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https://www.homebrewtalk.com/TOP-5.html
If you want to leave a comment navigate to that page and do it there!
I got into homebrewing around 2001. I developed my processes, equipment, and methods based primarily on what I had read in books because there were not a ton (at least that I could find) of references on the internet. I very quickly got into all grain brewing and made some decent beers but I never made a beer that I was really really proud of.
About 5 years ago my daughter was born and I set aside the hobby to change diapers and chase her around the house. I actually got so far out of the hobby at one point I had all of my equipment for sale on craigslist but never sold it. Then around this time last year a buddy I worked with mentioned that he really wanted to get into home brew. I told him I used to be way into it which lead to a lot of discussions about the hobby. He eventually talked me into dusting off the equipment and brewing some beer with him.
I don’t know why, but before I brewed with him I decided that if I was going to start up again I was going to take some time to re-learn the hobby. I tossed away everything I knew and every preconceived notion I had about the “right way to brew” and started from scratch. I read everything I could get my hands on including dang near every thread on this site. I finally brewed with him and the resulting beer was really really good but still not amazing. At that point I started picking away at the things I thought would make it go from good to great. Again I used this site and numerous other resources to pick away at the things that could take me to the next level. I have brewed about a dozen times in the last year fine tuning my process and I can easily say that I’m now brewing “amazing” beer.
So why am I wasting everyone’s time with this post? Well I’m hoping that I can share a few key things that I have learned in the past year and maybe help some new brewers save some time learning this stuff on their own. I’m in no way trying to start a debate and I’m in no way trying to say that I’m some world renown homebrewing expert. All of this stuff can be debated up and down but these things changed the hobby for me and none of them were difficult or expensive at all. I think there are 5 key things I have learned in the past year that have really transformed my beers and here they are. None of this is new information but it may be new to brewers just starting out.
#5 – Brewers Friend – Really it could be any brewing software but after using about 4 different programs, in my personal opinion brewers friend is the most intuitive and user friendly. I used to take really good notes when brewing but the power of brewing software these days is amazing. The key thing here is being able to fine tune the software to your brewing setup. If you take really good measurements such as volumes, lost wort, temperature drops, etc you will very quickly be able to dial in this software to give you accurate estimations for your brew day. This will quickly allow you to get repeatable results with your brewing. The power of these programs is amazing and the more you use them you can tap into the other resources (one of which will be mentioned below).
#4 – Batch sparging – I know this is a subject of much debate and honestly I think the impact this has on your brewing has a lot to do with your equipment. All I can tell you is I used to spend over an hour on the fly sparging part of my day. I would make sure the pH of my sparge water was good and the temp was good then spend a solid hour fly sparging. I decided to give batch sparging a try and I can honestly say I personally will never look back. I think the process is significantly easier and significantly faster (takes me about half the time). The most important thing is that my efficiency is just as good if not better than it was with fly sparging which to me is the entire point. As long as I split the batch sparge for smaller brew days I consistently hit over 80% efficiency. Again this is going to have a lot to do with your equipment and technique. Now that I have everything dialed into my brew software I’m getting very consistent results and I’m saving time in my brew day. There is also less equipment to buy if you are just getting into the hobby. Not looking for a debate here just sharing my experience.
#3 - Yeast Starter / Yeast Harvesting – When I first started brewing I was told liquid yeast is better, dry yeast sucks, and liquid yeast has enough yeast to directly pitch. Looking back this guidance was severely flawed. I noticed a step change in the quality of my beer when I started using a yeast calculator and making starters for my beer. This isn’t just my imagination, my beer got significantly better when I started making starters and pitching the correct amount of yeast. You can use this site to study the science behind this, but do yourself a favor and make a starter if you are using liquid yeast. Also don’t discount the dry yeast because I have had amazing results with this as well. With the dry yeast it is way cheaper and here you don’t necessarily need a starter. Do your own research on this but I’m telling you if you use liquid yeast make a starter. I won’t dive too deep into this next part, but all I’ll say is don’t be afraid to harvest yeast from a previous batch either. I was terrified of this but I have now used it many time successfully and I have saved a boat load of money and it’s actually easy and fun.
#2 – Water Chemistry – This is probably one of the smartest things I ever dove into. Water chemistry is like diving into a never ending rabbit hole. You can go insane with this topic and almost make a new hobby out of it. I didn’t take that approach I took the Charlie Papazian approach and relaxed and had a home brew. I used to mess around with pH meters and finally got sick of it. This time around I decided to trust the power of the brewing software. I sent a sample off to Ward, used that as my baseline water profile, and used brewers friend to fine tune my water and help me figure out what I needed to add. I don’t play with meters, and don’t go crazy with the science, I simply relax and trust the software. The software uses your malt bill and base water profile to perform its calculations. You can pick the style of beer you’re looking to brew and it helps you figure out what to add, including how to adjust the pH of your mash. I can tell you without a question of a doubt tweaking the water chemistry of my mash water was the #1 cause of improving the taste of my beer. After seeing the Ward results from my water and learning a little about chemistry it makes complete sense why something was always a little bit off with my beer. Do yourself the favor and drink some beer while you read a little about water chemistry. I think the brewing software is a key ingredient if you are just diving into this subject.
#1 - Fermcap and the Boil – I just got done saying water chemistry played a huge role in the taste of my beer, now I will tell you this has had the biggest effect on the clarity of my beer. Fermcap is probably the most amazing product I have ever used. I do 13 gallon boils in a 14 gallon pot and could never really boil super hard due to the dreaded boil over. This product allows me to boil very very hard without having to worry about the boil over. I’m telling you it is an amazing product. Once I started being able to get a really really good boil going I noticed that, combined with whirfloc during the last 5 minutes of the boil, that I was getting a significantly better hot break. I was noticing a lot more break material in the kettle before I sent it to the fermenter. This has directly correlated with much clearer beer for me. This is another topic that has been heavily debated but I’m telling you after a lot of other stupid things I tried, this really worked for me and made a huge difference.
I hope this is useful to some new brewers out there. This is an amazing site to be a part of and if you are here you should consider yourself lucky to have found it. There is a wealth of knowledge here and an amazing community of people who enjoy the hobby and are always willing to help.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/TOP-5.html
If you want to leave a comment navigate to that page and do it there!
I got into homebrewing around 2001. I developed my processes, equipment, and methods based primarily on what I had read in books because there were not a ton (at least that I could find) of references on the internet. I very quickly got into all grain brewing and made some decent beers but I never made a beer that I was really really proud of.
About 5 years ago my daughter was born and I set aside the hobby to change diapers and chase her around the house. I actually got so far out of the hobby at one point I had all of my equipment for sale on craigslist but never sold it. Then around this time last year a buddy I worked with mentioned that he really wanted to get into home brew. I told him I used to be way into it which lead to a lot of discussions about the hobby. He eventually talked me into dusting off the equipment and brewing some beer with him.
I don’t know why, but before I brewed with him I decided that if I was going to start up again I was going to take some time to re-learn the hobby. I tossed away everything I knew and every preconceived notion I had about the “right way to brew” and started from scratch. I read everything I could get my hands on including dang near every thread on this site. I finally brewed with him and the resulting beer was really really good but still not amazing. At that point I started picking away at the things I thought would make it go from good to great. Again I used this site and numerous other resources to pick away at the things that could take me to the next level. I have brewed about a dozen times in the last year fine tuning my process and I can easily say that I’m now brewing “amazing” beer.
So why am I wasting everyone’s time with this post? Well I’m hoping that I can share a few key things that I have learned in the past year and maybe help some new brewers save some time learning this stuff on their own. I’m in no way trying to start a debate and I’m in no way trying to say that I’m some world renown homebrewing expert. All of this stuff can be debated up and down but these things changed the hobby for me and none of them were difficult or expensive at all. I think there are 5 key things I have learned in the past year that have really transformed my beers and here they are. None of this is new information but it may be new to brewers just starting out.
#5 – Brewers Friend – Really it could be any brewing software but after using about 4 different programs, in my personal opinion brewers friend is the most intuitive and user friendly. I used to take really good notes when brewing but the power of brewing software these days is amazing. The key thing here is being able to fine tune the software to your brewing setup. If you take really good measurements such as volumes, lost wort, temperature drops, etc you will very quickly be able to dial in this software to give you accurate estimations for your brew day. This will quickly allow you to get repeatable results with your brewing. The power of these programs is amazing and the more you use them you can tap into the other resources (one of which will be mentioned below).
#4 – Batch sparging – I know this is a subject of much debate and honestly I think the impact this has on your brewing has a lot to do with your equipment. All I can tell you is I used to spend over an hour on the fly sparging part of my day. I would make sure the pH of my sparge water was good and the temp was good then spend a solid hour fly sparging. I decided to give batch sparging a try and I can honestly say I personally will never look back. I think the process is significantly easier and significantly faster (takes me about half the time). The most important thing is that my efficiency is just as good if not better than it was with fly sparging which to me is the entire point. As long as I split the batch sparge for smaller brew days I consistently hit over 80% efficiency. Again this is going to have a lot to do with your equipment and technique. Now that I have everything dialed into my brew software I’m getting very consistent results and I’m saving time in my brew day. There is also less equipment to buy if you are just getting into the hobby. Not looking for a debate here just sharing my experience.
#3 - Yeast Starter / Yeast Harvesting – When I first started brewing I was told liquid yeast is better, dry yeast sucks, and liquid yeast has enough yeast to directly pitch. Looking back this guidance was severely flawed. I noticed a step change in the quality of my beer when I started using a yeast calculator and making starters for my beer. This isn’t just my imagination, my beer got significantly better when I started making starters and pitching the correct amount of yeast. You can use this site to study the science behind this, but do yourself a favor and make a starter if you are using liquid yeast. Also don’t discount the dry yeast because I have had amazing results with this as well. With the dry yeast it is way cheaper and here you don’t necessarily need a starter. Do your own research on this but I’m telling you if you use liquid yeast make a starter. I won’t dive too deep into this next part, but all I’ll say is don’t be afraid to harvest yeast from a previous batch either. I was terrified of this but I have now used it many time successfully and I have saved a boat load of money and it’s actually easy and fun.
#2 – Water Chemistry – This is probably one of the smartest things I ever dove into. Water chemistry is like diving into a never ending rabbit hole. You can go insane with this topic and almost make a new hobby out of it. I didn’t take that approach I took the Charlie Papazian approach and relaxed and had a home brew. I used to mess around with pH meters and finally got sick of it. This time around I decided to trust the power of the brewing software. I sent a sample off to Ward, used that as my baseline water profile, and used brewers friend to fine tune my water and help me figure out what I needed to add. I don’t play with meters, and don’t go crazy with the science, I simply relax and trust the software. The software uses your malt bill and base water profile to perform its calculations. You can pick the style of beer you’re looking to brew and it helps you figure out what to add, including how to adjust the pH of your mash. I can tell you without a question of a doubt tweaking the water chemistry of my mash water was the #1 cause of improving the taste of my beer. After seeing the Ward results from my water and learning a little about chemistry it makes complete sense why something was always a little bit off with my beer. Do yourself the favor and drink some beer while you read a little about water chemistry. I think the brewing software is a key ingredient if you are just diving into this subject.
#1 - Fermcap and the Boil – I just got done saying water chemistry played a huge role in the taste of my beer, now I will tell you this has had the biggest effect on the clarity of my beer. Fermcap is probably the most amazing product I have ever used. I do 13 gallon boils in a 14 gallon pot and could never really boil super hard due to the dreaded boil over. This product allows me to boil very very hard without having to worry about the boil over. I’m telling you it is an amazing product. Once I started being able to get a really really good boil going I noticed that, combined with whirfloc during the last 5 minutes of the boil, that I was getting a significantly better hot break. I was noticing a lot more break material in the kettle before I sent it to the fermenter. This has directly correlated with much clearer beer for me. This is another topic that has been heavily debated but I’m telling you after a lot of other stupid things I tried, this really worked for me and made a huge difference.
I hope this is useful to some new brewers out there. This is an amazing site to be a part of and if you are here you should consider yourself lucky to have found it. There is a wealth of knowledge here and an amazing community of people who enjoy the hobby and are always willing to help.
QUESTION FOR THE VETS
