Too many homebrews? (most likely)
After being away from homebrewing for a number of years (14?) I've recently picking up the hobby again. The main enabler was moving into a larger house and therefore pulling my equipment out of storage. Prior to being able to brew I spent months reading and researching to get ready to brew again. The overall theme of everything I read was RDWHAHB. With this in mind here is my typical brewing strategy:
1) Brew Beer
2) Cool Beer
3) Measure Gravity
4) Pitch Yeast
5) Wait 3-4 weeks
6) Measure Gravity
7) Maybe Cold Crash/Maybe Not
7) Keg
8) Force Carb
9) Drink
It seemed to work for the couple of batches I've done, but then I read many posts about people detecting infection, or stuck fermentations, or lack of fermentation, or dayglow colors emanating from their fermentors. I brew in buckets, I have no idea what's going on in there. I clean and sanitize thoroughly. I use bottled oxygen and yeast starters, as long as there's bubbles in the airlock I assume fermentation is chugging along. I ferment under my basement stairs which hovers about 67F all year long. I check that there is still liquid in the airlock, but other than that I don't think much about my beer until it's time to keg. Should I be paying more attention to my beer during fermentation, or is this approach reasonable?
After being away from homebrewing for a number of years (14?) I've recently picking up the hobby again. The main enabler was moving into a larger house and therefore pulling my equipment out of storage. Prior to being able to brew I spent months reading and researching to get ready to brew again. The overall theme of everything I read was RDWHAHB. With this in mind here is my typical brewing strategy:
1) Brew Beer
2) Cool Beer
3) Measure Gravity
4) Pitch Yeast
5) Wait 3-4 weeks
6) Measure Gravity
7) Maybe Cold Crash/Maybe Not
7) Keg
8) Force Carb
9) Drink
It seemed to work for the couple of batches I've done, but then I read many posts about people detecting infection, or stuck fermentations, or lack of fermentation, or dayglow colors emanating from their fermentors. I brew in buckets, I have no idea what's going on in there. I clean and sanitize thoroughly. I use bottled oxygen and yeast starters, as long as there's bubbles in the airlock I assume fermentation is chugging along. I ferment under my basement stairs which hovers about 67F all year long. I check that there is still liquid in the airlock, but other than that I don't think much about my beer until it's time to keg. Should I be paying more attention to my beer during fermentation, or is this approach reasonable?