How to brew better beer? or How I learned to love so so bitter beer/RDWHAHB

Agree with the others. I used a B3 kit a few years ago and they had bittering hops in the direcitons. Some directions indicate to add hops a number of minutes into the boil, others say add hops with a number of minutes left in the boil. Make sure you check that.

artyusmc said:

Thanks for everyones help

It is an alu pot, I brew once every three months so after cleaning in oxyclean rinse and boil

Learning to brew means I need to learn pitching rates and good idea to pratice with bakers yeast.

just water and heat for dishwasher, thouht bottles were to warm to bottle but i guess thtas not an issue.

clean does not mean santized so asa newbie i over did it I guess.

Click to expand...

I would not clean an aluminum pot with oxiclean. Just rinse it well and leave the oxide layer intact. You will not need to re-do the oxide layer boil each time.

I never let chlorine bleach touch any of my brewing equipment. that's a good way to get an off-flavor in your beer. Just sanitize with starsan.

blizzard said:

Agree with the others. I used a B3 kit a few years ago and they had bittering hops in the direcitons. Some directions indicate to add hops a number of minutes into the boil, others say add hops with a number of minutes left in the boil. Make sure you check that.

Click to expand...

i proably mix up the understanding of time to add hops, as well as over cleaning everything.

Don't use oxiclean on an aluminum pot. I cannot remember exactly but John Palmer and I think the guy from Five Star (makers of Star San and PBW) say that's a bad thing to do.

And you don't really have to scrub the heck out of it or even sanitize it, because you boil your wort in it for an hour. If there's any bacteria in there they are dead by the time you're done anyway. Just use a sponge to get any crusty parts and wipe it clean.

another thing to watch on the dishwasher is the liquid rinseing agents they are not good either

Nice and interesting posts.Thanks everyone for sharing experiences

I've also noticed huge flavor improvements from liquid yeast. at most gravities (1.060 or lower I think) It's not really neccasary to make a starter, and it can really help. White labs has never done me wrong

Don't bother using oxiclean on your aluminum kettle. You don't have to sterilize it as you will be boiling the wort in it. When you finish boiling and chilling your wort and have it dumped into the fermenter, use a sponge or soft cloth with some dish soap to remove the material stuck to the kettle, rinse well and put it away. Don't scrub or soak the black oxide layer off and you won't have to boil the kettle again after cleaning. Next brew day, rinse out any dust or bugs that got into it and go to work making beer.

The pot cleaning tips will save me time I like that. Since I mail order from B3 I have tried liquid yeast but want too . All good ideas now I need to apply in principle