Your biggest level-ups in your brew day this year (3 stand out for me)

[BrewerofBeers]

I made a lot of changes recently, and the results are so much better! Here is a list of the biggest improvements I made that I think can make your beer go from drinkable to crushable:

• All fresh milled grains and fresh hops (this was huge)
• better mash temperature control and homogeneity of it (this was huge)
• water chemistry: all brew water prepared with campden to displace chlorine / chloramine
• greatly reduced oxidation throughout the process, from wort to bottling
• more filtered wort for less trub in the fermenter
• creation of extra wort to separate more trub
• increased grist:water ratio for the mash
• longer and slower fermentations with lower fermentation temperatures overall
• close consideration of fermentation temperature control
• fermenters stored in darker locations
• increased temperature at end of fermentations (this was huge)

Who's got more big brewday level-ups?

 

[MaxStout]

--More attention to reducing O2 ingress (I bottle and my beer needs all the help it can get)
--Cold-crashing before bottling
--Relying less on low-alpha hops for bittering (less polyphenols in finished beer)

This one's post-brew day, but has improved things:
--Drinking up my beer faster, so it's fresher. Sometimes requires the help of friends.

 

[Pennine]

Grain conditioning before milling has been big for increasing flow through the malt pipe.

Using the SMPH model for ibu calcs.

Hochkurz mash

 

[Bobby_M]

I made a lot of changes recently, and the results are so much better! Here is a list of the biggest improvements I made that I think can make your beer go from drinkable to crushable:

I agree with almost all of this though I discovered a lot of them over the last 4 years or so.

• All fresh milled grains and fresh hops (this was huge)

Helps to own a LHBS for this, but having access to a good one is also good.

• better mash temperature control and homogeneity of it (this was huge)

Couldn't agree more though it's more for repeatability or appropriate execution of someone else's recipe.

• water chemistry: all brew water prepared with campden to displace chlorine / chloramine

Equally as important to know what is really in that water so you know where the mash pH is going to land. If your source water is very soft, great but get it tested to be sure.

• greatly reduced oxidation throughout the process, from wort to bottling

Yes.

• more filtered wort for less trub in the fermenter

Not 100% convinced this makes a big impact in beer flavor. Perhaps impacts the long term stability a bit. For sure if you're looking to harvest yeast, cleaner wort will make for cleaner yeast collections.

• creation of extra wort to separate more trub
• increased grist:water ratio for the mash

I automatically landed here when I decided to no-sparge but I agree here too.

• longer and slower fermentations with lower fermentation temperatures overall

As long as the beer your making doesn't really need the ester production. I noticed that bitters especially respond better to about 70F fermentations for the fruit esters.

• close consideration of fermentation temperature control
• fermenters stored in darker locations
• increased temperature at end of fermentations (this was huge)

That last one is huge, probably the most important aside from oxygen avoidance and the one you didn't mention (adequate yeast pitch rates in the first place).

Who's got more big brewday level-ups?

 

[T Murph]

I have been doing this for a minute so I have even circled back around to a couple of things. I went back to an immersion chiller to use less water. I utilize a fourth vessel that contains ice, water and a fish pond pump to pump ice cold water through the chiller. At first the water is hot out of the chiller so that water is held for clean up. Eventually the exit water is cool enough to recirc into the water vessel. I also went all electric. Again to reduce water usage I installed a vent hood vented directly to the outside instead of a condenser set up.

I agree with most all above comments. I formerly lived in the Chicago area where the water was terrible. It's always a challenge to get the water adjusted as needed. Then I relocated to N. Alabama and found local water very good for brewing straight out of the tap. I do filter it but I haven't adjusted it in years. But maybe the best thing for me was getting control of fermentation temperatures. That and cold crashing, who knew.

 

[BrewerofBeers]

Cold crashing! Great one. I am going to try this next time I bottle a batch.

 

[Bobby_M]

Cold crashing! Great one. I am going to try this next time I bottle a batch.

Though it would be a step back if you don't have a means to keep oxygen from getting sucked back into the fermenter.

 

[BrewerofBeers]

Though it would be a step back if you don't have a means to keep oxygen from getting sucked back into the fermenter.

I just placed a lager in the fridge. With fermentation complete, I felt comfortable placing a cap on the fermenter. However, I use durable glass carboys that can be capped.

 

[T Murph]

We have multiple ways to prevent that but one must account for that possibility. 1. Pressurize the fermenter if you are not fermenting under pressure. 2. Cap any opening that could potentially allow such to happen and 3. And maybe the best, put a check valve in the blow off tube.

 

[BrewerofBeers]

We have multiple ways to prevent that but one must account for that possibility. 1. Pressurize the fermenter if you are not fermenting under pressure. 2. Cap any opening that could potentially allow such to happen and 3. And maybe the best, put a check valve in the blow off tube.

4. Use a balloon or similar device to capture the CO2 during the fermentation process. It can be used to return to the beer environment instead of room air.

 

[GoodTruble]

1. Paying closer attention to water profile to match the intended style. I have access to insanely cheap RO and just build the water profile for each brew.

2. Using decoction to increase maltiness in some styles.

 

[T Murph]

We need an icon for Yep

 

[Airborneguy]

1. A controller for one of my electric brewing sticks. One goes full blast, the other regulates the boil intensity.

2. Getting a water report and advice from here. What a difference some simple adjustments made!

3. Simple but huge: a wheeled platform for moving my kettles around. Man what a difference that made!

 

[seatazzz]

1. Oxygen setup. First beer I brewed using it got tapped last week (2g batch) and is already gone, it was that good. Already ran through one little tank, looking at getting a bigger one.
2. Got my pH meter calibrated correctly and now using it consistently. Still need to make some adjustments (our water is pretty hard right now) but last brew hit 5.6 in the mash.
3. Adjusting my system so I can brew smaller batches; maybe not a money saver, but I can brew more often and try new recipes without going through a lot of grain.

 

[seatazzz]

1. A controller for one of my electric brewing sticks. One goes full blast, the other regulates the boil intensity.

2. Getting a water report and advice from here. What a difference some simple adjustments made!

3. Simple but huge: a wheeled platform for moving my kettles around. Man what a difference that made!

I got myself two furniture dollies a couple years ago, and they make a HUGE difference in moving big heavy things around. Only $20 apiece at the hardware store but worth their weight in gold.

 

[Bobby_M]

I just placed a lager in the fridge. With fermentation complete, I felt comfortable placing a cap on the fermenter. However, I use durable glass carboys that can be capped.

This isn't going to do it. If the cap is sealed enough that a strong vacuum can form, the air gets sucked in as soon as you dislodge the cap. If you don't hear that big slurp of air rushing in when you remove the cap, it already happened slowly as the vacuum formed. It would be better not to cold crash in that case. I'd imagine the OP would like to see this thread stay on a positive vibe, but it's inevitable that some dissention was going to happen. If you're interested in vetting the idea of sealed vessel cold crashing, a new thread would be welcomed.

 

[BrewerofBeers]

This isn't going to do it. If the cap is sealed enough that a strong vacuum can form, the air gets sucked in as soon as you dislodge the cap. If you don't hear that big slurp of air rushing in when you remove the cap, it already happened slowly as the vacuum formed. It would be better not to cold crash in that case. I'd imagine the OP would like to see this thread stay on a positive vibe, but it's inevitable that some dissention was going to happen. If you're interested in vetting the idea of sealed vessel cold crashing, a new thread would be welcomed.

Not a problem. Unfortunately, I have not been able to remove the presence of oxygen when opening the fermenter (or lagering vessel) for the purposes of bottling. But I will take the precautions I am capable of.

 

[T Murph]

IMO the best way to avoid oxygen suck back is to maintain positive Co2 pressure inside the fermenter from the beginning of active fermentation to the glass. I began doing closed system transfers and capturing Co2 back in the 90s. I have yet to find a better or easier method of keeping air out. It works.

 

[BrewerofBeers]

IMO the best way to avoid oxygen suck back is to maintain positive Co2 pressure inside the fermenter from the beginning of active fermentation to the glass. I began doing closed system transfers and capturing Co2 back in the 90s. I have yet to find a better or easier method of keeping air out. It works.

Nice work! For me, a great improvement to come in the near future. I have pressurized CO2 on hand, and want to use a system to introduce only CO2 when that cap is opened. Or I'll maintain positive CO2 pressure while the lager cools. I can then use CO2 pressure to do a closed push of the beer into an oxygen-purged vessel. Inspired by the comments in the thread already.


As for my next activities, here are further improvements I'm going to make:

+One or two hours ahead of time, add bread yeast with dextrose to the brewing water (campden after). This removes dissolved oxygen from the brew water.

+Purge empty fermenter with CO2 prior to transferring and close immediately. Transfer asap given there is less oxygen in the fermenter environment than the mash tun.

+Add priming sugar directly to fermenter and when activity restarts, bottle it! This reduces time oxidation can occur with the inactivity of yeast's oxygen scavenging activity between pitch time and fermentation activity.

+Use starters regularly. Yeast starts faster in the beer = less oxidation of wort.


+Edited to add: I'm going to consider tannic acid (aka brewtan B). A "high molecular weight tannic acid extracted from renewable plant materials specifically for the brewing industry."
"Used in the mash tun as iron chelator (2–6 ppm)," ie prevents the Fenton Oxidation reaction.

 

[TBA]

After much frustration doing closed transfers I bought more kegs off Craigslist and equipped them with floating dip tubes. Now I have excellent O2 process and my Hazies never fade. This has also allowed me to do split batches! That has been a great learning experience. Doing yeast and dry hop tests.

 

[mac_1103]

Speaking of dissension, cold crashing is not a brew day activity, so that entire discussion is .

 

[BrewerofBeers]

After much frustration doing closed transfers I bought more kegs off Craigslist and equipped them with floating dip tubes. Now I have excellent O2 process and my Hazies never fade. This has also allowed me to do split batches! That has been a great learning experience. Doing yeast and dry hop tests.

Doing split batch tests is an awesome improvement. I just started those too and just forgot to include on the list! nice one. I've been trying different yeasts and dry hop too. Really cool to compare a lager and an ale of an otherwise identical recipe.

 

[balrog]

Speaking of dissension, cold crashing is not a brew day activity, so that entire discussion is .

Some of us play tennis during the mash, or mow the yard, or straighten the fringe on the Persian carpet. There's all kinds of things that happen during a brew day, making them all, strictly speaking, brew day activities. Lol.

 

[mac_1103]

I have not studied this systematically, but my impression has been that mowing the yard does not improve my beer. Nor does brewing beer improve my mowing. Drinking beer, however...

 

[balrog]

I have not studied this systematically, but my impression has been that mowing the yard does not improve my beer. Nor does brewing beer improve my mowing. Drinking beer, however...

Ah, I see your issue here; you just need to keep better notes. Take more data. And definitely drink more beer.


<PSA: Remember to keep hands and feet out from under mowing deck whilst motor is running. And small furry woodland creatures.>

 

[odie]

all-day mash. this really shortens my actual brew day.

BIAB kettle gets set up the night before. Mash in before work and let it run all day. After work immediate mash out and straight to brewing.

 

[BrewerofBeers]

all-day mash. this really shortens my actual brew day.

BIAB kettle gets set up the night before. Mash in before work and let it run all day. After work immediate mash out and straight to brewing.

What's the mash temperature?

 

[brewbama]

This year I: 1) quit trying to achieve maximum brewhaus efficiency and started using no sparge mash, opened the gap on my grain mill, and boiling 30 minutes. This has improved by low ABV beers dramatically. 2) quit depending on the grocery to have distilled water on hand by cobbling together a RO system from various pieces I had laying around and some I purchased. I also bought a tabletop ice maker to decrease chill time so I don’t depend on the grocery for ice either. 3) quit getting inebriated from having a cpl three pints so I began brewing lower ABV beer styles. Some styles that should be higher ABV I simply brew at ‘session strength’. My goal has always been to brew good beer at home. I found it challenging to brew a good low(er) ABV beer with full flavor that isn’t thin.

I received some recent validation on theses changes from my Dark Mild submission to the NHC. I am especially pleased that Gail Milburn, a Grand Master II, judged one of my beers “Very Good”. It wasn’t Excellent or Outstanding, and I knew that, but hey, from a Grand Master …I’ll take Very Good!

One judge thanked me for submitting that same beer. Pretty cool.

 

[BandonBrewingCo]

all-day mash. this really shortens my actual brew day.

BIAB kettle gets set up the night before. Mash in before work and let it run all day. After work immediate mash out and straight to brewing.

You doing any temp control there?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Who's got more big brewday level-ups?

• For bottle conditioning, I'm seeing good results with some new (to me) ideas from The New IPA.
• started (finally) using Brewtan-B
• started focusing on ideas to improve shelf life, rather than just oxygen ingress mitigation

 

[odie]

What's the mash temperature?

150 all day long. digital controller and recirc

 

[odie]

You doing any temp control there

digital control. stays on the dot.

 

[BandonBrewingCo]

Would I be right in saying that after approx half an hour or so, letting the temp fall has no effect on the mash, once you bring it back up again for draining?

Obviously the same is not true for rising temps!

 

[balrog]

Would I be right in saying that after approx half an hour or so, letting the temp fall has no effect on the mash, once you bring it back up again for draining?

Obviously the same is not true for rising temps!

Depending on the crush, finer=faster, conversion will likely be complete, or majorly mostly so, in 30m for those of us that BIAB with fine crush.
The enzymes that continue to make shorter sugars out of the longer ones will continue to work until they are denatured by the heat.
None of this is "flip a switch" however, meaning that as an organic chemistry process, it works at lower than mash temps, albeit more slowly. CAVEAT: heating the mash above 160-170 for a time will completely denature the enzymes we are primarily interested in and they are then gone, caput, gone on to join the bleedin' choir eternal, pushing up daisies, ex-enzymes.

But yeah, mostly done in 30m, and as the temp falls, any remaining un-denatured enzymes will continue to work, a bit. You know, some. THat's why you get more fermentable wort from all day mash; the remaining enzymes will continue making shorter sugars, more readily eaten by the yeast.

 

[KiwiSander]

We need an icon for Yep

Yep