The homebrew fermentation tracker I actually use

Why two widgets

Fermentation answers two different questions at once. When is my beer ready?— that's the emotional one, the thing you actually care about when you check your notebook. And how far through am I?— that's the intellectual one, useful for knowing when to dry-hop, when to cold-crash, when to lift the lid.

A countdown widget answers the first. A progress bar widget answers the second. Running them side by side in a Notion page or Obsidian note gives you a complete picture of where your batch is without ever opening a spreadsheet. Both are iframe embeds, both work in read-only notes, and neither needs an account.

The full WidgetCraft library has 13 widgets including this Countdown and Life Progress — the two used here are free to configure in the builder and can be customized to match your note-taking theme.

Minimum viable setup

From pitching to bottling

1. Day 0
   Brew day — pitch yeast, seal fermenter, log OG

   Your wort is chilled, the yeast is pitched, the airlock is on. Take a hydrometer reading — that's your original gravity (OG), typically between 1.050 and 1.065 for an American IPA. Write it in the top of your tracker. Set the countdown widget's target date to 14 days from today, and the progress widget's start to today. The airlock will be quiet for the first few hours while yeast wakes up — don't panic.

2. Days 1–2
   Lag phase ends, bubbling starts

   Airlock activity picks up, usually within 12 to 36 hours of pitching. You'll see a visible white foam layer (the krausen) form on top of the wort. Temperature rises 2–3°F from fermentation heat — aim to keep your fermenter between 65°F and 68°F so esters stay clean. If the airlock is still silent at 48 hours, something's off: pitch a backup yeast packet before you worry about infection.

3. Days 3–4
   Peak krausen — the loud phase

   Airlock bubbles every 1–5 seconds. Krausen is at its tallest, sometimes climbing into the airlock if you didn't leave enough headspace (a blow-off tube saves the day here). Gravity is dropping fast — you'd see something around 1.030–1.035 if you pulled a sample, though most homebrewers leave the fermenter sealed during peak activity to avoid contamination. No tasting needed today.

4. Days 5–6
   Krausen drops, activity slows

   The foam layer collapses into a ring on the side of the fermenter. Airlock bubbles slow to every 10–30 seconds. Your beer looks cloudy and settled — the yeast is finishing up the easy sugars. This is when a patient brewer starts planning dry hops. You've used roughly 70% of your fermentable sugars by now.

5. Day 7
   Dry hop (if you're hopping)

   Classic American IPA move: drop 1–2 oz of hop pellets directly into the fermenter. Citra, Mosaic, Galaxy, Simcoe — whatever your recipe calls for. Don't aerate by pouring aggressively; nudge them in gently so you don't oxidize the beer. Some brewers use a mesh bag, others dump pellets straight in and let them settle. Dry hops add aroma and bitterness, not alcohol — your gravity won't move much from here.

6. Days 8–10
   Dry hop contact, gravity stabilizes

   Airlock barely bubbles — maybe once every few minutes. Pull a gravity reading if you want: should be near your target final gravity (FG), typically 1.010–1.015 for an IPA. Two identical readings 24 hours apart means fermentation is complete. If gravity is still dropping, wait; rushing to bottle on an active ferment is how you get exploding bottles.

7. Days 11–12
   Cold crash (optional)

   Move the fermenter to the coldest part of your home — a garage in winter, a fridge if you have room, 35–40°F ideally. Holding cold for 24–48 hours drops yeast and hop particles to the bottom, giving you clearer beer. Skip this if you like your IPAs hazy — it's not mandatory. Cold crash can pull small amounts of oxygen into the fermenter through the airlock as gas contracts; a spunding valve or tight airlock helps if you're fussy.

8. Day 13
   Final gravity, prep for bottling

   One last hydrometer reading to confirm FG. Calculate ABV: (OG − FG) × 131.25. For a typical IPA with OG 1.060 and FG 1.012, that's 6.3% — a balanced American IPA. Sanitize bottles, caps, and your bottling wand. Boil 3/4 cup of priming sugar (corn sugar, dextrose) in 2 cups of water, let it cool. This creates carbonation in the bottle.

9. Day 14
   Bottle day — the countdown ends

   Siphon the beer off the yeast cake into a clean bucket, mix in your cooled priming sugar solution (gently — no splashing), then bottle. 5 gallons fills about 54 twelve-ounce bottles. Store them at 65–70°F for 2 weeks of bottle conditioning — the yeast eats the priming sugar and carbonates each bottle individually. Your countdown widget resets to 14 days for carbonation; your progress widget restarts too.

After bottling — the second countdown

Bottling day is the end of one clock and the start of another. The yeast you bottled with the priming sugar now has a second, smaller job: eat that sugar, produce CO₂, and trap the CO₂ inside each sealed bottle. This is how homebrew carbonates. It takes between 10 and 21 days at warm temperatures — set a second Countdown widget for 2 weeks out and resist the urge to crack a bottle early.

Ideal conditioning temperature is 65–72°F. Below 60°F the yeast goes dormant and carbonation stalls — bottles that feel flat after 3 weeks might just need a week in a warmer spot. The carbonation builds from the bottom of the bottle up, so the first pours will look slightly hazy with yeast sediment; either pour gently leaving the last half-inch behind, or decant into a glass after a day in the fridge so the sediment settles.

Day 1 of bottle conditioning, you won't see any foam when you open one. By day 7, you'll get a small hiss and light carbonation. By day 14, full carbonation — the head is persistent, the mouthfeel is proper, and the hop character has mellowed into the malt. Week 4 is often the sweet spot for a dry-hopped IPA: peak aroma, fully carbonated, no green yeast notes.

This is also when it's worth starting a taste log in your Notion page. Pour one on day 14, one on day 21, one on day 35 — write a paragraph each time about aroma, mouthfeel, balance, and what changed. After 3 or 4 batches you'll have a personal library of notes that make the next recipe better than the last. The progress widget tracking 30-day conditioning goes underneath your tasting log and fills gradually as the beer matures.

Three mistakes that ruin batches

Rushing to bottle. The countdown widget ticks down on a calendar, not on your beer. If gravity is still moving on Day 14, wait. Bottling an active ferment produces bottle bombs — literally. Two identical hydrometer readings 24 hours apart is your only honest signal.

Fermenting too warm. Above 72°F, most ale yeasts throw off fusel alcohols and solventy off-flavors. Keep your fermenter somewhere that stays 65–68°F. A damp towel wrapped around it with a fan blowing drops the temperature a few degrees in warm rooms.

Sanitizing like you're doing dishes. Hot water and soap are not sanitizer. StarSan, IodoStar, or a similar brewing sanitizer at the right dilution, with 30 seconds of contact time, is what keeps lactobacillus and acetobacter out of your beer. Every piece of equipment that touches post-boil wort needs sanitation.

Notion / Obsidian markdown template

A plain markdown starter file with the two widget embeds, a gravity-reading table, and a 14-day checklist. Copy it into Notion via Import or paste into an Obsidian daily note.

Questions, answered.

Build your own brew tracker

Open the builder, drop in your target bottling date, pick a theme that matches your Notion page, copy the embed URL. Takes under a minute per widget.