1. Do: Sanitize Everything
Ok perhaps that's an exaggeration
(http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-adult.html)
Sanitization is one of the most crucial parts of brewing a healthy beer. At best, an infection will cause some "interesting" sour flavors, and at worst will totally ruin your beer. It should be noted that there are no known harmful pathogens that can survive in beer, so you don't have to worry about getting dysentery from your infected batch, just some bad flavors.
As soon as your wort has cooled below about 140F it is a breeding ground for microorganisms. The best way to prevent infection is to sanitize anything that will come into contact with the cooled wort, and keep it covered as much as possible to minimize air contact. It is also important to pitch your yeast and get it off and running as quickly as possible because your yeast will help prevent infection by lowering the pH of the wort, reducing the sugar content, and producing alcohol.
Now the real question is: what do I mean by "sanitize?" This brings us to our first "don't".
Don't: Wash With Soap and Call It Sanitary
"Sanitization" usually refers to killing the bacteria and wild yeast on your brewing equipment. "Cleaning" refers to removing the beer residue and sugars from your equipment. Many times these two steps together are referred to as "sanitizing," which can be confusing to new brewers, but they are both absolutely necessary. The first step is to use a cleaner such as Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW) or Oxyclean Free (yes, the laundry detergent) to remove any organic matter. You should not use dish soap or any other cleaner that leaves a residue. Yes, it will clean your equipment, but unless you rinse it 45 times, dance in a circle, burn some incense, and sacrifice a chicken, it will most likely leave a small amount of residue that will kill the head retention in your finished beer.
So you've washed with PBW and it's sanitized right? Wrong! PBW is a cleaner and has only removed the organic matter; there are still trillions of bacteria living on your brewing equipment. The only way to sanitize your equipment is to use an actual sanitizer. The two that are most commonly used in brewing are Star San and Iodophor. Star San works by lowering the pH of water to an inhospitable level, and don't worry, it's supposed to smell like sulfur. It doesn't need to be rinsed or dried, and won't affect the flavor of your beer.
Iodophor is an iodine-based sanitizer and will turn absolutely everything it touches brownish red. It works well, and I'll probably get a lot of flak for saying this, but it doesn't need to be rinsed or dried either. You should let your equipment drip clean and minimize the amount that gets in your beer, but a few drops of dilute Iodophor sanitizer won't affect the flavor of your beer in my experience.
2. Do: Follow a Recipe for Your First Brew
Let's be real; it's your first brew. The goal isn't to brew the greatest beer in history.
Not everyone can find the ultimate beer recipe stuffed in a doll
Making a drinkable brew is a good first step. Whether you're starting out with extracts or all-grain, just pick a beer you like to drink and see if there's a clone of it out there. I didn't and my first beer was awful, and I'm sure others have had similar experiences. Just learn the process before you start inventing that ultimate brew.
Don't: Obsess Over Every Detail of the Recipe
The recipe is important, don't get me wrong, but some small deviations just don't matter that much. Here's a list of things with some wiggle room in them. This list isn't comprehensive by any means--and will probably get plenty of argument from other brewers--but in my experience these are a few things that just don't matter that much:
3. Do: Read A Book or Two About Brewing First
Charlie Papazian's book is perhaps the most popular and widely read, though not the most technical
The three best sources of literature to focus on are, in my opinion:
If the first place you start looking for brewing information is a search engine, you're going to pull your hair out. There are as many opinions on the internet as a-holes, and there's a large amount of disinformation out there. Start with one of the books, then narrow your internet searches a bit. Just learning what to look for is a good place to start!
4. Do: Take Notes and Record Data
The brewing journal I'm hoping to get for Christmas. Hint Hint Mom.
Taking notes is probably one of the most important things any brewer can do to improve their process, and their beer. You won't remember much about your current brew day next time, so take notes on everything. It's better to write too much than too little. Some key things to record are:
The date of your brew day.
Your brew's EXPECTED vital statistics and recipe: IBU's, SRM, OG, FG, mash temp, mash time, boil time, grain bill, hop schedule, and yeast strain.
Your brew's ACTUAL vital statistics and recipe. This will tell you how close you are to your targets and whether or not you need to make adjustments to your process.
Anything that doesn't go exactly as planned so you can adjust for it next time. If you make a change to your recipe or process last-minute, write down WHY you did it.
Your pre-boil volume and post-boil volume.
When you first observe krausen, how long primary fermentation activity lasts, and any hydrometer/refractomter readings you take along the way.
Racking days and bottling days.
Priming sugar weight, water volume, and expected volumes of CO2.
Any other passing thoughts that might be relevant later on.
Don't: Get Too Drunk to Write
I have a rule in my house: "you've gotta drink beer to make beer." I always drink during brew day, but I also limit my consumption to one beer per hour or less. Drinking heavily on brew day can lead to mistakes, forgetfulness, accidents, and bad beer. Don't forget that you are dealing with gallons of boiling sugar water and likely some fire. It's just plain not safe to get pissed on brew day.
5. Do: Learn Patience
I've listed patience last because it's the most important thing for a new brewer to learn, and the most difficult in my opinion. Brewing beer is exciting, especially when it's your first time. That excitement can lead to mistakes, especially after brew day is over. Brew day itself is a flurry of activity, and at the end of it the reward is several weeks of waiting. That's just plain difficult.
While your beer is fermenting, don't fiddle with it, don't sniff it, and don't taste it (except at hydrometer readings). Just leave it alone in a cool dark room and do something else, like plan your next batch, or drool over brewing equipment that is currently out of your budget. Once fermentation is complete and you bottle or keg it, you get to wait some more.
Again, stop fiddling with it! Don't keep opening beers every day to check the carbonation, just let it sit for 3 weeks minimum in the bottles. The more you open, the less of the final product you will have to drink.
Don't: Rush Things
I'm just going to go ahead and say the same thing twice on this one, it's that important. Beer is like love: it's slow, patient, kind (if not enjoyed in excess), and will be your best friend on good days and bad. But mostly it's slow. And if at the end of your long wait your beer doesn't taste great, wait some more. Time can improve bad beer, so just let it be.
I hope this proves helpful to some first time brewers out there. Good luck, and happy beering!
Author Bio:
Mat King is a Nuclear Reactor Technician by day, and homebrew enthusiast by night. He holds a bachelor's degree in English from Washington State University, which he uses for mostly nothing besides writing the best homebrew articles on the web. Other than making possibly the best beer in the world, Mat is an avid outdoors man, and spends as much free time as possible gallivanting around the western states backpacking and mountaineering. Mat hopes to one day open a brewery of his own, but he'd settle for winning the lottery and homebrewing full time for his friends.//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/
Ok perhaps that's an exaggeration
(http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-adult.html)
Sanitization is one of the most crucial parts of brewing a healthy beer. At best, an infection will cause some "interesting" sour flavors, and at worst will totally ruin your beer. It should be noted that there are no known harmful pathogens that can survive in beer, so you don't have to worry about getting dysentery from your infected batch, just some bad flavors.
As soon as your wort has cooled below about 140F it is a breeding ground for microorganisms. The best way to prevent infection is to sanitize anything that will come into contact with the cooled wort, and keep it covered as much as possible to minimize air contact. It is also important to pitch your yeast and get it off and running as quickly as possible because your yeast will help prevent infection by lowering the pH of the wort, reducing the sugar content, and producing alcohol.
Now the real question is: what do I mean by "sanitize?" This brings us to our first "don't".
Don't: Wash With Soap and Call It Sanitary
"Sanitization" usually refers to killing the bacteria and wild yeast on your brewing equipment. "Cleaning" refers to removing the beer residue and sugars from your equipment. Many times these two steps together are referred to as "sanitizing," which can be confusing to new brewers, but they are both absolutely necessary. The first step is to use a cleaner such as Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW) or Oxyclean Free (yes, the laundry detergent) to remove any organic matter. You should not use dish soap or any other cleaner that leaves a residue. Yes, it will clean your equipment, but unless you rinse it 45 times, dance in a circle, burn some incense, and sacrifice a chicken, it will most likely leave a small amount of residue that will kill the head retention in your finished beer.
So you've washed with PBW and it's sanitized right? Wrong! PBW is a cleaner and has only removed the organic matter; there are still trillions of bacteria living on your brewing equipment. The only way to sanitize your equipment is to use an actual sanitizer. The two that are most commonly used in brewing are Star San and Iodophor. Star San works by lowering the pH of water to an inhospitable level, and don't worry, it's supposed to smell like sulfur. It doesn't need to be rinsed or dried, and won't affect the flavor of your beer.
Iodophor is an iodine-based sanitizer and will turn absolutely everything it touches brownish red. It works well, and I'll probably get a lot of flak for saying this, but it doesn't need to be rinsed or dried either. You should let your equipment drip clean and minimize the amount that gets in your beer, but a few drops of dilute Iodophor sanitizer won't affect the flavor of your beer in my experience.
2. Do: Follow a Recipe for Your First Brew
Let's be real; it's your first brew. The goal isn't to brew the greatest beer in history.
Not everyone can find the ultimate beer recipe stuffed in a doll
Making a drinkable brew is a good first step. Whether you're starting out with extracts or all-grain, just pick a beer you like to drink and see if there's a clone of it out there. I didn't and my first beer was awful, and I'm sure others have had similar experiences. Just learn the process before you start inventing that ultimate brew.
Don't: Obsess Over Every Detail of the Recipe
The recipe is important, don't get me wrong, but some small deviations just don't matter that much. Here's a list of things with some wiggle room in them. This list isn't comprehensive by any means--and will probably get plenty of argument from other brewers--but in my experience these are a few things that just don't matter that much:
- Mash time can vary by ten to fifteen minutes without much change to your recipe. I've even accidentally mashed for two and a half hours before without an issue, but I was going for a highly fermentable wort.
- Boil time can vary by 20% without a problem. If you're making an IPA and only boil for 48 minutes, you might not hit your target IBU's.exactly, but your beer won't be ruined by any stretch.
- Accidentally throwing in a few extra ounces of grain or malt extract might change your beer a bit, but don't worry, everything will be ok.
- Missing a hop addition by a few minutes is perfectly okay. We've all done it. If you forget one entirely, you'll have a flavor change for sure, but again, it won't ruin your beer.
- Cooling your beer quickly is important for minimizing infections, but if you keep it covered and don't disturb it, leaving it to cool overnight won't hurt anything.
3. Do: Read A Book or Two About Brewing First
Charlie Papazian's book is perhaps the most popular and widely read, though not the most technical
The three best sources of literature to focus on are, in my opinion:
- The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian. He presents brewing in a relaxed non-intimidating manner and breaks the process down into very easy bite-sized pieces.
- John Palmer's How to Brew is a bit more of an in-depth look at brewing. He takes you through absolutely every aspect of brewing from the most basic extract kit to the ins-and-outs of brewing water chemistry.
- The Brewing Elements book set - Water, Hops, and Yeast - are also excellent resources. I haven't read them myself, but they come highly recommended from many homebrewers, and some of our own HomeBrewTalk members have contributed to these books.
If the first place you start looking for brewing information is a search engine, you're going to pull your hair out. There are as many opinions on the internet as a-holes, and there's a large amount of disinformation out there. Start with one of the books, then narrow your internet searches a bit. Just learning what to look for is a good place to start!
4. Do: Take Notes and Record Data
The brewing journal I'm hoping to get for Christmas. Hint Hint Mom.
Taking notes is probably one of the most important things any brewer can do to improve their process, and their beer. You won't remember much about your current brew day next time, so take notes on everything. It's better to write too much than too little. Some key things to record are:
The date of your brew day.
Your brew's EXPECTED vital statistics and recipe: IBU's, SRM, OG, FG, mash temp, mash time, boil time, grain bill, hop schedule, and yeast strain.
Your brew's ACTUAL vital statistics and recipe. This will tell you how close you are to your targets and whether or not you need to make adjustments to your process.
Anything that doesn't go exactly as planned so you can adjust for it next time. If you make a change to your recipe or process last-minute, write down WHY you did it.
Your pre-boil volume and post-boil volume.
When you first observe krausen, how long primary fermentation activity lasts, and any hydrometer/refractomter readings you take along the way.
Racking days and bottling days.
Priming sugar weight, water volume, and expected volumes of CO2.
Any other passing thoughts that might be relevant later on.
Don't: Get Too Drunk to Write
I have a rule in my house: "you've gotta drink beer to make beer." I always drink during brew day, but I also limit my consumption to one beer per hour or less. Drinking heavily on brew day can lead to mistakes, forgetfulness, accidents, and bad beer. Don't forget that you are dealing with gallons of boiling sugar water and likely some fire. It's just plain not safe to get pissed on brew day.
5. Do: Learn Patience
I've listed patience last because it's the most important thing for a new brewer to learn, and the most difficult in my opinion. Brewing beer is exciting, especially when it's your first time. That excitement can lead to mistakes, especially after brew day is over. Brew day itself is a flurry of activity, and at the end of it the reward is several weeks of waiting. That's just plain difficult.
While your beer is fermenting, don't fiddle with it, don't sniff it, and don't taste it (except at hydrometer readings). Just leave it alone in a cool dark room and do something else, like plan your next batch, or drool over brewing equipment that is currently out of your budget. Once fermentation is complete and you bottle or keg it, you get to wait some more.
Again, stop fiddling with it! Don't keep opening beers every day to check the carbonation, just let it sit for 3 weeks minimum in the bottles. The more you open, the less of the final product you will have to drink.
Don't: Rush Things
I'm just going to go ahead and say the same thing twice on this one, it's that important. Beer is like love: it's slow, patient, kind (if not enjoyed in excess), and will be your best friend on good days and bad. But mostly it's slow. And if at the end of your long wait your beer doesn't taste great, wait some more. Time can improve bad beer, so just let it be.
I hope this proves helpful to some first time brewers out there. Good luck, and happy beering!
Author Bio:
Mat King is a Nuclear Reactor Technician by day, and homebrew enthusiast by night. He holds a bachelor's degree in English from Washington State University, which he uses for mostly nothing besides writing the best homebrew articles on the web. Other than making possibly the best beer in the world, Mat is an avid outdoors man, and spends as much free time as possible gallivanting around the western states backpacking and mountaineering. Mat hopes to one day open a brewery of his own, but he'd settle for winning the lottery and homebrewing full time for his friends.//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/
