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okieeagle

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Here are some of my "tips" I have learned from the first batch of beer I'm brewing.

1. Be very detail oriented and thorough with your sanitation. I had no problems with the sanitation part, but this is where the first beer making mistake can happen. My mistake was being to eager to add water to my wort to get to my desired OG. I was moving too fast and added about a gallon too much water. Result, starting gravity was off.

2. Don't panic!! If you've done everything right during the brew process then patience is the key during fermentation. Give your beer a couple of days to start fermenting. Don't think that just because you don't see activity in the airlock that you not getting fermentation, that is not the primary indicator, beer gravity is!!

3. Expect odd aromas to eminate from your fermentation. I was smelling banana and thought I had ruined my beer. I was heartbroken as I dumped six gallons of the stuff. Then I find out this is an expected aroma during the fermentation of the style beer I had in the primary. So with the expectations of unanticipated aromas would be to read first, and act later.

4. Be patient. Don't tinker with the beer too much during fermentation. Of course you want to take the beer's temperature once in a while to ensure your not getting it too warm or too cold; and you will need to take a gravity reading once or twice after the first week or two. Nevertheless, don't tinker with it too much as you could possibly contaminate your beer.

5. Take the adivice of those with experience and heed it. One other thing, always use vodka or some other type of clear grain alchohol in you airlock to avoid getting sanitized water in your beer, or having the paranoid feeling that you've contaminated your beer with sanitized water!! BTW, during the most active part of the fermintation period you will probably end up with a beer colored liquid in your airlock. Of course this is from the foam and probably some beer leaching out. Don't worry about it, your fermenter is still pretty much airtight.

6. If you decide to rack your beer to a secondary, get anal again about the sanitation. Anytime your moving your beer and exposing it to the air you're risking contamination.

7. Be patient. I know I said this before but during this period, anxiety is your enemy. Your beer is going to take time (i.e. several weeks at least) to be done. Green beers taste more fruity or hoppy than an aged beer does. This is expected, so don't be disappointed if you open up a Pale Ale after a week or two of bottle conditioning tasting a bit of tartness. Give it couple more weeks of conditioning and try it again. If it's still tart, then you might have had a contamination issue during brewing or fermenting.

8. Finally, document everything you do!! You can use this "diary" to either correct practices followed that may have lead to contamination or follow procedures that lead to a perfect beer. Either way you end up winning in the long run because fundamentally you want your process to be error free and result in a desired product.

Happy Brewing, and learn from a noob, ask first, act prudently, be patient, and don't panic!!
 
One additional comment, on #5, if you start getting too much foam in your air lock, act quick or else it WILL totally clog the airlock and make a rocket where the projectile is the airlock/stopper ad the fuel is all the CO2 building up in your fermenter. If using a glass carboy, 1" OD tubing with one end in the carboy and the other in a jar/bucket/whatever filled with sanitizer will save you...and your ceiling and walls.
This from experience, cause I now need to paint my basement bathroom!!
 
Another one always worthy of mention is don't look for as many ways as possible to cut corners. When it comes to brewing,you can't rush the yeast to meet your time frame. They have their own pace that will not be rushed. You make a good wort with a good temp in a clean environment. They make the beer. Set it up & just-walk-away. Beer is like pit bbq,it takes as long as it takes. It'll let you know when it's done.
 
well you may be a noob..join the club like me lol, but at least you have the intelligence to understand the whole process...am sure you will soon be teaching the future noobs yourself...nice little write up mate i enjoyed reading it thank you..
 
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