400d
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2009
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ok, my first 4 batches were not so good. I had off flavours.
The beer looked great but tasted not so good. My last four batches turned out to be fantastic. The stout I'm waiting for will be bottled in a week or two, and by tasting the samples it seems it's gonna be my best beer by now...
now, lessons I learned for all beginners:
1. wort chiller is a MUST. since I first used it my beer turned out great. my mistake with previous batches was that I chilled them in cold bath, and pitched the yeast in quite hot wort (approx. 95 F) because the chilling process was sooo long. so, wort has to be cooled down to at least 69 F - then pitch the yeast. I am sure this caused undesirable off flavours.
2. If you use tap water, always leave it over night in a kettle so chlorine could evaporate.
3. NO BIAB - I'm sure some people developed this method and use it with ease and efficiency, but I was definitely loosing efficiency, so I built a mash tun from a picnic cooler, and increased my efficiencies a lot.
4. Gelatin is ok to use in secondary
5. Patience is a mother of all brewing knowledge (my second batch was about to be dumped because it tasted like crap, but I didn't have time to do it. So I left it in primary for 4 weeks and bottled just in case. After 2 weeks in bottles it still tasted like crap. After 3 weeks in bottles it still tasted like crap. After 4 weeks in bottles it was drinkable. After 5 weeks in bottles it was very good.)
If I remember something else I will add it...
Thank you for reading my post
The beer looked great but tasted not so good. My last four batches turned out to be fantastic. The stout I'm waiting for will be bottled in a week or two, and by tasting the samples it seems it's gonna be my best beer by now...
now, lessons I learned for all beginners:
1. wort chiller is a MUST. since I first used it my beer turned out great. my mistake with previous batches was that I chilled them in cold bath, and pitched the yeast in quite hot wort (approx. 95 F) because the chilling process was sooo long. so, wort has to be cooled down to at least 69 F - then pitch the yeast. I am sure this caused undesirable off flavours.
2. If you use tap water, always leave it over night in a kettle so chlorine could evaporate.
3. NO BIAB - I'm sure some people developed this method and use it with ease and efficiency, but I was definitely loosing efficiency, so I built a mash tun from a picnic cooler, and increased my efficiencies a lot.
4. Gelatin is ok to use in secondary
5. Patience is a mother of all brewing knowledge (my second batch was about to be dumped because it tasted like crap, but I didn't have time to do it. So I left it in primary for 4 weeks and bottled just in case. After 2 weeks in bottles it still tasted like crap. After 3 weeks in bottles it still tasted like crap. After 4 weeks in bottles it was drinkable. After 5 weeks in bottles it was very good.)
If I remember something else I will add it...
Thank you for reading my post
