Your best "secret" techniques?

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cweston

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I'm still a beginner, so I haven't amassed much first-hand experience.

Here's a great tip that was passed on to me for bottling...

Use the dishwasher as a drying rack. The little things that stick up are perfect for holding a bottle inverted. I can fit about 35-40 bottles on the bottom rack, the rest on the top (but I can't close the top rack when I do that.)

Then use the open door of the dishwasher as a platform to fill bottles: put the beer on the counter and you've got the gravity you need to siphon or run it out a spigot in your priming bucket.

The bottles are right there where you need them, and any spillage is easily contained and cleaned up.

Others?
 
Use a wallpaper tray (see the pic below) from the hardware store to hold your racking cane, hoses, Auto-Spihon, airlocks, etc., and sanitizing solution when you are racking or bottling. Less solution to use and less waste.
104851_front200.jpg
 
Rhoobarb said:
Use a wallpaper tray (see the pic below) from the hardware store to hold your racking cane, hoses, Auto-Spihon, airlocks, etc., and sanitizing solution when you are racking or bottling. Less solution to use and less waste.
104851_front200.jpg

Brilliant! I've been using a shallow pan, but I can't get my thief submerged all the way. Plus, I have to use a lot of water/iodophor in it. I'm gonna pick one up!

In the warm weather, you can coil up a section of your garden hose in a bucket or cooler filled with ice water for a makeshift pre-chiller. Works well with either an immersion chiller or CFC.
 
- Brew two batches at once. One mess to clean up and less than 1 1/2 the time of doing a single batch.

- Keep a 5 gallon bucket of idophor solution in the brewing area. Anything can be disinfected immediately. Stop using bleach.

- If you don't have an immersion chiller, buy one - NOW.

- Start saving for a propane cooker, you're wife will thank you.

- If you don't have an auto siphon, buy one - NOW.

- Start planning and saving for a keg system in the future, again she'll thank you - especially if she's ever helped wash bottles.

- Location, location location... Know the best, constant-temperature locations in your house for primary, secondary, and cold conditioning. I seems that most of the "My fermentation's gone awry!!!" posts are temperature related.


Hopsnort
 
Great thread, if I do say so myself...

About keg systems: is there an easy way to keep the tap(s) under lock and key, for households with teenagers?

I trust my kids and all, and we're pretty "European" in our attitudes about moderate alcohol consumption, but I'm not stupid: I really don't want my teenagers and their friends hanging out in close proximity to an open bar.
 
Most brewstores that deal with kegging sell a special padlock that goes on the tap - they're not cheap ($25.00 or more).

Maybe a lock on the refrigerator and an in-line ball valve between the keg and the tap??? Just a thought....


Hopsnort
 
I cut down my prep time on brew day by doing all of my sanitizing while my boil is going on. No need to have that carboy, airlock, hoses, funnels, etc fully ready to go before you even have your water in the kettle!

I do my scrubbing of gear during the grain steep, rinse and sanitize with Iodophor during the boil, and let it all drip dry while I chill the wort.

I also am a huge fan of the rubber carboy caps. Much cheaper than an autosiphon, very effective, and capable of serving multiple purposes (blow-off tube holder, airlock holder, racking cane holder, and siphon starter). They are also a good way to seal off and protect a clean carboy that you won't be using for a while.

One other thing I *used* to do was chill my wort with big blocks of ice. I froze bottled water, cut off the plastic, and dropped the ice into my hot wort to chill it. Wort cooled in jus a few minutes, and faster than an immersion chiller. I stopped doing this because it actually took more gear (I had to chill the wort in my bottling bucket before going into the carboy, which meant I had more stuff to clean and sanitize on brew-day.)

Is any of this 'secrect'.... I doubt it, but these are some money and time saving things I like a lot.

-walker
 
Remove the trub by whirpooling and sedimentation:

Once the flame is off and the steeping of hops is done, chill your wort with a wort chiller or ice. When it has cooled down give it a good spin with your spoon (whirpooling) . Then cover an let sit for 20-30 min. This is when I start sanitizing my fermentation equipment. Once the time is up, all the hot break, hops and most of the cold break has settled to the bottom and you can siphon almost clear wort into your primary. No need to use a funnel and no need to use a screen either.

This was the single most important change to my brewing to reduce the stess, since the hops and hot break always clogged up the screen in my funnel.

Kai
 
A couple more I thought of:

1. When doing all-grain with a picnic cooler mash tun, 'prime' your tun with hot water. I boil about a gallon, dump it in and close the lid. Drain it after about a half hour. Really helps you hit & hold your mash temp, especially in cold weather. One time last month I forgot this step and really missed my target temp.!

2. Old nylon pantyhose work well as disposable hop bags.

3. Keep very good notes as you brew. You won't remember what you did when you brew the same thing this time next year.

4. Don't change a method just for the sake of change. If your method has been working perfectly fine for you, stick with it unless you can see a good reason for the change.

5. Use clear page protectors (see below) to hold your recipe/notes while brewing. How many times have you gotten them wet or wort splattered and then watched the printing bleed?

71BX.jpg
 
cweston said:
Great thread, if I do say so myself...

About keg systems: is there an easy way to keep the tap(s) under lock and key, for households with teenagers?

I trust my kids and all, and we're pretty "European" in our attitudes about moderate alcohol consumption, but I'm not stupid: I really don't want my teenagers and their friends hanging out in close proximity to an open bar.

http://kegbot.org/project/

This is quite complex and probably expensive in both time and money, but it will accurately track dispensing.

Other than that, I'd try to rig some type of clamp on the line and a lock.
 
With all the great posts posted it is hard to add anything. But just to say to keep everything that comes into contact with your wort/beer to be, sanitized to the best of your ability and keep your fermentatoin tempertures stable.
 
Since we started this thread with using the dishwasher...
I use my (wife's) dishwasher to wash/sanitize my bottles. I always rinse them after I empty one so there isn't usually a yeast cake in the bottom. When it comes time to bottle, I run the bottles through the dishwasher using the "Pots/Pans" cycle and push the "Heat Water" & "Heat Dry" buttons. By the time all 3 wash cycles and 2 rinse cycles have finished and the drying cycle finishes, the bottles are clean & sanitized with no more work than it takes to load the washer. I've discovered if I pack them tight I can get enough bottles on the bottom rack to bottle a whole 5 gallon batch of beer.
 
my thing is (i guess this is a "secret") is to not try more than one new gadget, technique, or ingredient in a brew at a time. that way if something is funky or really improves the brew, it's easier to determine the cause, and easier to make changes/corrections.
 
You guys know the racking cane trick right? When you are cleaning a carboy and it is full of water it takes forever to empty it, right? Just take a racking cane and slip it into the carboy while it is tipped and dump(make sure the tip of the racking cane isn't under water). That sucker will drain fast.

Another one: If you soak bottles to remove labels or whatever, a quick way to fill them with water is to slip a drinking straw inside the bottle and dunk it under water. It makes a cool sound and fills up really quick.
 
Use ammonia cleaner like Parsons mixed about 1/2 cup per gallon of water to remove labels from bottles. I place them in a big Tupperware container. Most labels slide right off. The tough ones scrape off fairly easy. (Never mix ammonia with bleach!)

Harvest and re-use the yeast from the primary. I figure I can do this about 3 times saving me over $6 per batch.

Move your fermenting beer as little as possible. I used to carry it up the stairs from the basement for racking and bottling. Now I take it downstairs and it stays there until bottled/kegged. I have a shelf strong enough and high enough that I don't have to move the beer. I just rack into the secondary, move the primary, and place the secondary where the primary was. When you move fermenters around it stirs up the trub in the bottom and you have to let it settle. This way it is still and you can get more clear beer out of the fermenter. The biggest thing though is that you don't have to hall heavy carboys up and down the stairs. A chore I used to dread.
 
I always use co2 to push my beer from primary to secondary and to keg. Just use a carboy cap with the racking cane, makes this a lot easier.
 
No real secrets. I try to keep things as simple as possible, clean everything before putting away and never interfere with what is going on in my brew tank.
 
Since most of the brewing secrets have been listed I'll post an equipment secret. Check craigslist.org for used equipment. At least in my area there is a decent amount of cheap/free stuff posted nearly monthly. Refrigerators, chest freezers, there was even a free used beer kit a couple of weeks ago. You never know what you'll find.
 
Rhoobarb said:
Use a wallpaper tray (see the pic below) from the hardware store to hold your racking cane, hoses, Auto-Spihon, airlocks, etc., and sanitizing solution when you are racking or bottling. Less solution to use and less waste.

Pure genius Rhoobarb! Just used it for the first time today :mug:
 
I can't believe I didn't list my number one secret. Once all the reading, research, debating, argument, homework, designing, building, cleaning, and sanitising is done.......relax and have fun. You're making beer! :D
 
Shambolic said:
Don't they leach dye into your wort?? That's what happened when I gave them a test run in plain water.

Uhh Ahhh,

I strongly sugest that you use only NEW panty hose, or knee highs.
The color is in the material, I have never had any color leech out into the water.

:drunk: :drunk:
 
Shambolic said:
Don't they (pantyhose) leach dye into your wort?? That's what happened when I gave them a test run in plain water.

Mudd said:
Uhh Ahhh,

I strongly sugest that you use only NEW panty hose, or knee highs.
The color is in the material, I have never had any color leech out into the water.


Oh man......
 
Pumbaa uses the nylon pantyhose trick for hop bags too. I believe he get's his from 'Green Man' in his Gallery Pics!:D
 
Use 22oz. bomber style bottles for bottling. Cuts bottling time in half, and saves you crowns.

If you need bottles check with your local brewery, and ask what they do with their shortfills. They may just give them away. How awesome is that? free bottles with free beer in them. :drunk:
 
Rinse your bottle out right after your pour the beer out. Hot water and they rinse clean.. no need to do anything other than sanitize on brew day.

BTW.. I've been using my old primary bucket to keep a batch of star san in.. it keeps for ever and now I finally have a use for the bucket. Anything that needs to be sanitized pretty much fits in the bucket or I can just siphon some off into the carboy to sanitize it and you can pour it back in if you're feeling really stingy.
 
Here's my favorite tip....When the store puts cases of Pete's Wicked longnecks on sale for 9 dollars, you can collect a ton of bottles with beer for the price of empties...ha, if you are lucky like me.

Also, another option without the pantyhose is a metal mesh strainer you might you for cooking. My last batch, I put all the hops in the strainer during the boil and rigged up some tin foils hooks to hook on the edge of the strainer and hang over the brew pot. None of my hops got into the work and they were fully submerged the whole time. Makes it easy to add in finishing hops and irish moss too.

Another that I dont have cuz I'm in college...but my friends dad has an attachment for his kitchenaid mixer that grinds up grain. Much better than the hand grinder I have.
 
Clean everything after you use it. I never leave anything sit in my carboys or bottles after they are emptied. Rinsing them out immediately saves lots of time and work later.
 
The Happy Mug said:
I stopped using cleaners and sanitizers. I put up a picture of Chuck Norris in the brewery, and the germs and crud won't go anywhere near.

Excellent idea. I'm assuming that would also double as a home alarm system thus protecting your finished beer from any would-be invaders?
 
The Happy Mug said:
I stopped using cleaners and sanitizers. I put up a picture of Chuck Norris in the brewery, and the germs and crud won't go anywhere near.

MilwaukeeHomeBrewer said:
Excellent idea. I'm assuming that would also double as a home alarm system thus protecting your finished beer from any would-be invaders?

Isn't there also a thread going around about a keg security lock to keep the teenagers out??

sounds solved to me..
 
Change only one factor or ingredient at a time so you can see what it does.

Oxygenate before pitching to decrease lag time.

Don't be cheap when it comes to ingredients.

Brew with somebody else from time to time.
 
i dont know if its 'secret' but when i use hop plugs, i break them apart into little pieces, so when i throw them in the boil they break apart much faster and dont need to be stirred.

question about chuck norris: When he looks in the mirror what does he see?

im guessing nothing because the reflection is too scared to look him in the eye...
 
Baron von BeeGee said:
Except for nosy neighbors who don't know anything about brewing, aren't interested in learning, and are mostly just trying to escape their wives for a few hours.

Because that totally ruins the process. :mad:

Correction - Brew with somebody who loves to brew and whose beer you enjoy.
 
The Happy Mug said:
I stopped using cleaners and sanitizers. I put up a picture of Chuck Norris in the brewery, and the germs and crud won't go anywhere near.


Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Chuck Norris can kill 100 percent of whatever the **** he wants.
 
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