Going against the grain.
 

There are a number of 'shoulds' and 'musts' with brewing but sometimes it can be ok to do something a little different.

Yes, I sanitize. Yes, I boil my AG for 60 to 90 minutes.

But, is there anything you do that goes against the prevailing wisdom and yet still works out fine?

For me, oftentimes I'll not use a hydrometer. Sometimes I'll do a 1-gallon batch vs a 5-gallon. Nothing terribly different, but I'm just curious what other have to say.

B

I force carb my kegs at 30 psi. Apparently some people on here this is wrong and think their beer will "taste better" with a 12 psi carbonation period over three weeks. Come on people dissolved CO2 is dissolved CO2! And I will keep saying it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also mash in food grade plastic buckets and sparge in a ZAPAP system. Oh and I also don't always use a hydrometer and eyeball my sparge water most of the time.

Sometime I forget to use a hydrometer and it never really bothers me. Also, I leave the valve of my mash tun open while I boil, collect any runoff that is dripping from the grains (usually about a gallon), and use it to make a super-low-gravity beer. Wife loves it.

I think it's a factor of time more than how quick you carb...

If you let one beer sit in a keg uncarbed for 3 weeks, then blast carb it at 30 psi, I'm guessing it'll taste about the same as a beer that's sitting on 12psi for 3 weeks.

The exit tube in my HLT is copper. I know that this can cause hot side aeration, but I have not noticed any problems.

i don't like the force carb method (but agree that you're beer can be just fine). i DO frequently forgo hydrometer readings. not to say that its not a usefull tool. if i thought there was a problem then i would use the hydrometer for sure. also i feel i can get away with it more because i keg. if there were some extra sugar in there i wouldn't have bottle bombs. if i bottled i would use the hydro. i just wait a while and taste it. its done when i think "i want do drink that, but carbonated." but i have always been lazy.:drunk:

Isn't hot side aeration only a problem after the boil?

I aerate by pouring my wort back and forth between the fermentor and the pot.

I reuse yeast by filling a sanitized mason jar directly from the yeast cake, then pour that jar directly into my next batch, sometimes months later.

I routinely fill a bourbon barrel that is two years old and has never been cleaned.

My tap water runs straight from the tap into the pot.

I top off during my boil with tap water if my eyes tell me the level is dropping too low.

I boil using a burner and propane... inside my house ;)

I leave my beer in the primary for 3 weeks and on bottling/kegging day, it is ALWAYS at FG.

I let my lagers chill overnight before pitching.

You guys are doing it all wrong.

I rarely pitch my yeast right away. With my process, the wort never sees open air after flameout so I typically just run the chiller until the wort hits 80 and transfer to the fermenter. The fermenter goes in my temp controlled fermentation chamber and I pitch in the morning.

A side benefit of this if I'm using liquid yeast is I can run the final bit of wort from the kettle into my 1L flask and get the yeast revved up and awake overnight.