DrinkSheet

From Chanticleer Society
Revision as of 16:43, 11 April 2022 by DrinkBoy (talk | contribs)

DrinkSheet is a free to download spreadsheet for Microsoft Excel that provides some useful calculations based on the recipes that you enter. It is being provided by the Chanticleer Society along with its author (Robert "DrinkBoy" Hess), to help not only cocktail enthusiasts, but also professional bars and bartenders. Hopefully you will find it useful.

DrinkSheet Old Fashioned.jpg

Overview

The spreadsheet consists of several different sheets:

  • Volumes: a sheet that provides details on the different "volume" measurements you can use.
  • Products: a sheet that provides details on the "ingredients" that can be used in your recipes. This list can, and should, be expanded to reflect not only the ingredients you may want to use, but the details about those ingredients as well (specifically cost and abv).
  • Recipe Template: A "template" recipe form that you copy to a new sheet in order to enter new recipes.
  • ...plus several prepopulated recipes you can use for examples

Recipe Entry

You easily enter the specifics about your recipe using virtually any type of volumetric measurement you want. If a particular measurement unit isn't available, you can update the spreadsheet easily to use it.

Costing

Handy for commercial bartenders, the spreadsheet allows you to maintain a list of product costs, and if all of the products your recipe uses have been properly recorded, the costing pane will show you the cost of each ingredient, as well as the overall cost of the drink to make. You can also provide a target price, and it will tell you what the percentage of food cost is for the drink (most bars will typically use a 21% food cost which will allow the rest of the cost to account for labor, rent, etc.). You can also provide a target percentage food cost, and it will let you know what to charge for the drink.

Scaling

Handy for home mixologists, once a recipe has been entered, you can scale the recipe up (or down) to suit your needs. You can change the measurement units to any that will work best for you.

Batching

Handy for making the recipe in large batches, you can indicate how much you want to make (such as "4 gallons"), and the recipe will be properly scaled to that volume. It will tell you how many drinks you can make, as well as how much of the "mix" to use per drink. You can not only change the measurement units to anything you want (ie, instead of "ounces", you can use "cups"), but you can also provide a "secondary" measure. This means that instead of "14 5/8 cups", you can split it into "14 cups plus 5 ounces".

ABV Calculator

With more and more attention these days being paid to monitoring the amount of alcohol in a drink, as long as the ABV details for each ingredient have been properly provided, this pane will show you the overall "ABV %" for the drink, but more importantly it will show you the actual amount of pure alcohol the drink contains, as well as what the "DrinkRate" is. The DrinkRate provides an estimate for how many hours it will take the average individual to fully metabolize the alcohol in this drink.

Recipe Details

The final pane of the spreadsheet will provide an overview of the recipe. It includes the costing and abv information, as well as the originally provided recipe.

Quick Start Guide

Create A New Recipe

To start creating a new recipe, just do the following:

  1. Make a "copy" of the "Recipe Template" page.
    1. Right-click on the "Recipe Template" page.
    2. Select "Move or Copy..."
    3. From the list, select the page that followed the "Recipe Template" page.
    4. Select "Create a copy"
    5. Select "OK"
  2. Right click on the tab of the new page you created, and rename it to the name of your recipe.
  3. In the sheet itself, also enter the name of the recipe.
  4. If the recipe is designed to make more than one drink, change the "Makes 1 Drink" line to indicate that amount.
  5. Enter in the type of glassware this drink should use (optional)
  6. Enter in the garnish this drink should use (optional)
  7. In the first line in the "amount" column (Row A, Line 7) enter the first measurement "amount" (ie "2" for "2 ounces").
  8. In the first line in the "measure" column (Row B, Line 7) enter the measurement "unit" (ie "ounces" for "2 ounces).
  9. Now, in the first line under the "ingredient" column (Row E, Line 7) enter the name of the first ingredient (ie. "gin")
  10. Now, go down to Row A Line 8, and repeat for the next ingredient, and the next, etc.

Note:

  • All cells of the recipe page that you are intended to enter details in are "white", the others are shades of gray
  • Column C and D (as well as several others) are special columns, DO NOT enter any information in them

Red Arrows?

DrinkSheet Recipe Error.jpg

If you see a left-pointing red arrow next to a measurement unit, or a right-pointing red arrow next to an ingredient, this means that those values weren't found in the "Volumes" or "Products" sheets. The unit measure was probably a typo on your part, and you just need to enter the name slightly differently. A red arrow on the ingredient, probably means that particular ingredient hasn't yet been detailed in the "Products" page, we'll get to that later.

If the ingredient isn't found, it will only cause problems for the "costing" and "abv" part of the spreadsheet. If the measurement units is wrong, this will cause problems for most of the rest of the spreadsheet, so you will want to be sure to select from one of the measurements you will find listed on the "Volumes" sheet in order to fix this. If you have a particular measurement unit you would like to use that isn't there, we will get to that later too.