Hey guys!
So I have finally finished my 25th brew, and I was thinking about all the things I have learned along the way. I decided to make a list of all the things that made my brewing life just a little bit easier, focusing on inexpensive fixes to problems I have encountered along the way. Many of these things are things I have found littered around these forums, so credit due to the many members of HBT that have helped me along the way. Many of these are also probably intuitive, but for some reason, when I started brewing... I never thought about, so hopefully I can save some poor soul from making many of the mistakes that I did.
1) Spray Bottle for Star-San (or other dry on sanitizer). Using a spray bottle for this make sanitizing so much easier... especially the racking cane / bottling wand, various spoons and whatever else. I also end up wasting much less star-san.
2) Use racking cane to move cool beer from brewpot to fermenter; make sure to splash. For some reason I was always lifting and pooring from the heavy pot. My back thanks me every time I use this trick!
3) Make starters... you don't need a fancy flask or stir-plate. Using a Mason Jar and shaking is a good place to start. Also, I know this will probably be looked down on around here but sometimes I even make starters for dry yeast. I add yeast nutrient and aerate as best as my equipment will let me, and after a side by side comparison, I really can't tell the difference between pitching 2 packs of (re hydrated) dry yeast, and using a 2L starter + 1 pack. To each their own though.
4) Save your final runnings (All Grain). After I sparge, I can usually get about 1 gallon of 1.02 wort which would only serve to water down my original wort. This stuff is perfect to work with for a starter though. You can freeze it, or can it and save it for later. Bring to a boil for 15 mins / then cool before pitching when you make a starter.
5) Wash your yeast. There are tons of good threads about this around the forum. One of the things that I find not to be true is that yeast will only be good for a few weeks if you keep it in the fridge. I personally have had washed yeast sit in the fridge for a year... made a starter, stepped it up, and had great results. As a comparison, I pitched fresh yeast into identical wort and could not tell the difference between beer produced by washed and fresh yeast, same FG, same lag time, same character. Results may vary but try it out or keep an open mind.... I kick myself for all the times I dumped a yeast cake down the drain out of pure laziness.
6) Yeast has a huge impact on flavor. I know this goes without saying for many of you... but I learned this the hard way. I accidentally pitched the wrong yeast into a kolsh wort(long story), and magically wound up with a beer that was a "hefewiezen". It had 0 wheat, but I swear to god it almost tasted the same as another hefe I brewed properly.... Respect the yeast character.
7) Pick your yeast carefully (this is more subjective than the others). A lot of clone recipes settle for "classical" yeast choices. For example, if you are brewing a Guiness Clone, you are "supposed to" use WLP004 Irish Ale yeast. If you look closely though, the apparent attenuation character of this yeast is way too low for a dry stout. The same goes for the Anchor Steam Brew clones that call for California Common yeast.
8) If you mill your grain, use a spray bottle to "mist" your grain with water before milling. I sooo wish someone had told me this long ago... You can get a much finer crush, while preserving the grain husks. It also cuts way down on the "dust" during milling.
9) Top off water. I did not know such a thing existed when I started brewing. If your "OG" is too high, you can add tap/bottled water to adjust. I don't know how I didn't know about this before but man... it makes things so much better. Also, another tip... keep your top off water in the fridge so it helps further cool the wort if you add it.
10) DME is useful in almost the same way. If you miss your "OG" and come in lower than expected add some DME into the boil. Again I should have known this before, but missed picking the trick up along the way.
11) If you keg, the easy way to force carb a cold keg (35ish degrees) quickly is to turn up the PSI near 35, then turn off the C02 at the tank. Now the gauge will tell you the PSI of the keg only. Shake the keg like crazy and you should see the PSI go down. Repeat the process until the keg is as serving pressure. If you overshoot, pull the pressure relief on the keg and readjust. After you reach your goal, let the keg sit for about an hour and you'll be good to go.
12) Another keg trick. Getting lots of foam? Measure the length of your serving line. For each foot of line, you want your serving pressure to be 1 psi higher. For example, my lines are 5 feet. I turn my regulator down to 5 psi to serve, and when I finish serving, I put it back up to 8 psi (or whatever the style calls for). No foam.
Anyway, that's all I can think of for now. I know a lot of this stuff is probably common sense, and some of it is my own opinion as well. Hopefully this can help a novice brewer out there. If you have any tricks or tips to add please do so, and again happy brewing!
So I have finally finished my 25th brew, and I was thinking about all the things I have learned along the way. I decided to make a list of all the things that made my brewing life just a little bit easier, focusing on inexpensive fixes to problems I have encountered along the way. Many of these things are things I have found littered around these forums, so credit due to the many members of HBT that have helped me along the way. Many of these are also probably intuitive, but for some reason, when I started brewing... I never thought about, so hopefully I can save some poor soul from making many of the mistakes that I did.
1) Spray Bottle for Star-San (or other dry on sanitizer). Using a spray bottle for this make sanitizing so much easier... especially the racking cane / bottling wand, various spoons and whatever else. I also end up wasting much less star-san.
2) Use racking cane to move cool beer from brewpot to fermenter; make sure to splash. For some reason I was always lifting and pooring from the heavy pot. My back thanks me every time I use this trick!
3) Make starters... you don't need a fancy flask or stir-plate. Using a Mason Jar and shaking is a good place to start. Also, I know this will probably be looked down on around here but sometimes I even make starters for dry yeast. I add yeast nutrient and aerate as best as my equipment will let me, and after a side by side comparison, I really can't tell the difference between pitching 2 packs of (re hydrated) dry yeast, and using a 2L starter + 1 pack. To each their own though.
4) Save your final runnings (All Grain). After I sparge, I can usually get about 1 gallon of 1.02 wort which would only serve to water down my original wort. This stuff is perfect to work with for a starter though. You can freeze it, or can it and save it for later. Bring to a boil for 15 mins / then cool before pitching when you make a starter.
5) Wash your yeast. There are tons of good threads about this around the forum. One of the things that I find not to be true is that yeast will only be good for a few weeks if you keep it in the fridge. I personally have had washed yeast sit in the fridge for a year... made a starter, stepped it up, and had great results. As a comparison, I pitched fresh yeast into identical wort and could not tell the difference between beer produced by washed and fresh yeast, same FG, same lag time, same character. Results may vary but try it out or keep an open mind.... I kick myself for all the times I dumped a yeast cake down the drain out of pure laziness.
6) Yeast has a huge impact on flavor. I know this goes without saying for many of you... but I learned this the hard way. I accidentally pitched the wrong yeast into a kolsh wort(long story), and magically wound up with a beer that was a "hefewiezen". It had 0 wheat, but I swear to god it almost tasted the same as another hefe I brewed properly.... Respect the yeast character.
7) Pick your yeast carefully (this is more subjective than the others). A lot of clone recipes settle for "classical" yeast choices. For example, if you are brewing a Guiness Clone, you are "supposed to" use WLP004 Irish Ale yeast. If you look closely though, the apparent attenuation character of this yeast is way too low for a dry stout. The same goes for the Anchor Steam Brew clones that call for California Common yeast.
8) If you mill your grain, use a spray bottle to "mist" your grain with water before milling. I sooo wish someone had told me this long ago... You can get a much finer crush, while preserving the grain husks. It also cuts way down on the "dust" during milling.
9) Top off water. I did not know such a thing existed when I started brewing. If your "OG" is too high, you can add tap/bottled water to adjust. I don't know how I didn't know about this before but man... it makes things so much better. Also, another tip... keep your top off water in the fridge so it helps further cool the wort if you add it.
10) DME is useful in almost the same way. If you miss your "OG" and come in lower than expected add some DME into the boil. Again I should have known this before, but missed picking the trick up along the way.
11) If you keg, the easy way to force carb a cold keg (35ish degrees) quickly is to turn up the PSI near 35, then turn off the C02 at the tank. Now the gauge will tell you the PSI of the keg only. Shake the keg like crazy and you should see the PSI go down. Repeat the process until the keg is as serving pressure. If you overshoot, pull the pressure relief on the keg and readjust. After you reach your goal, let the keg sit for about an hour and you'll be good to go.
12) Another keg trick. Getting lots of foam? Measure the length of your serving line. For each foot of line, you want your serving pressure to be 1 psi higher. For example, my lines are 5 feet. I turn my regulator down to 5 psi to serve, and when I finish serving, I put it back up to 8 psi (or whatever the style calls for). No foam.
Anyway, that's all I can think of for now. I know a lot of this stuff is probably common sense, and some of it is my own opinion as well. Hopefully this can help a novice brewer out there. If you have any tricks or tips to add please do so, and again happy brewing!
) or so during a 60 min hard boil, or I will just boil until I hit pretty close to my final target volume. If my efficiency from the mash was bad/or better, then I'll adjust the hops up or down a little for the 60 min addition, I usually don't mess with the other ones because they affect the bitterness less.
