What made your beer better?

[Goose5]

I need a new fermentation vessel. I've been pouring over videos and reviews and many say a conical does nothing to make your beer taste better. So, what practice, piece of equipment, or technique has made your beer better since adopting a technique or deploying said equipment?

 

[Smellyglove]

I need a new fermentation vessel. I've been pouring over videos and reviews and many say a conical does nothing to make your beer taste better. So, what practice, piece of equipment, or technique has made your beer better since adopting a technique or deploying said equipment?

The sum of it all, and some of the variables has had more impact than others. But first steps is fermentation control, and knowledge about how to perform the fermentation, and equally important is control over oxygen post fermentation. After that there's smaller increments. Water adjustments, boiling, mashing, and general techniques/practices.

 

[tll77]

Time and practice. and lots of notes.

The sum of it all, and some of the variables has had more impact than others. But first steps is fermentation control, and knowledge about how to perform the fermentation, and equally important is control over oxygen post fermentation. After that there's smaller increments. Water adjustments, boiling, mashing, and general techniques/practices.

I second this, you can master(or get as close as you care to) all of these other aspects of brewing without a conical or other fancy equipment. However, if attention is not paid to these details, there is no piece of equipment that will overcome said shortcomings.

 

[mongoose33]

I followed--and still do--a philosophy of continuous quality improvement. Every time I brew I try to do something better.

There are some things that were fairly major leaps forward--fermentation temp control, kegging, a conical that allows controlled and closed fermentation and transfers.

But I keep trying to do things better. I have a belief--cannot show you evidence for it--that great beer is a combination of many small advantages. That is, no one small thing you change is likely to result in tremendous improvement, but the whole IS greater than the sum of the parts.

So every time I brew I try to improve something. Often it's just adopting or improving on best practices. Sometimes it's doing something that logic tells me should work.

Everybody can do that. Here's a list of such things:

• Clean better than before. Leave no crevice uncleaned.
• Sanitize, more than you have before.
• Organize hop additions and use a timepiece to help monitor that.
• Use RO water instead of tap water of uncertain composition.
• Learn about water additions and how to adjust water for style.
• Learn about pH and measure it every time you mash to ensure you’re still where you need to be....and how you might adjust the water differently next time.
• Learn to control mash temperatures better and more consistently.
• Use finings in your beermaking to improve clarity.
• Rehydrate dry yeast instead of just sprinkling into wort.
• Make a starter instead of just dumping a vial or smack pack into the wort.
• Oxygenate that starter.
• Add a pinch of yeast nutrient to that starter.
• Add yeast nutrient to the wort in the fermenter.
• Oxygenate the wort w/ O2 instead of shaking or splashing.
• Control fermentation temperature better by placing fermenter in a cool place.
• Control fermentation temperature better yet with a swamp cooler
• Control fermentation temperature even better yet with a fermentation chamber and controller.
• Purge a keg of air, replacing with CO2.
• Purge a keg by displacing star-san with CO2.
• Purge a keg using the CO2 produced by fermentation.

You get the idea. It's mostly about process, not about recipe.

 

[enkamania]

Temperature control.

 

[jack13]

I followed--and still do--a philosophy of continuous quality improvement. Every time I brew I try to do something better.

There are some things that were fairly major leaps forward--fermentation temp control, kegging, a conical that allows controlled and closed fermentation and transfers.

But I keep trying to do things better. I have a belief--cannot show you evidence for it--that great beer is a combination of many small advantages. That is, no one small thing you change is likely to result in tremendous improvement, but the whole IS greater than the sum of the parts.

So every time I brew I try to improve something. Often it's just adopting or improving on best practices. Sometimes it's doing something that logic tells me should work.

Everybody can do that. Here's a list of such things:

• Clean better than before. Leave no crevice uncleaned.
• Sanitize, more than you have before.
• Organize hop additions and use a timepiece to help monitor that.
• Use RO water instead of tap water of uncertain composition.
• Learn about water additions and how to adjust water for style.
• Learn about pH and measure it every time you mash to ensure you’re still where you need to be....and how you might adjust the water differently next time.
• Learn to control mash temperatures better and more consistently.
• Use finings in your beermaking to improve clarity.
• Rehydrate dry yeast instead of just sprinkling into wort.
• Make a starter instead of just dumping a vial or smack pack into the wort.
• Oxygenate that starter.
• Add a pinch of yeast nutrient to that starter.
• Add yeast nutrient to the wort in the fermenter.
• Oxygenate the wort w/ O2 instead of shaking or splashing.
• Control fermentation temperature better by placing fermenter in a cool place.
• Control fermentation temperature better yet with a swamp cooler
• Control fermentation temperature even better yet with a fermentation chamber and controller.
• Purge a keg of air, replacing with CO2.
• Purge a keg by displacing star-san with CO2.
• Purge a keg using the CO2 produced by fermentation.

You get the idea. It's mostly about process, not about recipe.

I agree, almost any single factor doesn't make much of a difference, but they add up.

Question about your first item ("Clean better than before..."). Is cleaning more thoroughly about getting the chance of infection down to negligible? Or about making beer taste even better if you're even cleaner? Put differently, is an infection basically all-or-none? Or could my beer have "tiny infections" creating subtle bad flavors that I could reduce by cleaning better? I am quite conscientious when it comes to cleaning and sanitizing, but I suppose could find ways to be more so if there's a chance it'll improve my beer.

I ask because, like many, my infection rate is 0%. That of course is defining 'infection' as an obvious/known infection.

 

[Smellyglove]

I agree, almost any single factor doesn't make much of a difference, but they add up.

Question about your first item ("Clean better than before..."). Is cleaning more thoroughly about getting the chance of infection down to negligible? Or about making beer taste even better if you're even cleaner? Put differently, is an infection basically all-or-none? Or could my beer have "tiny infections" creating subtle bad flavors that I could reduce by cleaning better? I am quite conscientious when it comes to cleaning and sanitizing, but I suppose could find ways to be more so if there's a chance it'll improve my beer.

I ask because, like many, my infection rate is 0%. That of course is defining 'infection' as an obvious/known infection.

They can be subtle. And maybe they will not show them selves at their full potential until after the batch is gone. So in other words a beer could be better, but you wouldn't realize it's due to an infection since it might be a slow creeper.

 

[Dland]

I need a new fermentation vessel. I've been pouring over videos and reviews and many say a conical does nothing to make your beer taste better.

A conical fermentor with dumping and racking ports does make it easier to make good beer, not that you can't make good beer without one. Getting the trub out of there without having to rack to another vessel helps clear the beer up without exposing it to O2.

 

[Qhrumphf]

In some cases, cleaning can be a flavor component irrespective of sanitation.

The big points are kettle valves and plate chillers (but a counterflow would apply too)- any solid matter that gets caked inside and not properly cleaned out. Even if fully heat pasteurized in between, if you go from something with very distinct/intense character (think smoked, roasted, or highly hopped beers) to something subtle and clean (like Helles or Cream Ale), you can get some unintended flavor carryover.

More to the point, two things get you from average homebrew to better than average homebrew:

-ferm temp control
-proper pitching rates
-

Beyond that, to good/great:

-your own mill so you're consistent
-good hot side (mash temp) control
-aeration beyond just shaking (venturi, whipping, aquarium pump, something)

To reach the consistently excellent level, you need to get pH under control. Whether that's starting with RO or not, it means water adjustment. In places with either very inconsistent (multiple sourcing) or very high ion concentrations, RO makes sense. If your water is relatively neutral and low TDS, and is consistent apart from manageable seasonal variation, then in my opinion RO water is a waste of time and money.

Beyond just mash, pH at all steps is important. I measure gravity at multiple points, and I measure pH every single time I measure gravity, both hot side AND cold side.

Next, you need to oxygenate with pure O2. Full stop.

Next, you get into closed transfers, capping/spunding, and all the other cold side parts that keep the oxygen out. That is where conicals can make your beer better. Pressurized conical pushed into pressurized keg. All under CO2.

 

[Smellyglove]

A conical fermentor with dumping and racking ports does make it easier to make good beer, not that you can't make good beer without one. Getting the trub out of there without having to rack to another vessel helps clear the beer up without exposing it to O2.

I feel this is a good spot to emphasize the important of process. Even if you don't have a dump valve you can still use your own process to ferment "trub free", by not racking trub to the fermentor. This is at least one of the many things which has made my beer better. I ferment in good old buckets or cornys without a dump-valve.

 

[beernutz]

snip...
Pressurized conical pushed into pressurized keg. All under CO2.

I'm not disagreeing with your excellent post but just pointing out you don't need a conical to do this. I have some great Jaybird addons for my Speidel 60L fermenter, one of which allows me to do pressurized closed CO2 transfers into purged kegs.

That is all.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I'm not disagreeing with your excellent post but just pointing out you don't need a conical to do this. I have some great Jaybird addons for my Speidel 60L fermenter, one of which allows me to do pressurized closed CO2 transfers into purged kegs.

That is all.

But you can't cap/spund one as well.

Then again, some homebrew conicals can't hold 1 bar either.

 

[casualbrewer]

Temp control, starting with good water, all grain, and kegging. Can make some quality stuff

 

[jack13]

Temp control, starting with good water, all grain, and kegging. Can make some quality stuff

Yes to all those. In my master list of all the beers I've made, I have a line drawn to indicate when I went from my iron-laden tap water to RO, and another for when I went from bottling to kegging. Now that I point that out, I wonder if I'm out of "line-worthy" changes and it's all tiny increments in quality from now on.

 

[PADave]

Temp control, starting with good water, all grain, and kegging. Can make some quality stuff

^^ what he said. Then once you get the basics down, read, and read some more.

 

[Beer-lord]

Temperature control and RO water.

 

[TobyG32]

Temperature control and RO water.

Ditto - after getting good processes down for the basics and still making meh beer, having more precise temp control and building water profiles from scratch for every beer changed everything.

 

[ong]

I realized I really don’t like the taste of crystal malt, and started making recipes that don’t include it. If I want a caramel note, I might reduce a gallon of wort to a syrup, or make some dark invert sugar.

Also figuring out which yeasts I like and what temperatures they like. I really dislike the Chico strains, for instance, but I love a lot of English strains.

Reformulating to avoid fussy 30, 15, 5 minute, flameout hop additions, and replacing them with 60 minute bittering and massive hopstands (for hoppy beers).

 

[ABI Brewery]

I use pure O2 from a 1 lb bottle and it works great, now I am starting a ferm chamber build cant wait to see how this turns out

 

[Dland]

I feel this is a good spot to emphasize the important of process. Even if you don't have a dump valve you can still use your own process to ferment "trub free", by not racking trub to the fermentor. This is at least one of the many things which has made my beer better. I ferment in good old buckets or cornys without a dump-valve.

I think you are saying keep trub out of fermentation vessel in the first place, which of course is good advice.

There is some trub developed due to yeast flocculation and boil added finings that is nice to remove as well. I typically do at least two trub dumps before I rack to kegs, sometimes three.

Some yeasts, like 34-70, floc out pretty well when finished if at ideal fermentation temperatures (after D rest of course) so beer is pretty clean when transferred to keg. Four weeks lagering, and it is quite clear. The conical makes it a lot easier.

 

[beernutz]

But you can't cap/spund one as well.

Then again, some homebrew conicals can't hold 1 bar either.

The jaybird top for the Speidel has a 5 psi PRV. They sell a 20 psi replacement spring for the PRV which might be sufficient for spunding if I were brave enough to try it.

https://www.norcalbrewingsolutions....l-Lock-Gas-In-with-Pressure-Relief-Valve.html

 

[Smellyglove]

I think you are saying keep trub out of fermentation vessel in the first place, which of course is good advice.

There is some trub developed due to yeast flocculation and boil added finings that is nice to remove as well. I typically do at least two trub dumps before I rack to kegs, sometimes three.

Some yeasts, like 34-70, floc out pretty well when finished if at ideal fermentation temperatures (after D rest of course) so beer is pretty clean when transferred to keg. Four weeks lagering, and it is quite clear. The conical makes it a lot easier.

Indeed it does make things easier. But my point was more oriented against "procedure". Besides, since you said it, there's no need for a D-rest at all if pitched enough healthy yeast, especially not with 3470 is my experience as it's been a slow floccer in my setup. The colder you can keep the lager the better

 

[Qhrumphf]

I think you are saying keep trub out of fermentation vessel in the first place, which of course is good advice.

There is some trub developed due to yeast flocculation and boil added finings that is nice to remove as well. I typically do at least two trub dumps before I rack to kegs, sometimes three.

Some yeasts, like 34-70, floc out pretty well when finished if at ideal fermentation temperatures (after D rest of course) so beer is pretty clean when transferred to keg. Four weeks lagering, and it is quite clear. The conical makes it a lot easier.

It's also nice to be able to harvest yeast prior to dry hopping. With a bucket or carboy you can't do that without racking (or if a suitable strain, top cropping).

Then again in a conical (or carboy) top cropping is challenging as well, unless you go the overfilled multi-chambered collection jar franken-burton-union-ish route.

As said, process.

It also depends on what you brew. If you want Belgian or English Ale, open fermentation works wonders (but I'd still close it down after fermentation slows, I just wouldn't cap Belgian most strains). If you're brewing a German lager, or especially a NEIPA any and all oxygen access should be avoided.

RE spunding/capping in a Spiedel, I've never looked, and I'd be shocked if they could hold 20 PSI. But plastic kegs do exist (often as one-way kegs for international export), so I suppose anything is possible.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Fermentation temp control.
Water adjustments.
Freshly milled grain.
Brettanomyces

 

[SoCal-Doug]

Major factors in the quality of my brews over there years were many.

Learning and improving processes

Temp control​

Understanding the chemistry and biology behind brewing
Becoming repeatable
Mastering my own brew rig
Choosing the correct grains, hops, and yeasts
On and on and on

The short version to better brewing: Always being a perpetual student, always learning and applying what I learn, using best practices

 

[Dland]

Besides, since you said it, there's no need for a D-rest at all if pitched enough healthy yeast, especially not with 3470 is my experience as it's been a slow floccer in my setup. The colder you can keep the lager the better

Not intending to quibble but like you said earlier, everyone's set up is different. I run lager fermentations when I can keep the fermentation temp pretty low, 50-55F, Diacityl rest seems to have some benefit, I can taste it when I skip it.

 

[Iseneye]

I always had temperature control and sanitation. First biggest improvement was going from bottling to kegging. Then after that it was water treatment and pH adjustment. Then low oxygen brewing (hotside and coldside).

 

[Dland]

Wow, two chimp avatars on this thread... mojo jojo & lancelot link?

lancelot is pretty old and he may never have worn headphones, so that is unlikely..

 

[Goose5]

Well, I must admit I have been trying to pull the trigger on a Spike conical. I already have two frigs and one freezer in my house and I just don't have the room for another. So, the temp control system offered from Spike is going to be the only way I can introduce fermentation temp control.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

My very first batch of beer was quite cloudy. I had used straight tap water. Here in AZ there are chloramines in the water. Also, I used a “one step” sanitizer. I liked my first beer, mostly because it was exciting to brew beer, but I used bottled water on the next batch as well as Starsan and my next batch was much better.

The second batch, I used too much DME and threw all my hops in at 60 minutes. It wasn’t bad, but after that I was much more careful about how much and when to add.

My third batch was an IPA and was delicious. The only problem was, by that time the gaskets on my flip tops were allowing CO2 to leak out. My fourth batch I used a bottling bucket and priming sugar instead of pellets and I used crown caps. That was one of my best beers to date. An American Amber Ale. Starting with that fourth batch my beer was pretty good. I had a couple of hiccups, like not using my glass thermometer correctly. If you stick it into the hot wort past the mark, it reads high. This caused about two batches to come out a little thin because of the low mash temp.

Once a fermentation ran away and the temp went into the high eighties with S-04. It was pretty fusaly but after 8 months aging, it was probably the best beer I’ve made. Regardless, I keep a closer eye on my fermentors during krausen.

Dry hopping is freaking magic. It makes the beer oh so heavenly.

 

[mongoose33]

Well, I must admit I have been trying to pull the trigger on a Spike conical. I already have two frigs and one freezer in my house and I just don't have the room for another. So, the temp control system offered from Spike is going to be the only way I can introduce fermentation temp control.

Geez, what do you have in them?

I'll bet you have room for another fridge if you have 5-gallon fermenters. Here are a couple pics of my mini-fridge ferm chamber. When you're not fermenting, you have to store that fermenter someplace, right? So store it in the mini-fridge.

Just a thought. I have a Spike conical, love it, so this is not an anti-Spike thing, not by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[Goose5]

Mongoose please describe in detail your setup pictured.

 

[mongoose33]

Mongoose please describe in detail your setup pictured.

Well, not sure what exactly you're looking for. You get a tall mini-fridge; typically it's around 4.3 or 4.4 cubic feet in volume. Here's an example, but you don't have to buy new unless you want; used ones abound on places like Craigslist. I bought mine used for $60, but a local restore/recycle place now has them for $30. Wish I needed more.

Anyway, you bring along your fermenter when you look at it to see if it'll fit. It may not, with door protrusions for shelving and such. Or the bottom flange on the door may bump into the fermenter. Who knows? If it doesn't, you will need to make some adjustment.

Some people cut the formed plastic stuff off the door and just tape up the exposed insulation with tape or whatever. My son did that with his; in my case, I was lucky in that the plastic ridge in the middle is offset, so if I move the fermenter over and put it on a piece of scrap wood, it'll clear the door and the plastic flange on the bottom of the door. Some people have even added a small wooden collar (like a keezer has) to move the door away from the back. Neither my son nor I had to do that. If I'd had to, I would have cut the plastic off the door.

The remaining issue is the airlock. Some brewers have bent down the freezer compartment down and toward the back so it provides more headroom so the airlock will fit. The issue with that is that if you break a line, your minifridge is toast. I wasn't willing to risk it.

So to deal with that, I used a drilled stopper instead of an airlock, into which I put a piece of rigid plastic tubing--a bottle filler cut down is perfect for this, and that's where I got mine. Then I attached some tubing to that and ran it out a hole drilled in the very front top of the fermenter. There are no cooling lines there, so no concern about hitting a line and rendering the fridge, again, as toast.

I also did a second hole through which I ran the power cord for the heat mat as well as the temp probe for my Inkbird.

I run that tubing up on top of the bench, terminating it in a jar filled with star-san; the airlock is on the bench, in other words.

As you can see, I have a larger fridge which is also a ferm chamber. I can run various combinations of the Inkbirds to control ferm temps in both. That also has tubing that runs from the inside to a star-san jar on the bench, and I even added a bulkhead shank to feed CO2 into that larger one for force carbing, serving a keg w/ a picnic tap, whatever.

NOTE: These photos show a fermenter lid into which I permanently epoxied closed the normal stopper opening, and I epoxied a piece of tubing permanently in place; I also have other lids with the normal stopper opening, and into which I insert the drilled stopper with the rigid plastic tube. The stopper-variant works fine. The ones you see below were an attempt to create a dead-perfect closed system. I still smell ferm gases when I open the fermenter, so it's not quite there.

Here's a pic that shows that:

 

[RoseParkBrews]

1 fermentation temp control 2. Going all-grain from extract. 3. Yeast mgmt

 

[Shawnanigans]

For me it was buying a water filter and a fermentation fridge and adding thermo wells to the bungs of the carboys. Those things made an incredible change in the quality of my beers.

 

[gnef]

The thought that keeps coming up in my head as I read through these replies is to think of yourself as a yeast rancher/handler, and to approach your processes and upgrades with keeping yeast healthy in mind.

this really relates to everything that has been said, and you will need to decide what will be most important to you.

The reason why I say it this way, is because ultimately, if you have managed everything well for the yeast to do a good job, you will make better beer. This covers everything from learning how to do starters, or canning starter wort, to your water chemistry, your cleanliness, your chilling method, your grain quality and grind quality, your conversion and efficiency, your fermenter, temperature control, racking method, serving method, serving temperature, etc.

If you want specific recommendations that relate to your particular priorities, why don't you tell us more about your current equipment and process, as well as what in particular you would like to improve?

 

[bracconiere]

not sure if this is off-topic...But the biggest improvement i had is when i found out the brewing book i learned from when i was 18, was wrong and not to use boiling water to sparge! and also that you're supposed to take time with it, not leave the valve wide open and just pour water through the grain! went from like 62% efficiency to 83%. and now with a two step mash i can get 95%, but efficiency is more of price thing not quality...And i'm always looking to make a cheaper beer!

 

[bleme]

I wouldn't say anything has made my beer better because my first batch was AWESOME!

I had studied intensively at least 5 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 3 months before I bought my first gear, so I'm sure that made a difference. All the changes I have made since then have been to make it cheaper or less stressful.

I maintained my temp just fine for a couple years with a rope tub of water, a t-shirt, a fan, frozen water bottles and an aquarium heater, but it was a ton of work and I was constantly stressing when I wasn't home to watch the temperature. My fridge with STC-1000 made all that stress evaporate.

Kegging did fix a problem I was having with uneven carbonation, but that wasn't my main reason for the upgrade.

Going all-grain and buying in bulk allowed me to experiment a lot more but mainly that was to cut my costs to a fifth of what they were, saving about $420/year. That savings made the two $100 fridges and the $300 kegging equipment a lot easier to swallow.

 

[bracconiere]

I wouldn't say anything has made my beer better because my first batch was AWESOME!

I had studied intensively at least 5 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 3 months before I bought my first gear, so I'm sure that made a difference. All the changes I have made since then have been to make it cheaper or less stressful. My fermentation chamber saved me from switching out frozen bottles all the time and constantly stressing when I wasn't home to watch the temperature. Kegging did fix a problem I was having with uneven carbonation, but that wasn't my main reason for the upgrade. Going all-grain and buying in bulk allowed me to experiment a lot more but mainly that was to cut my costs to a fifth of what they were.

Next step, malting! cut my cost from $2+ a twelve pack, to 92 cents...And i swear my homemalt tastes better than store bought! does take time though...

 

[JohnSand]

Study, practice and feedback.
Oh yeah, lots of gear.