A home winemaking app for Android
If you make wine at home, whether from grapes, fruit, or a kit, BrewNote is a free Android app for logging each batch from must to bottle: ingredients and additions, starting gravity or Brix, readings through fermentation, racking dates, and tasting notes as it ages. It works offline and needs no account.
Home wine runs on a long timeline of small steps: primary fermentation, racking to secondary, stabilizing, clearing, and bulk aging. Kit wines come with a day-by-day schedule, and fruit or country wines depend on notes you’ll want next season. BrewNote keeps every step and reading for a batch in one place.
What to log for each wine batch
- Grapes, fruit, or kit name, with amounts and batch size.
- Additions such as sugar, acid blend, tannin, pectic enzyme, nutrient, sulfite, and fining agents, with dates.
- Yeast strain and pitch date.
- Starting gravity or Brix, and dated readings through fermentation.
- Fermentation temperature.
- Racking, stabilizing, clearing, and bottling dates.
- Tasting notes as the wine ages.
Typical numbers for home wine
| Wine | Typical OG | Typical FG (dry) | Typical ABV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grape wine | 1.080–1.100 (about 19–24 °Bx) | 0.990–0.998 | 11–14% |
| Fruit or country wine | 1.070–1.100 | 0.990–1.000 | 10–13% |
Ranges are approximate. Kit instructions give their own targets, so follow those for a kit. Sweet wines finish at a higher gravity, usually after stabilizing and backsweetening.
How BrewNote handles wine
Start a batch as a wine. Save a recipe with your ingredients and process steps, and check off steps on each batch as you go, which suits a kit’s schedule.
Log readings from a hydrometer or a refractometer in Brix. BrewNote charts gravity once you have a couple of readings, and the calculator can correct a refractometer reading taken after fermentation starts.
Set reminders for racking, adding sulfite, or checking clarity. Reminders can notify you and go on your calendar, which helps over months of bulk aging.
ABV for wine uses a high-gravity formula rather than the simple beer formula. Rate each batch when it’s bottled and compare vintages of the same recipe.
What BrewNote doesn’t do
- BrewNote doesn’t calculate acid, sulfite, or sugar additions. Log the amounts you used.
- BrewNote is Android only for now. There is no iPhone version.
- It doesn’t connect to digital hydrometers or Bluetooth sensors. You type in readings yourself.
- There’s no cloud sync between devices. You move data with a zip backup instead.
Free tools for wine makers
Frequently asked questions
What app can I use to track homemade wine?
BrewNote is a free Android app with a wine batch type. Log grape, fruit, or kit wines with gravity or Brix readings, additions, racking dates, and tasting notes, and set reminders for each step. It works offline with no account.
Does BrewNote work for wine kits?
Yes. Save the kit as a recipe with its steps, start a batch from it, check off steps as you go, and set reminders for the days the instructions call for.
Can I log Brix readings instead of specific gravity?
Yes. BrewNote accepts refractometer readings in Brix as well as hydrometer readings. Refractometer readings taken after fermentation starts need correcting for alcohol, which the calculator handles from your original gravity.