How do you keep track of your open whisky selection?

[Muskrat Portage]

How do you keep track of how much whisky you have open? I took a look in the Lair and found I have over 60 open bottles. To track the levels, I've applied a colour code dot system so I know when to start looking for a replacement.
Red dot: Level is less than 1/2 bottle. Two red dots means nearly drained.
Yellow dot: level is greater than 3/4 full.
Green dot: Sealed and untouched.
Muskrat

[Deactivated Member]

I am nowhere near that anal. Yet I am far more anal than that.

This unit houses both Mr Tattie Heid and Mr Picky, which is pretty much like Oscar Madison and Felix Unger being embodied in one person. In fact, I think I enjoyed The Odd Couple so much because I identify with both characters, and relate very strongly to their struggle to coexist.

I keep an inventory here in the machine, and keep track therein of what is open, as well as when and where I bought it, for how much, when I opened it and when I finished it. As to where the bottles actually are...well, they're all within eight feet of me at this moment, and the open ones are all within reach. But the filing system leaves much to be desired.

I only have four or five open at a time, usually; at the moment there are seven, which is unusual. And I rarely worry about replacing bottles, so I don't have the same incentive to keep track that you do. I want a different set of bottles open when these are gone. I find that I do tend to keep all of the bottles going at similar levels, so I tend to empty several in short order; this gives me the opportunity to decide what sort of range I want my next four or five to be.

I am slowly working out a plan to get things more physically organized here (and not just whisky). If I can work out a way to store the bottles that will be more satisfactory to Mr Picky, I may well allow myself to keep more open. At the moment, I couldn't possibly keep track of ten or fifteen open bottles. As it is, one occasionally gets forgotten for a long period.

[Muskrat Portage]

Bruce:
Yeah, I was trying to work out some snide comment about being anal in the Poll but decided not to. As I'm two stories away from the lair, I can't scamper up and down to make data entries.

I was shocked when I went down to make a list of open versus sealed to set up some exchanges and some tastings. I didn't realise how many were open and so quickly came up with a method to track and control my seemingly random opening of the lair. Hopefully it slows the depredations on such a wide scale!
I really thought I only had 20 -25 open!
Muskrat

[Deactivated Member]

Perhaps moving will create the opportunity to set up a proper inventory. Once it's in place, keeping it up to date is fairly easy.

[Lawrence]

I just look at the 12 or so open bottles and I can always remember which was opend first. It's not that many. I always try and not have more than 12 open bottles at any one time. I try.

[Frodo]

I really thought I only had 20 -25 open!
Muskrat

I have only two open at the moment, and am considering a third (Eagle Rare 10yr SB). I really need to get into the swing of things...

[Deactivated Member]

Too bad Rat Portage is so far away from anywhere; it seems we could have made off with a lot of goodies without it being noticed.

[Deactivated Member]

I rarely have more than 3-4 bottles open for drinking, always different ones, so tracking is not even a consideration for me.
I think the most open bottles I ever had was 6-7 over this last Christmas.

I do, however, need to track my collection and also my (sales) stock. But these are two different issues. The collection remains unopened and each time I add a bottle I have to add an entry into my Excel log of bottles, then photograph it, build it into my online colelction and upload it to the inter-webby-thingy.

Sales stock - that's a normal system of keeping track of stock and re-ordering when it gets too low or runs out.
MT

[Ardbeg311]

I too only have 3 open at any one time so keeping track is not a problem. My struggle is understanding how am going through those three bottles so quickly. I have concluded it is because the bottles here are smaller than in the States.

[karlejnar]

I have an excel-file to keep track of my malts. One sheet for each "area", one for the open one's, one for the empty one's and so on...
On the sheets I write every details I know incl. open and empty dates. So I always know how long they are open, and aproximate level as long as I remember to update it.

Only 12 open just now. But a new "thing" I just started is to save a 10 or 20cl sample of the most interesting one's. So in fact I do have more "open"

BTW I also keep the open one's in a separate cabinet without tube's (which I keep for reusing for bottles taht hasn't got any) and other packaging (which I scan and then throw in the recycle bin.

[les taylor]

I only have about 5 to 10 open at a time and they are always near the front of the cabinet so they go first. Before anything new is opened.

[Choochoo]

I have about 25 open, and 2 or 3 unopened. I keep a list on the computer of all my bottles, and if they are opened/unopened/finished. I also record the cost, when I bought it, and a rating (1 - 100) on how much I liked it.

I also keep track of the bottles that are low, and drink those most often. There are 6-7 that are close to being finished. At some point I'd like to have fewer open bottles on hand, generally 10 or less is what would be best.

[Jan]

Right now I have 14 bottles opened - which are really far too many.

But included in these are a few that I simply do not care for. So these do not really count, I guess.

Anyway; I keep track with an Excel sheet, where I list everything regarding whisky - inventory, tasted, wishlist etc.

[peergynt323]

I use excel as well. I call it ScotchTracker.

[Mustardhead]

I am so glad that I am not the only one with a multi-worksheet Excel creation

At a glance I can see how many open bottles I have, how many unopened, which are from closed distilleries, which whiskies I have tasted since starting the sheet and oh, loads more useless information

[lambda]

I must admit I do this too... Personally, I use the LaTeX typesetting system in which I have defined macros for opened and unopened bottles so I can automatically generate pdf's for whatever I'm interested in.

[lexvo]

I always have around 5 bottles open, mostly something like 2 Islay's, a Speysider and 2 others, so I can pick a dram which suits my mood at that moment.

And I also keep track of some things in Excel

[Muskrat Portage]

Oh dear, I just did a tally, as I'm going into the city and may look for some new candidates for the lair. There are ...89 open bottles, with 18 being in severe need of being polished off! Now of those remaining 70+ open, most have only a dram or two out of them, so oxidation isn't a high concern.
To add insult to injury many of the severly wounded include RMs and hard to replace CS bottlings that I've grown rather fond of; 2 Royal Lochnagars, 2 Highland Parks, a Port Ellen & a St Maggie stare at me mutely, near drained. (whispered so wife doesn't overhear)Replacement costs would be at least a Grand in the Canadian market !
(a chagrined) Muskrat

[Wendy]

Oh dear, I just did a tally, as I'm going into the city and may look for some new candidates for the lair. There are ...89 open bottles, with 18 being in severe need of being polished off! Now of those remaining 70+ open, most have only a dram or two out of them, so oxidation isn't a high concern.
To add insult to injury many of the severly wounded include RMs and hard to replace CS bottlings that I've grown rather fond of; 2 Royal Lochnagars, 2 Highland Parks, a Port Ellen & a St Maggie stare at me mutely, near drained. (whispered so wife doesn't overhear)Replacement costs would be at least a Grand in the Canadian market !
(a chagrined) Muskrat

Hi Peter,
I understand how easy it is to have more bottles open than not. I don't have as many bottles open as you do, but I have my fair share. Sometimes it just makes more sense to me to try a new bottling than waiting for that rainy day or confining myself to an idee fixe rule of open bottle quota.

I hope the new "lair" hunting is looking promising for you.

Cheers,
Wendy

[Scotchio]

I once had this mad idea that I could keep 14 bottles on the go and only open new ones when one was emptied. It didnt work so now of the 30 open bottles I try to empty the ones that get below half way as a priority or rebottle to smaller bottles if it is a particularly precious and strangely less often visited bottle.

[Muskrat Portage]

I once had this mad idea that I could keep 14 bottles on the go and only open new ones when one was emptied. It didnt work so now of the 30 open bottles I try to empty the ones that get below half way as a priority or rebottle to smaller bottles if it is a particularly precious and strangely less often visited bottle.

Scotchio, I feel your pain.

Wendy: Glad I'm not the only one that has a problem with wanting to play with the new toy (crack it and sample it) right away. The lair I was considering needs too much work to bring it to an acceptable level, so I'll keep looking. I'll see if I can reduce the excess bottles a bit before I have to move them. I'm considering a "Drain the Dregs" whisky tasting.
Muskrat

[Deactivated Member]

Pete, I'm afraid you're going to have to get over the idea of replacing favorite drams, especially when they are Rare Malts and the like. I regard such bottles as once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I guess it's the same impulse that keeps me from opening some of these, and you from finishing them. Tell you what, I'll get at some of mine, and you finish yours off; yours are not improving in their current state, and mine are doing no one any good closed. There are plenty more once-in-a-lifetime bottles out there, and more all the time.

(And Wendy, if some of us seem to have an idée fixe about the number of bottles we have open, it's only because we don't want to lose control and end up in the same position as Pete!)

[Thesh]

(And Wendy, if some of us seem to have an idée fixe about the number of bottles we have open, it's only because we don't want to lose control and end up in the same position as Pete!)

Nothing wrong with that. I currently have 60 bottles open. I find it much more enjoyable to rotate between the 60 so I don't get tired of anything. Of course, I still get indecisive about what I want to drink, which is why I like buying new whiskies. Narrows down the choices, at least for a few nights of drinking. If I had my way, I would try something new every time I had a drink, even if it meant hundreds of open bottles. Too bad it's not feasible. Sigh.

[Deactivated Member]

I would be very happy to have a lot of bottles open if I had fellow feinschmeckers over now and again to share them with. For one thing, in that circumstance, having a lot of bottles open is insurance against any one being drained too quickly. Alas, much as I wish it were not so, I drink alone here, usually. It's tragic, given that I think of whisky as a social thing. Why, if it weren't for the lot of you, I think I'd give up drinking altogether.

Ha ha! Not.

[Wave]

Why, if it weren't for the lot of you, I think I'd give up drinking altogether.

Say it ain't so!!!!

There's no real method to my madness. I have around 30 bottles openned and when I finish one there's no real need to open another just like it ....at least for a while.


Cheers!