Demijohn Journal is a community for passionate homebrewers — people who love making beer, wine, mead, cider, and other fermented drinks, and who want to share that passion with others.
We want this to be a warm, welcoming, and genuinely useful community. These guidelines explain what we expect from every member.
These guidelines apply to all content on Demijohn Journal: recipes, check-ins, comments, direct messages, profile information, and photos.
The Short Version
Be kind, helpful, and respectful
Share honestly and attribute fairly
Keep it about homebrewing
Respect that members are adults aged 18 and over
Report anything that breaks these rules — don't just scroll past
What We Encourage
Share generously
Share your recipes — the more detail the better
Post honest tasting notes, including when things go wrong
Write thoughtful ratings that help other brewers
Share photos of your brew setup, ingredients, and finished products
Celebrate your successes and learn from your failures
Support fellow brewers
Give constructive feedback on recipes when asked
Answer questions from newer brewers with patience
Credit inspiration and original sources when sharing adapted recipes
Engage positively with check-ins from people you follow
Keep it authentic
Be honest about your experience level
Share real photos from your own brews
Rate recipes you have actually attempted, based on your genuine experience
What Is Not Allowed
Harmful content
Content that is violent, threatening, or promotes self-harm
Content that encourages excessive drinking, binge drinking, or irresponsible consumption
Content targeting or appealing to people under 18
Content related to distillation — this is not supported on Demijohn Journal
Content that glorifies dangerous or illegal modifications to homebrew equipment
Disrespectful behaviour
Harassment, bullying, or targeting of individual users
Hate speech, discrimination, or prejudice based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, nationality, or any other characteristic
Personal attacks in comments or direct messages
Deliberately giving false negative ratings to damage another user's reputation
Impersonating another user, public figure, or Demijohn Journal staff
Spam and inauthentic behaviour
Posting the same content repeatedly
Following, liking, or commenting in bulk to game the system
Using automated tools to interact with the platform
Creating fake accounts or using multiple accounts
Soliciting or exchanging fake ratings
Intellectual property violations
Sharing recipes that belong to commercial breweries without permission
Claiming cloned or copied recipes as your own original work
Posting copyrighted images you do not have permission to use
Removing or obscuring attribution from cloned recipes
Privacy violations
Sharing another person's personal information without their consent
Posting photos of other people without their permission
Attempting to identify or contact users outside the platform using information gathered here
Recipes and Attribution
Recipes are at the heart of Demijohn Journal. We take honesty about recipe origins seriously.
When you share a recipe that was inspired by someone else's work, acknowledge it
Cloned recipes automatically retain attribution — do not attempt to remove or hide it
If you have substantially modified a cloned recipe and want to share it publicly, mark it as "Inspired by [original author]"
Commercial recipes (from professional breweries) should not be uploaded as your own
Alcohol Responsibility
We are a community of adults who love brewing. We expect our members to be responsible.
Never encourage excessive or dangerous consumption
Do not post content that makes drinking competitions or binge drinking seem appealing or fun
Remember that homebrew ABV is an estimate — label and communicate your brews honestly
Respect that some members may be in recovery or choose not to drink — do not pressure or judge
Always brew and consume within the laws of your jurisdiction
Reporting Content
If you see content that breaks these guidelines, please report it. Every piece of user-generated content has a Report button (accessible via the three-dot menu).
Reports are anonymous — the person you report will not be told who reported them
All reports are reviewed by our moderation team
We aim to respond to reports within 48 hours
Repeated false or malicious reports may result in action against the reporting account
For urgent concerns (such as content involving harm to a person), email corey@demijohnjournal.com directly.
Consequences
We apply consequences proportionate to the seriousness and frequency of violations:
First offence (minor): content removal and a warning
Repeated minor offences: temporary suspension
Serious single offence (e.g. harassment, hate speech, threats): immediate suspension or ban
Very serious offences (e.g. illegal content, content involving minors): permanent ban and referral to law enforcement where appropriate
If your account is suspended or banned, you may appeal to corey@demijohnjournal.com. We will review all appeals fairly.
Changes to These Guidelines
We may update these Community Guidelines as the community grows. We will notify members of material changes via in-app notification. Continued use of Demijohn Journal after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated guidelines.