Hello All,
I am new to brewing and would like some feed back on my current process (if you agree or don't agree) and some help.
I lay out a clean towel on the counter. In my primary fermenter, I pour in my water and StarSan. This is my bucket I use to clean the rest of my stuff, stir spoon, brushes, hydrometer, etc. After the StarSan, they are placed on the towel. I pour out my primary of StarSan after using the sponge to gently scrub the sides. I then rinse it out with a little water. Is this process okay or incorrect? From here I will get my pot (I cleaned it with starsan), make my wort, cool it then add it to the fermenter plus water.
I mainly ask because I made a wine 1.5 years ago (I got the recipe off of a wine website that used Welch's grape juice and a few other things). It didn't taste too good then and doesn't taste good now. Fastforward to the near future I spent more money on a nice beer kit and other items. I tried to make this apple cider recipe I got off of homebrewtalk and it does not taste good either. Both the previously made wine and the cider have a very similar bad taste that I can't really describe. I am not sure why they have this similar taste but I think maybe somewhere my process may be wrong.
This leads to my next question, how important is temperature control? I currently just leave it on the floor in my extra bedroom. I do have a wheat beer I put in an ice chest with water in the bottom of to help with temp. control. Do you have an thoughts or ideas on this? Could lack of temperature control lead to the wine and cider having similar bad tastes? If it is how do I control temperature with out buying fancy stuff.
Thank You, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
I am new to brewing and would like some feed back on my current process (if you agree or don't agree) and some help.
I lay out a clean towel on the counter. In my primary fermenter, I pour in my water and StarSan. This is my bucket I use to clean the rest of my stuff, stir spoon, brushes, hydrometer, etc. After the StarSan, they are placed on the towel. I pour out my primary of StarSan after using the sponge to gently scrub the sides. I then rinse it out with a little water. Is this process okay or incorrect? From here I will get my pot (I cleaned it with starsan), make my wort, cool it then add it to the fermenter plus water.
I mainly ask because I made a wine 1.5 years ago (I got the recipe off of a wine website that used Welch's grape juice and a few other things). It didn't taste too good then and doesn't taste good now. Fastforward to the near future I spent more money on a nice beer kit and other items. I tried to make this apple cider recipe I got off of homebrewtalk and it does not taste good either. Both the previously made wine and the cider have a very similar bad taste that I can't really describe. I am not sure why they have this similar taste but I think maybe somewhere my process may be wrong.
This leads to my next question, how important is temperature control? I currently just leave it on the floor in my extra bedroom. I do have a wheat beer I put in an ice chest with water in the bottom of to help with temp. control. Do you have an thoughts or ideas on this? Could lack of temperature control lead to the wine and cider having similar bad tastes? If it is how do I control temperature with out buying fancy stuff.
Thank You, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.