spencerholm31
Active Member
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2013
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Hey all, your posts have helped me tremendously for the past two years, especially with my rookie questions. Looking back, I can't help but to laugh at my naivety because I truly am a person who learns from mistakes... to help any new brewers out, I'd like to share my TOP FAILS of the past two years of brewing.
1) In the beginning, my first batch was an Oktoberfest extract from Brewer's Best. Although the "Lager yeast provided with this kit can be fermented at Ale temperatures" I went ahead and attempted to Lager the beer (gradually decrease the fermentation temperature from room temperature to mid-30's over the period of a couple of weeks). I had no way of controlling fermentation temperature, so I decided to put the 5-gallon fermentor in my refrigerator with the door all the way open. Over the next couple of weeks, I closed my refrigerator door an inch or two every day until my beer reached the final temp. I refuse to tell you what my electricity bill that month was, but the lesson I learned for beginners: START WITH SOMETHING SIMPLE! Stick with a simple ale yeast, maybe S-04 or S-05. John Palmer has some great simple Pale & Brown Ale recipes in his How to Brew book, an earlier version of which can be seen online.
2) I don't remember which brew this mistake occurred, or when it was, but I was really pumped to brew an Irish Red Ale (I think I was gonna have it ready by St. Patty's day.) Anyway, before my brew day started, I started drinking double IPA's on an empty stomach. I was really hungry, so I drank more beer. I don't even remember brewing, and as a result of brewing drunk I cracked open the carboy a couple weeks later.... not only was there a crusty white bacterial infection growing on top of my beer, but there was only 3 gallons in my carboy?? Frantically, I turned to my girlfriend, who had seen me drunk on brew day, and she said, "Yea, you were so paranoid about adding water to the Irish Red, you said you were gonna radically make a 3-gallon 'Imperial Irish Red.'" WOW, I'm an idiot... for further clues, I looked to my notes from brew day. Usually, I take detailed notes, but on my Irish Red notes, I barely scribbled: "Step 1: get drunk before the boil." All in all, my lesson is: DON'T GET DRUNK WHILE BREWING!! More importantly, save a bottle of your favorite beer until later in the brew process, possibly after you have gotten your sanitation equipment ready and the wort is rolling. Basically, you don't binge eat while cooking, so why drink heavily while brewing?
3) My next lesson stems off the last one. In How to Brew, John Palmer talked about taking notes during brew day. Even when I'm using a recipe kit, perhaps from NORTHERN BREWER or MIDWEST SUPPLIES :rockin: there always seems to be something to take note of during the brew. For instance, I recently brewed Caribou Slobber from NB and I wanted to add a little Autumn Flair... so 15 minutes into the boil I added 1/2 lb of Lactose sugar, and with 5 minutes left in the boil I added 3/4 TBSP ground cinnamon spice, 1/4 TBSP ground Nutmeg spice, .5 oz mulling spice, and at flameout 2 TBSP vanilla extract. My buddy brewed the Caribou Slobber kit w/o my additions, and when he asked what I did, I was able to tell him more than just "Uhh... some cinnamon, I forget how much. And I forget what else I added." This note-taking takes me to my next lesson...
4) USE A HYDROMETER Plenty of folks (like John Palmer) have written about how and when to use a properly sanitized hydrometer. For starters, taking one after the brew is complete, and your wort is cooled down, right before you pitch in the yeast is a great time to use a hydrometer for an initial gravity reading. Don't make the mistake I made, which was trying to take a hydrometer reading in boiling water before the wort cooled down, because temperature is a variable that effects your gravity reading. Basically, you want a reliable initial gravity reading later on. If you don't see bubbles in your air lock after a handful of days, you can always compare a gravity reading to see if your yeast is active and your carboy seal is faulty. Also, you can take consecutive gravity readings a few weeks into fermentation to see if, in fact, your beer is ready for bottles. That way, you can avoid.....
5) BOTTLE BOMBS!!!! This lesson basically advocates to use priming sugar calculators (like Northern Brewer's) for all variables, including temperature of your carboy beer in primary or secondary. The first time I brewed Cider, I disregarded the temperature of my refrigerated cider, and I added way to much sugar. Low and behold, driving on my way to a cider-exchange birthday party, I heard a series of gunshots in my trunk. After pulling over, I had shards of glass all over my trunk, and sticky cider surged out of my six-pack like Old Faithful.
Since my post is getting awfully long, I think I'll just end with Patience and Sanitation. Those take discipline, but promise great beer. You can save yourself plenty of home-brew regurgitations and awkward glances from friends trying your homebrew if you try to read up and learn as much as you can. Hell, I'm still a noob, but at least I'm not putting maple syrup in my pilsners any more
Thanks for reading. All in all, I just want to try to give back to the homebrew community that has helped me so much over the past two years. Happy brewing!
1) In the beginning, my first batch was an Oktoberfest extract from Brewer's Best. Although the "Lager yeast provided with this kit can be fermented at Ale temperatures" I went ahead and attempted to Lager the beer (gradually decrease the fermentation temperature from room temperature to mid-30's over the period of a couple of weeks). I had no way of controlling fermentation temperature, so I decided to put the 5-gallon fermentor in my refrigerator with the door all the way open. Over the next couple of weeks, I closed my refrigerator door an inch or two every day until my beer reached the final temp. I refuse to tell you what my electricity bill that month was, but the lesson I learned for beginners: START WITH SOMETHING SIMPLE! Stick with a simple ale yeast, maybe S-04 or S-05. John Palmer has some great simple Pale & Brown Ale recipes in his How to Brew book, an earlier version of which can be seen online.
2) I don't remember which brew this mistake occurred, or when it was, but I was really pumped to brew an Irish Red Ale (I think I was gonna have it ready by St. Patty's day.) Anyway, before my brew day started, I started drinking double IPA's on an empty stomach. I was really hungry, so I drank more beer. I don't even remember brewing, and as a result of brewing drunk I cracked open the carboy a couple weeks later.... not only was there a crusty white bacterial infection growing on top of my beer, but there was only 3 gallons in my carboy?? Frantically, I turned to my girlfriend, who had seen me drunk on brew day, and she said, "Yea, you were so paranoid about adding water to the Irish Red, you said you were gonna radically make a 3-gallon 'Imperial Irish Red.'" WOW, I'm an idiot... for further clues, I looked to my notes from brew day. Usually, I take detailed notes, but on my Irish Red notes, I barely scribbled: "Step 1: get drunk before the boil." All in all, my lesson is: DON'T GET DRUNK WHILE BREWING!! More importantly, save a bottle of your favorite beer until later in the brew process, possibly after you have gotten your sanitation equipment ready and the wort is rolling. Basically, you don't binge eat while cooking, so why drink heavily while brewing?
3) My next lesson stems off the last one. In How to Brew, John Palmer talked about taking notes during brew day. Even when I'm using a recipe kit, perhaps from NORTHERN BREWER or MIDWEST SUPPLIES :rockin: there always seems to be something to take note of during the brew. For instance, I recently brewed Caribou Slobber from NB and I wanted to add a little Autumn Flair... so 15 minutes into the boil I added 1/2 lb of Lactose sugar, and with 5 minutes left in the boil I added 3/4 TBSP ground cinnamon spice, 1/4 TBSP ground Nutmeg spice, .5 oz mulling spice, and at flameout 2 TBSP vanilla extract. My buddy brewed the Caribou Slobber kit w/o my additions, and when he asked what I did, I was able to tell him more than just "Uhh... some cinnamon, I forget how much. And I forget what else I added." This note-taking takes me to my next lesson...
4) USE A HYDROMETER Plenty of folks (like John Palmer) have written about how and when to use a properly sanitized hydrometer. For starters, taking one after the brew is complete, and your wort is cooled down, right before you pitch in the yeast is a great time to use a hydrometer for an initial gravity reading. Don't make the mistake I made, which was trying to take a hydrometer reading in boiling water before the wort cooled down, because temperature is a variable that effects your gravity reading. Basically, you want a reliable initial gravity reading later on. If you don't see bubbles in your air lock after a handful of days, you can always compare a gravity reading to see if your yeast is active and your carboy seal is faulty. Also, you can take consecutive gravity readings a few weeks into fermentation to see if, in fact, your beer is ready for bottles. That way, you can avoid.....
5) BOTTLE BOMBS!!!! This lesson basically advocates to use priming sugar calculators (like Northern Brewer's) for all variables, including temperature of your carboy beer in primary or secondary. The first time I brewed Cider, I disregarded the temperature of my refrigerated cider, and I added way to much sugar. Low and behold, driving on my way to a cider-exchange birthday party, I heard a series of gunshots in my trunk. After pulling over, I had shards of glass all over my trunk, and sticky cider surged out of my six-pack like Old Faithful.
Since my post is getting awfully long, I think I'll just end with Patience and Sanitation. Those take discipline, but promise great beer. You can save yourself plenty of home-brew regurgitations and awkward glances from friends trying your homebrew if you try to read up and learn as much as you can. Hell, I'm still a noob, but at least I'm not putting maple syrup in my pilsners any more
Thanks for reading. All in all, I just want to try to give back to the homebrew community that has helped me so much over the past two years. Happy brewing!
