Going against the grain.

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birvine

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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.
 
Come on people dissolved CO2 is dissolved CO2! And I will keep saying 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 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 use 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.

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:
 
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.
 
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.
 
i haven't seen it to be a problem even after the boil. its one of those things i ignore. also if i'm using dry yeast, sometimes i rehydrate and sometimes i don't. i also dump everything from my kettle into the fermenter, which i actually learned from a few people on here, but i think more often than not people avoid the break material and gunk.
 
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.

Bingo.
 
I don't weigh malt, I count scoops. I have a scoop that holds approximately 2 pounds of two row, 2.5 pounds of wheat or rye.
I don't take my kegs apart, I just clean with PBW and sanitize with Starsan.
I use buckets with spigots for primary, not carboys.
 
Isn't hot side aeration only a problem after the boil?

The was an interesting article about aeration in the last issue of BYO. The article even mention that hot side aeration can occur if you splash your wort from the mash tun to the kettle.
 
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 JUST STARTED DOING THIS AND WAS WONDERING WHAT WOULD HAPPEN

I boil using a burner and propane... Inside my house ;)
people do have nat gas stoves after all so i was thinking to do this in the winter.

.


b
 
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.

Or cold condition in the carboy then keg and carbonate. All I know is I'm about to go home a pull several pints of perfectly carbonated beer that I kegged on Tuesday.:rockin:
 
1) I've never used a bucket for primary. I couldn't stand the lids when I made wine, and I still don't want to deal with snapping them on for beer. Yes, carboys are more $$, but I don't want the hassle. I have 2 buckets that use for cleaning stuff now.

2) I never use a hydrometer, but I only do extract brews and trust that the calculated FG will be close what it really is. I just leave it in the primary for 2 weeks and then secondary for another 2. I don't want to waste beer (yes, I know I can drink my samples but I don't want flat beer). And yes, I do own a hydrometer. It's collecting dust.
 
I never hydrate dry yeast. I 'clean' the beer lines on my keggers once a year (if I remember.....). I don't boil my starters in the flask, just use an old sauce pan and pour in. I never use a lid on my brew kettle, even when whirlpooling or chilling ( I mean really, the lid gets condensation on it and it drips back into the wort....that's worse than the chance of an insect to me).
 
1) I've never used a bucket for primary. I couldn't stand the lids when I made wine, and I still don't want to deal with snapping them on for beer. Yes, carboys are more $$, but I don't want the hassle.

Forget the money: you find cleaning and moving carboys to be less of a hassle than snapping a lid on? More power to you, but I find your choice to be more work than choice B.
 
i dont use soap after a brew day/ transfering... i store my gear in the garage and I have to clean it before i use it again anyway... i just hose it off

I dont take hydrometer readings until i decide its done and regardless of what it says its going in a keg/ bottle
 
I have 2 airlocks and 4 primary fermenters. I use tin foil as an airlock often. I use a oil fryer thermometer as a mash thermometer. There are only dashes every 5F. 145-150F is a light bodied beer, 150-155 is med body, 155-160 is full bodied.
 
I often rack beer on full yeastcakes, even when it's waaaayyyyy too much yeast by most peoples' standards. Only beer I brewed that won best of show was racked onto a full yeastcake. Go figure...
 
1) I don't wait more than 10 days before bottling most of the time (altough I do take hydro readings religiously)
2) I don't bother with airlocks anymore.
3) I rarely measure the temperature of my sparge water. If it feels hot enough to the touch, it's good enough to sparge with.
4) My brew kettle is a dirty, ugly, soothy thing, but I don't clean it. The crud is all on the outside !
5) I use bleach to sanitize.
 
I've done several 'no chill' batches.
I do SUPER thin mashes. (All water goes in at the same time. No sparging, no topping off, etc.) (ex. 8 pounds of grain with 7 gallons of water.)
I've done 45-minute mashes. I might even try for 30 minutes one of these days.
Sometimes I keg first and then check the gravity (knowing that it is already done without checking with a hydrometer.)
I don't vorlauf.
I don't use a typical mash tun. I mash in my boil kettle and then filter the grains out with my bottling bucket lined with a paint strainer bag.
I use non-food-grade CO2.
 
I dump everything in my fermentor. Hot break and all. And sometimes I dont use irish moss/whirlifloc. My SNPA clone looks clear as can be.

I clean using 1-Step only. Have since I started brewing 3 years ago.

Looking at doing some no chill beers.
 
i like this thread, nice to see not everyone is so anal on here.

I only cool my wort to 110-120F, and then pitch yeast the next day.
I sometimes get lazy and only clean with hot tap water and dish soap (including fermenters)
I don't worry about the amount of sparge water, if there is too much i save the extra wort for starters
I don't use a stir plate for starters and don't measure OG of wort I'm using for them
I spoon yeast from yeast cakes into clean bottles and then later (sometimes months later) dump the yeast into wort, no washing, no starter.
 
Started brewing in late 2005. A hydrometer came with my starter kit. Used it for the first time a few weeks ago.

While I'm sure it's unrelated, the batch I first used my hydrometer on is quite possibly the worst beer I've ever made.

My autosiphon has never seen a "cleaner". It gets rinsed with water, and sanitized before use, but has never seen any oxi, pbw, or anything of that nature. In fact, a lot of my gear gets that treatment. I do break out the oxiclean when carboys have crusted up junk in them.
 
I sometimes dump yeast cake into an unsanitized container and then pitch it directly into the wort.
I have a saison that's been in the same carboy since pitching which was about 4 months ago. I've now moved twice with that carboy sloshing around strapped in my car, haven't tapped it yet but I'm excited to!
I pretty much just rinse my siphon hose out and then use it unsanitized quite often.
 
You guys ain't got nothin!
I secondary the vast majority of my beers! :p ;)
Also don't use a hydrometer a lot of the time.
 
I routinely top-off with water straight from the tap.
I never rehydrate dry yeast.
I never wash my equipment - I rinse it to wash the big chunks off after use, and sanitize on brew day.
 
I continue to slowly recirculate my wort into the hop bag throughout the boil AS WELL AS the whole time it's chilling....to "filter" any trub/hot break that settles(especially with BIAB), and then I just move the hose from the mouth of the hop bag, to the mouth of the carboy...and usually forget to sanitize the end of the hose. Makes a nice clear wort and some damn good beer!
 
Chapa: I like that idea - it must make really hoppy beer which I'd love.

B
 
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