calling audibles on brewday

[fluketamer]

how many of you out there call audibles on brewday. i find myself sometimes calling audibles. ill suddnely descide to use a different bittering hop or to change my flavor additions to whirlpool. etc.

yesterday i looked at my lager which is only a few days away from packaging and thought i have a few pounds of hops, why not dry hop the hell out of it.

its now soaking up several ounces of hop oils ( i hope) .

do you guys change the beer as its going or do you pretty much stick to your recipe design.

the whole way through

 

[Pennine]

I just wing it as I go. First I get the water heating, then I pick a yeast and style. Next I work on the gran bill, mill them up and get the mash going. Once that's all done I will start thinking about hops. I do keep a wide variety of things stocked which is the only reason I am marignally successful at home brewing.

I wish I had more time to plan but I can barely find time to brew. I would rather brew an audible than make plans and not brew.

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

I'm a planner,i plan at least 3 brews ahead,write down recipes before I brew, keep a stock list of grain hops and yeast, I'd be horrified to start the day not knowing what I was going to brew- you guys have got bigger stones than me!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

audibles on brewday

It depends. If I'm working on process / ingredient changes, brew day is highly choreographed. Otherwise, on occasion, I've 'made an audible' as the risk/reward ratio reinforces the 'reward'.

do you pretty much stick to your recipe design the whole way through

On occasion, after brew day, and based on 1) how the fermentation went or 2) how the hydrometer sample tasted, I've made adjustments (dry hop, other ingredients) to the beer before packaging.

I just wing it as I go. First I [...]

I would rather brew an audible than make plans and not brew.

If you are willing, and have time, can you post more about your approach?

 

[tracer bullet]

I'm a planner

Same, though slightly less so. I've got the recipe and any method changes figured out ahead of time, and on brew day I stick with the plan. I am pretty sure that what I was thinking about off and on for several days, usually involving some research and such, is probably a better plan that what I decide to change at the last minute. Sure I'll change something if I realize I messed up but to date haven't needed to.

 

[Brockness Monster]

I like efficiency and repeatability. I take detailed notes and write down any changes I think need to be done. I stick to the plan as much as I can, but things happen and the plan often turns into panic, fire and tears

 

[Broothru]

I like efficiency and repeatability. I take detailed notes and write down any changes I think need to be done. I stick to the plan as much as I can, but things happen and the plan often turns into panic, fire and tears

And occasionally it happily results in surprisingly good beer!

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

I have my recipes in beersmith and my process is pretty locked down.. but let's face it .. sh** happens and sometimes you have to react quickly, or audible or whatever.. for me this usually occurs when I think I have an ingredient on hand and I go to grab it and ... uhhh .. crap its not there, or the bag I thought was saaz is simcoe.. I typically have enough ingredients on hand to sift through my inventory to find a 'close enough" match and toss that in. So yeah that happens.

Sometimes on brewday I will purposely call an audible, like hey I know this recipe is great, but I've brewed it this way a couple times so let's throw a different hop at it and see how it turns out.. or I want a little more abv so let's add another pound of 2row or whatever, that makes it fun for me too, taking a know good recipe, making a minor change and seeing what I like better. I have a brew book that all the details get written into, so im not changing my known good recipe in beersmith unless I decide I like the changes once the beer is poured. This is one of the many reasons I love this hobby.

 

[Zadkiel]

I have no storage space - I live in a 1 bedroom flat in central london that also doubles as a home office for me and my wife, and our 2 cats - I'm so tight on space that my fermentation fridge doubles up as a storage cupboard for my brewing equipment when there isn't a brew inside - I not only have to buy my grain/hops/yeast exactly to match my recipe, I have to time buying it so it arrives just before brewday, so it's not getting in our way for too long.

So no, for me there is no opportunity for me to have extra supplies on hand and decide to make last minute changes, any extras I have after brewing (for example if my recipe used 80g of hops but they came in a bag of 100g) just goes in the bin, I have nowhere to keep it.

 

[Dland]

Ha, I had to look up the definition of audibles.

Anyway, I often decide on final recipe after I get the strike water heating up and as I crush the grains. I usually know what general direction I want to go with the brew that day based on what I've got in the pipe line, but final call will be made depending on what bags of grain and hops are already open, and stock rotation considerations.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Nope. I'm a planner. I'll often plan out a series of 2-3 styles based upon reuse of the same yeast, and to the extent possible plan out recipes to bulk purchase as much of the ingredients as I can. From there it's just executing to plan based on what's in Beersmith.

If there's an audible, it's because something's gone wrong.

 

[day_trippr]

Never have, and by the Big Hairy Thunderer in the Sky hopefully never will.
I'm way too OC to even consider it...

 

[MaxStout]

I often suffer from CRS (can't remember shiat). If I try to go unscripted, I'll leave something out.

 

[Broken Crow]

Like @Dland , I had to look up 'calling audibles' ...some sports thing I guess? If you mean 'off the cuff' or 'on the fly', I usually do that when I've noticed I have too much DME or LME in my cupboard and some hops or grain or other sitting in my freezer without purpose.. I'll throw together a "Pantry Ale" just to get old stock out of the way.

 

[wepeeler]

I never do anything as extreme as say change the beer style I'm brewing, but that's because I weigh out my grain the day before, and get the yeast going (if it's liquid). BUT, I never weigh hops out until I get at least a pre-boil gravity. That way if I'm way off with my efficiency, I'm not making a Heady Topper when I planned on a Pale Ale.

 

[Pennine]

It depends. If I'm working on process / ingredient changes, brew day is highly choreographed. Otherwise, on occasion, I've 'made an audible' as the risk/reward ratio reinforces the 'reward'.


On occasion, after brew day, and based on 1) how the fermentation went or 2) how the hydrometer sample tasted, I've made adjustments (dry hop, other ingredients) to the beer before packaging.


If you are willing, and have time, can you post more about your approach?

Sure, usually when I plan a recipe out the time between planning and when I can find a window to brew is long. I tend to lose interest in that idea or get distracted. So I have been taking the approach when I get inspired by a style I read about in an article or on a forum if I have time to brew I will run with that idea. I don't always have the right liquid yeast available but always have some goto dry packs and can get pretty close. I tend to only brew British styles, lagers, hoppy lagers and belgians.

I usually will just get the RO water going and then go through the malt cabinets and put together the malt bill. Sometimes I keep them simple 2 or 3 malts and other times I go more complicated and use 6 or 7. Those are usually the user uppers.

I also have a lot of hops, I tend to buy these in 1lb bags and they last forever. I haven't been keen on late addition hops and I don't go through much. So usually a 60 and 30, sometimes I do a whirlpool for the hoppy lagers. I should probably buy 8oz bags though and get more varieties.

And that is it, I will write up the recipe in beersmith as I go.

I've brewed quite a few batches over the years and honestly might have only repeated a recipe 2 or 3 times. I do really enjoy reading the recipe threads here or Ron's blog although older British recipes are pretty monotonous. Lagers are normally simple and basic.

On the other hand there are times I spend a lot of time researching recipes and putting together a plan that I usually don't stray from but that is probably 1 in 5 batches.

 

[Agent]

Despite being a "Buy in bulk" person, my inventory management is often inadequate. So I'm often surprised that of the 15lbs of hops in the freezer, there isn't a noble hop to be found. Or how I want a nice crystal 20, only to find I have nothing lower than 60.

And on the off chance I miss on a gravity/volume, I'll adjust with some honey to hit gravity.

 

[Bobby_M]

I take corrective actions, but nothing that substantially changes the plan. If I'm missing my gravity, I'll boil harder or dilute. If I open a pack of hops and they are particularly cheesy or questionable, even for their young age, I'll switch to a different variety in the same basic family.

 

[Yooper]

I mostly thoroughly plan, but have days where even if everything goes perfectly, I may have to punt if my pump clogs, the hops I know I had just aren't in the freezer after all, etc. And almost always, it works out great.

Edit- I just remembered my last brew day! Went like clockwork, and then I dryhopped 5 days later with 4 ounces of hops (simcoe, citra, centennial, chinook). And my husband came to me and said- "Hey- remember that ounce of centennial I picked and dried from one of the bines?" I said, "um, yes, sure. Where is it?" and he brought it out from the freezer. It was four ounces of dried homegrown centennial. Yep, in it went. Beer is carbing up right now, but initial taste test was outstanding. (It's a 5 gallon batch. 7 ounces of dryhops). Not exactly what I planned.

 

[tracer bullet]

Called an audible yesterday, wort was a little thin and so I gave it a little extra boil power (electric with a steam condenser that I don't normally spend much time looking inside of). After boil I noticed most of my hops were up the side of the inside wall and not where I wanted them. Pushed them down and added a few more and whirpooled a while to try and make up for it.

So, yeah, you have to make adjustments. But it was making an adjustment (boil power) that got me in the stupid situation of making another adjustment.

My normal boil power is more gentle and doesn't create this problem. Lesson learned for me was to stick with the original plan because I know it works!