What is that one homebrewing task you just refuse to do? Other than bottling...

[Horseflesh]

For me, it's multi-step starters. I happily make a starter with a 1.6 liter jar of canned wort, but stepping up a few stages of different sizes is just no fun for some reason. I'll compromise and use multiple packs of whatever dry yeast is close enough instead of doing that.

 

[Vale71]

I love doing multi-step starters, I always feel like the mad scientist from a 60s movie...

I totally hate cleaning and sanitizing but it has to be done...

 

[Horseflesh]

What I don't like about making starters is the cooling step. That's why I like making jars of ideal strength wort: do the work up front, let it cool in the canner overnight, and later you just pour and go. If I am mixing up an odd size though, you are making the starter at the time of use, and you have to do a sanitary cooling step and suddenly it feels like it is taking a thousand hours and I get antsy.

I guess I could start stocking various starter wort sizes and even sterilized plain water, but now we're talking about more work and more space...

Well, it is still better than bottling.

 

[kh54s10]

Task, or brewing method? Tasks with my brewing have to be done. Now if you are talking LODO, I have no interest in perusing that method any time in the near future. I won't rule it out entirely.

I have a frozen yeast bank, so if I want to use that yeast I have to do step starters......

 

[dwhite60]

Kegging.

No room for it. Well, I could make room but SWMBO would not be happy and I don't find bottling much of a problem.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[Horseflesh]

Task, or brewing method?

Either. I am wondering "where do you draw the line at making brewing complicated or no fun?" That can be before, during, or after brew day.

 

[Queequeg]

Cleaning the plate chiller

 

[firerat]

I love kegging and love my bar setup but I hate changing out lines.
I don't know why I hate it so much. Probably because putting my draft tower back together is a giant PITA.
And I need to do it. My keezer liquid lines are...well I'm not going to say how old they are.

 

[kh54s10]

Either. I am wondering "where do you draw the line at making brewing complicated or no fun?" That can be before, during, or after brew day.

Well as I noted there is a big difference.. I don't like cleaning things - I have to do it.
I won't do LODO at present because the cost for me outweighs the benefit for now.
I suppose I could skip starters and always use dry yeast, but sometimes I want a particular yeast that is not produced as a dry yeast.

 

[rhys333]

I do whatever I have to, but I will procrastinate on kegging and bottling, and I'll avoid making starters if I can get away with it.

 

[PrrCabin]

Cleaning the plate chiller

+1

 

[jonny24]

I'm very lazy.... lol

No water chemistry - tap water + Kmeta for chloramine (also fill vessels thenight before if I remember)
No adjusting mash volume - 4 gallons, every time. May adjust the sparge volume to account for grain losses.
Often no immersion chiller - leave the pot on the stove overnight. I've been chilling again lately just so I can get everything put away.
Dry yeast only
May or may not measure gravity at all. If I do, may or may not write it down.
Very rarely dry-hop. Partly because I don't do well with IPA's, and my pale ales are generally fine without. And I lost my hop bag two years ago.
Bottling is only for gifts, or the odd case for my dad.

 

[firerat]

Cleaning the plate chiller

Wait, you're supposed to clean that?

 

[firerat]

I'm very lazy.... lol

No water chemistry - tap water + Kmeta for chloramine (also fill vessels thenight before if I remember)
No adjusting mash volume - 4 gallons, every time. May adjust the sparge volume to account for grain losses.
Often no immersion chiller - leave the pot on the stove overnight. I've been chilling again lately just so I can get everything put away.
Dry yeast only
May or may not measure gravity at all. If I do, may or may not write it down.
Very rarely dry-hop. Partly because I don't do well with IPA's, and my pale ales are generally fine without. And I lost my hop bag two years ago.
Bottling is only for gifts, or the odd case for my dad.

Haha we could start a brew club.

 

[Rodent]

refuse to do? nothing immediately comes to mind now that I keg carb and no longer bottle condition

how about procrastinate forever about getting it done? for me that would be emptying the mash tun after brewing a 2xIPA or Imp Stout. those initial ~30 pounds of crushed grains are now wet and heavier, and I have to carry that tun across uneven terrain to the opposite corner of a 1-1/2 acre rectangle lot. my lower back injury begins protesting even before I get to the bottom stair coming off the back deck. I brew solo, so there's nobody around to assist in this walk of pain.

in the winter months it's dark by the time I start cleaning up, so this task gets pushed off until (at least) the next day

 

[GnenieGone]

Been told many times but can't stop....drinking while brewing!

 

[Sauls]

Been told many times but can't stop....drinking while brewing!

+1. Def the most awful brews but damn I always have fun!

 

[bleme]

I refuse to take multiple hydrometer readings to make sure it is done. I just leave it alone for 3 weeks and if the gravity is close to expected (always has been), call it good and package.

I did have a few bottles explode on one batch, but only the 22oz bottles that were left in the 100F garage...

 

[day_trippr]

Thanks for ^that^ - I'm gonna use that, too - as my practice is basically don't do post-fermentation checks at all unless something seems off - which never happens, so...

Cheers!

 

[Qhrumphf]

RDWHAHB.

I refuse to RDWHAHB.

 

[madscientist451]

Yeast washing
I've been saving yeast for years and used to "wash" it using methods I learned from watching you tube videos.
After a while, I just saved the yeast slurry in a jar and dumped about half of it in the next batch or made a starter if it wasn't fresh.
Its been working fine for me....

 

[Robert65]

Yeast washing
I've been saving yeast for years and used to "wash" it using methods I learned from watching you tube videos.
After a while, I just saved the yeast slurry in a jar and dumped about half of it in the next batch or made a starter if it wasn't fresh.
Its been working fine for me....

The highly detrimental practice of yeast rinsing (sometimes wrongly called washing, an entirely different thing) is one of those zombie homebrew myths with no foundation in science. Laziness has served you well! [emoji16]

 

[gunhaus]

Follow rules!!! - it is MY BEER, I'll make and drink it the way I want, and expected processes, conventions, and combinations mean nothing to me. Personal happiness with the end product is the only goal.

 

[davidabcd]

Where do I draw the line at making brewing complicated or no fun?

Kegging
Using CO2
Cold crashing
Blow-off tubes
All-grain brewing
Canning
SS fermenters
Water treatment (I'll do spring water)
Oxygenating (besides a paddle)
Electronic temp control

I think that's about it.

Edit:
Starters
More than one FG reading

 

[tellyho]

Starters, period.

 

[tellyho]

I refuse to take multiple hydrometer readings to make sure it is done. I just leave it alone for 3 weeks and if the gravity is close to expected (always has been), call it good and package.

I did have a few bottles explode on one batch, but only the 22oz bottles that were left in the 100F garage...

Agreed, after I broke my last hydrometer, I just don't measure any more.

 

[Horseflesh]

I'm very lazy.... lol

That is top-tier laziness! I am in awe. I would have a nervous breakdown if I brewed like that, heh.

 

[brewbama]

Make starters. I use dry yeast 99% of the time. Direct pitch 1 gram per liter.

Edit: I don’t necessarily use a malster’s name brand malt. IOW I substitute based in what I have. Cara- whatever for C-whatever, Carafa for Choc or Black roast, Biscuit for Victory, etc....

 

[applescrap]

Everyone knows I am in the lazy group. Never believed much in homebrew dogma as well. No chill, sure. No boil, of course. Yeast starter, yeah right. Hydrometer, wth is that, the thing I like most about having it now is I can say I am putting my dipstick in the beer. Short boils, short mashes, warm fermented lagers . I do clean and sanatize voraciously. Cold crash, no. The one thing I never ever do, is screw around with recipes, I only use tried good recipes.

 

[bracconiere]

deculming my malt is a PITA....but i do it, so i guess i'd have to say cleaning and sanitizing.....every time i do, i get sour beer i don't like, and just pasteurizing, i get my usual funk i kinda like/gotten used to....

 

[balrog]

I refuse to not take data.
No need to expound.

 

[jrgtr42]

duplicate

 

[Qhrumphf]

I refuse to take multiple hydrometer readings to make sure it is done. I just leave it alone for 3 weeks and if the gravity is close to expected (always has been), call it good and package.

I did have a few bottles explode on one batch, but only the 22oz bottles that were left in the 100F garage...

Thanks for ^that^ - I'm gonna use that, too - as my practice is basically don't do post-fermentation checks at all unless something seems off - which never happens, so...

Cheers!

Get yourself one of them fancy Anton Paar density meters and check not only gravity but pH Every. Single. Day.

You'd waste a boatload doing it with a hydrometer. Guess you could do it with a refract and the Novotny calculator. Either way just pull enough for the pH meter electrode.

You'd be surprised how informative daily pH readings are. Even moreso than gravity.

 

[jrgtr42]

I refuse to worry, or take myself too seriously.
I do like good beer, of course, and want to make it as good as I can -
so I do take sanitation and such seriously - but if I'm a few points off in my Sg I don't worry too much about it -
FG I haven't had much issue since I went all grain.
I haven't gotten too much into water treatments yet - maybe somewhere along the way.
I take a gravity at pitch, then near bottling / kegging.
Definintely not one to open every day to see how it's going - and taking gravities, therefore using a gallon or so along the way.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]You'd be surprised how informative daily pH readings are. Even moreso than gravity.

I'd be surprised if taking that data actually changed my brewing process at all...

Cheers!

 

[Horseflesh]

You'd be surprised how informative daily pH readings are. Even moreso than gravity.

Learn me some stuff!

 

[bracconiere]

Learn me some stuff!

lol, you need to check how the color changes too! so one of these would be good, or something like it.....


https://www.amazon.com/Sekonic-C700...97&hvtargid=aud-801738734305:pla-358527865189


and something for dissolved solids....(damn someone asked about about coffee water too in another thread, lol)

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Dens...tds+meter&qid=1574918334&s=electronics&sr=1-9

 

[beerisyummy]

Well as I noted there is a big difference.. I don't like cleaning things - I have to do it.
I won't do LODO at present because the cost for me outweighs the benefit for now.
I suppose I could skip starters and always use dry yeast, but sometimes I want a particular yeast that is not produced as a dry yeast.

I'm with you on the LODO thing. chef this out: http://brulosophy.com/2017/04/10/th...ow-oxygen-brewing-method-exbeeriment-results/

 

[seatazzz]

+1 to not "washing" yeast. When I first started re-using yeast, I was meticulous in the washing process; boiled water the day before, jarred it, sanitized the heck out of everything, and wound up with a lot less yeast than I should have. Now I just save jars of slurry and pitch half of it for a 5g batch. Now if I could just remember to label the damn things every time. I'm pretty sure the pale I made earlier this month was fermented on lager yeast instead of the Notty it should have had, but it turned out great anyway. Pretty much just grab a jar, smell it, and if it doesn't smell "off" I'll use it, even if the beer I'm pitching it on isn't the same.

 

[kh54s10]

+2 on not "washing" yeast I tried it once and never got a separation of layers. It sat in the fridge for a while, until I dumped it. I don't brew with the same yeast often enough that even saving slurry works for me. It sits there so long that if I did use it I would still make a starter. Plus I have my frozen yeast bank.