is one outlet for that.

Yeah, @Nelom , you're getting pretty intense here! Do you really only rebuy 90+ whiskies? You wouldn't rebuy a cheap 89-pointer?

I do keep a spreadsheet too, but it's just for tracking prices on bottles I might want to buy so I can plan purchases. And sometimes I just "window shop" but cruising around on my list.

The only record of what I've had in the past is what made it into my tasting journal.

@OlJas Oh, I don't necessarily hold myself to that YES/NO thing. I mean, by and large I probably do, but I'm not going to NOT buy something I want to buy, just because it has a less than 90 average. If anything, me wanting to buy it is probably an indication that perhaps I enjoy it more than I've given it credit for, and maybe I should buy another bottle and keep on rating it to bring up its score. :)

I use a spreadsheet also, but a less sophisticated one. Headings are "Bottle" (i.e., name, age, ABV), "Type" (e.g., Single Malt, Irish, Scotch blendetc.), "Eval" (a subjective description of how I liked it, e.g., VG, Mediocre, Excellent), "Price" with subsequent columns for price depending on the number of times I've purchased the same bottle. (Taxes and total sums are also there so I have a handle of how much has been spent).

@Newkophile Age and ABV is something I didn't include on mine but maybe I should add them. Could be interesting to see if there's any correlation between those and my score. Price I very consciously stayed away from. I prefer to have my head in the sand as far as that's concerned or it could well have a dampening effect on my enjoyment of the hobby. :) "I spent HOW much over the last year? Holy crap!"

I used to have a basic spreadsheet that got much more complex as my collection grew. It may seem excessive but it's a fun part of the hobby for me and I often use it to compare bottles against one another, price fluxuations, pick certain bottles for friends to try, etc. It's also has proven helpful for insurance reasons. Spreadsheet is as follows:

Bottle Name, Type (bourbon, single malt, etc.), Distillery, Bottler, Country, City/State/Region, ABV, Proof, Age, Year Distilled, Year Bottled, Cask/Batch, Bottle Number, Size, Purchase Date, Price, Why purchased (wedding, anniversary, impulse, etc.), Retailer, Bottle Status (Open/Closed/Finished), Date Opened, Date Finished

@InGreatSpirits Wow, that's an awful lot of info! Question, why have both ABV and Proof? Somewhat redundant in so far as once you know one, easy to calculate the other.

@Newkophile, definitely redundant and not sure why I did it in the first place but I never bothered to delete out the one column and have just run with it since

@InGreatSpirits Pretty cool. Makes me consider adding a few more columns. :) And you're right, I too find it a fun part of the hobby. I used to collect DVDs and Blu-rays, and a big part of the enjoyment of doing that was keeping track of everything in DVD Profiler - a DVD collector's program that made things a lot easier and prettier than just a spreadsheet. I'm not aware of something similar for whisky, but if anyone know of something feel free to chime in.

You seem to share a rather ''scientific'' approach to whisky collecting. My collection isn't big enough to lose track of. I do try to take notes and review when I open a new bottle.

@Alexsweden Mine is far from big enough to make it a necessity either. I don't do it out of necessity, i do it because it's fun. What can I say? I'm a data/spreadsheet nerd. :)

I guess I do it because it lets me engage in the hobby in yet one more way. Drinking the stuff is obviously the most enjoyable aspect of the hobby, but it is just ONE of the many aspects I enjoy. There's also the research before deciding what to buy. There's reading whisky books and blogs. There's participating in a forum like this. And there's keeping an overly complicated spreadsheet, that I'm sure (like @InGreatSpirits') will grow larger and more complex as time goes by. I've yet to start keeping a tasting journal, but that could very well change at some point.

I write all my purchases down, name, shop, cost.. That's about it.. All tasting notes are written on my blog so easy access.. A large proportion of my collection are then displayed in my whisky room, the more expensive bottles are kept elsewhere.. I do find it interesting just how detailed others take notes though..

And I thought I was too obsessive about my collection! Actually I keep very detailed records but some of the above posts go beyond what I do or in a different direction. I may try to adopt some of these ideas.

For scores and tasting notes I rely on Connosr to act as a database.

I have a Mac based spreadsheet that has six pages:

Page 1 lists all my unopened bottles in three categories: Full-sized, Minis (200 cc or less), and an inventory of the special bottles I was given by the man who started my journey into the spirit world (where he now resides permanently) and one special gifted bottle from @paddockjudge. I may soon transfer the other 2 gifted bottles into that category.

For each bottle I complete about 21 fields which include distillery, expression, batch, purchase price, ABV, size (500, 700, 750), number of bottles, whether I have tried it, and which categories it falls into (CS, NAS, SM, Blend, Scotch, bourbon, Canadian, to sip or to save or to trade). For the fields in brackets I place the number of bottles that fall into those categories so that I can keep a total of the number in each category. I also have fields for the location if not in Toronto, the purchase year if known, and other notes. Some of these fields were added more recently so the data are not there for all bottles.

For the full size bottles only, I use the adding function to keep track of the totals for all the fields that have number of bottles (total, CS, NAS, etc...). Since Jan 2015 I have recorded these totals annually on Jan 1 so I can keep track of the changes year to year, important as I am trying to reduce the rate of growth of my collection.

Page 2 contains all of my samples, with finished samples moved to the bottom. I use similar fields to classify them but also include whether I have tried or reviewed them, and also who gave them to me.

Page 3 is a small table of all the different batches of A’Bunadh I’ve tried and I rate them as below, average or above. If I have experiences with a lot of batches of other expressions I may expand this.

Page 4 I started this year, listing the date of purchase, number of bottles, price, and other notes. Here I keep track if someone else has purchased for me and whether I have paid them. I indicate whether I purchased them for someone else.

Page 5 tracks the disposition of the unopened bottles in page one (they come off that page if opened or otherwise disposed of). I essentially cut and paste the info from page 1 but add the opening date and indicate if the bottle was gifted or returned, etc…

Page 6 captures the bottles I finished, including the price if known, date opened if known, and other interesting (to me) notes.

I joke that I don’t back up the file so that if my computer crashes I can have the fun of going through my collection one by one to recreate it. But really, I ought to back it up as the database contains info I can’t necessarily find elsewhere…

@Nozinan Man! That's some spreadsheet you've got going. You're giving me some ideas... As for backing it up, have you thought about using Google Docs? I've got mine there and it's great. I love that it's continuously backed up and that I can access it from any internet connected device. I find myself updating my spreadsheet on my phone, tablet and laptop, all depending on what I've got in front of me at the moment.

The only challenge might be whether you can just upload yours or if you'd have to re-create it. I know it supports just uploading an Excel spreadsheet, but you say yours is "Mac based" so I'm assuming that means you're using Pages? It might support that, not sure.

Then again, if you're not using formulas or conditional formatting, re-creating each page in your spreadsheet should be as simple as copy/paste.

And if you only care about backing it up, and not the multi-device usage, you could just keep your original Pages file on iCloud, or Google Drive, or Microsoft One Drive, or whatever cloud service you prefer to automatically and continuously back it up.

@Nelom or I could just copy the "numbers" file to a thumb drive, which I just did, and resave every one or two changes...

But thanks for that "kick in the pants" to get me to do it.

@Nozinan Yeah, backing up to a thumb drive is obviously much better than nothing, but personally I'm much too forgetful to rely on that. And there's also the risk of the thumb drive breaking or getting lost. The beauty of something like iCloud is that it's completely automatic and invisible to you. Basically, there's a drive (called iCloud Drive) that shows up in your Finder much like a thumb drive does, and anything you keep there is automatically uploaded to the internet. So you have a continuous backup. The "drive" is just a folder on your hard drive, there's nothing to plugin. And it's free. And should you ever need to restore it, you just login to iCloud.com and download it from there.

I keep all important documents in a cloud drive like that, as well as all my photos. I love the set-it-and-forget-it nature of it.

I use a spreadsheet in excel for keeping track and for taking enjoyment from whisk(e)y. It also travels with me overseas when whisk(e)y hunting.

Tab 1: My main listing of whisk(e)y that I own with the following data: Name, distillery, (bottler (if appropriate), cask type, type (i.e. single malt, pot still, etc), age of the expression, bottle size, ABV, quantity of bottles, country of origin (and if applicable, the region), PPM (if applicable), batch, date opened, and the mash bill breakdown if known for American whiskey. The most challenging field to complete is the cask type, many expressions leave this to the unknown.

Tab 2: Whisk(e)y that I have drank and/or bottles finished. The data replicates the fields in tab #1

Tab 3:My whisk(e)y reviews, ratings, etc. This is based on the connosr system, and reproduces the fields used on the webpage so I may cut and paste when ready for uploading

Tab 4: Recipe for my malt whisky vatting (the expressions inside and the ml per malt)

Tab 5: Same as #4, an archive and tasting notes for my first completed home vatting that is now finished

Tab 6: Wish list, coloured for priority. I reign this in and try not to let it get too large. I just say to myself "You can't drink everything" and it makes this list easier to keep as a shortlist.

I use this site: www.whiskybase.com

Quite handy and is accessible online so there is no requirement to download any apps etc.