Advice to new brewers

[Jimbodaman]

I see many threads where beginners are always checking the gravity/ just generally playing around with there fermenting beer(sometimes 4 or 5 times). The less your beer is handled post boil the better. I'm no expert, I only have like 15 recipes under my belt, but the one thing that helped improve my beer the most is just letting my beer sit untouched for 4 weeks. I just want to pass along one of the few things I picked up over the past 2 years. (I know 3 weeks is usually sufficient)

 

[JLeuck64]

Agreed!
90 batches under my belt and embarrassed to admit it took me much more than 15 batches to figure out what you already have ( ;

 

[McKnuckle]

One reason for this is the common but somewhat misguided (IMHO) advice to check for gravity 3 days in a row, and determine if it hasn't changed - as a sign of fermentation being complete. I have never done that. I don't want to futz with the beer, and I don't want to waste all of those samples. Since a newbie is anxious for the beer to finish fermenting, they begin this string of gravity checks far too early. And the gravity keeps going down, so they keep measuring.

Eventually one learns to tell when the beer is finished, both by appearance, measured vs. predicted FG, and yeast behavior. Just wait a full 2 weeks to check for the first time, and that will eliminate a lot of the playing around.

 

[GrogNerd]

& if you're an extract brewer, it's not really necessary to check for OG. as long as you hit your volumes, you are basically guaranteed to hit your gravity.

you can't gain or lose sugar from extract, so the only way to not hit OG is for you to add too much or not enough water

and I always wait 3 weeks, check once for FG and go straight to bottling

 

[Homercidal]

One reason for this is the common but somewhat misguided (IMHO) advice to check for gravity 3 days in a row, and determine if it hasn't changed - as a sign of fermentation being complete. I have never done that. I don't want to futz with the beer, and I don't want to waste all of those samples. Since a newbie is anxious for the beer to finish fermenting, they begin this string of gravity checks far too early. And the gravity keeps going down, so they keep measuring.

Eventually one learns to tell when the beer is finished, both by appearance, measured vs. predicted FG, and yeast behavior. Just wait a full 2 weeks to check for the first time, and that will eliminate a lot of the playing around.

FWIW I don't think the advice to take a reading 3 days in a row means to open the fermentor and check gravity 3 times. I would recommend checking once when the fermentation appears to have completed (And the number of days it's been fermenting has reached past the expected number of days) and then wait 3 days and check again.

It won't hurt to let the beer site for a few days more even after you reach expected gravity and it's stable. If you keg, then you can package even sooner without worrying about bottle bombs.

And of course beer style and ingredients can play a factor in how soon you want to chill and drink as well. Some beers need a few weeks of mellowing before they are tastiest, so a few more days' time isn't a big deal.

I think the important point the OP is trying to make is that despite your impatience and desire to move the beer along and see how it's progressing, it's really better to leave the fermentor alone as much as possible. Be gentle when handling fermented beer so you don't introduce Oxygen into the beer, and just relax and let it do it's thing.

While a beer can sometimes get off-flavors from extended time on yeast, if the temperature is in the proper range, and the yeast were healthy, the odds of getting bad flavors in just an extra week or so is very low. It's way easier to cause problems from oxygen than the yeast.

 

[seabrew8]

I disagree. Its just part of learning how to homebrew and getting used to the hydrometer. Sure after a dozen or so batchs the honeymoon period is over and you become more patient - just letting it set for X days. But checking the sg a reasonable amount of times is in no way going to make or break good beer.

 

[McKnuckle]

True... It is part of learning to homebrew. But then one realizes that the practice is unnecessary. The OP is just pointing that out, however futile the effort might be.

Homebrewing lore is rife with paranoia about the risk of infection. And it's mostly hysteria... until it happens to you. I've definitely infected a batch by sticking too many things in it during fermentation. Now I make those choices more carefully and take greater precautions.

 

[seabrew8]

Yeah i'm just saying its fun when your learning a new skill so don't be afraid to pull more samples then a veteran would. Its all about context.

For instance, i wouldn't of experienced a few brews hitting fg in 3 or 4 days if i followed the advice above. That was exciting at the time!

Besides i actually would go against the grain so to speak and say appearance is a good way to know if a beer is pretty close to done. Then you check the sg. If you want to leave it for 4 weeks thats your choice.

Lastly, if i didn't check my recent batch i wouldn't of knew it was stuck at 1.025 after 9 days. Which is very unusual IME.

 

[charliehorse]

That's good advice. The best thing that I can tell new brewers is to learn and understand WHY everything happens rather than HOW. If you understand the WHY, you can fix things when they go sideways. If you only understand the HOW, you're not prepared to fix something broken. Also, if you fully understand the HOW, you can formulate your own recipes fairly easy and fairly quickly (as long as you remember to write it down).

 

[MFWINZLOW]

After 60 or 70 gravity samples - there will be no beer left to package!

 

[BigFloyd]

Patience - One of the more important ingredients in a homebrew.

 

[seabrew8]

Patience - One of the more important ingredients in a homebrew.

Man i'm thinking of putting this statement in my signature! TMI....