Eight random tips for new brewers

[willy_mugobeer]

Hi everyone, first of all, thanks for the awesome amount of collective wisdom on this site....I've found more answers here than I can count, and some great new recipe ideas as well.

So in the spirit of giving back, I figured I'd post my top "lessons learned" after about 7 batches...obviously I'm no pro but so far, all my brews (extract recipes with steeping grains at the start) have come out pretty well ...so maybe the tips below will help other newbies avoid some of the same mistakes I've made along the way.

1. Once your water (liquor?) is up to proper steeping temps (around 150), put your bag of grains in, then drop your heat down to its lowest setting. Otherwise, your temps will continue to rise and get over 170 (danger zone for tannin extraction) WAY faster than you think. (After a few batches, you'll get the hang of your system's behavior on this.)
   
2. Got DME? Empty all your bags of DME into a large bowl, and then use a coffee cup or one-cup measuring cup to add into the boil slowly. DME is, by far, the stickiest/gummiest/clumpiest substance ever known to mankind. If you try to pour straight from a bag into your boil, it will clump up at the opening of your bag and create a huge mess.
   
3. If you're moving from a primary in a plastic pail with spigot...into a carboy for secondary....be sure to remove the airlock at the top of the primary before you open the spigot and let the beer flow into the secondary. Otherwise, there's no way for air to get in and replace the beer that's going into the secondary...and you wind up with a vacuum that will a) stop the flow of beer, and b) make it nearly impossible to get the primary's airlock or lid off.
   
4. Before putting anything into a bucket with a spigot, make sure that the spigot is actually closed. Then check that again.
   
5. Scrounge any & all re-cappable bottles from your friends...especially if they drink Grolsch swingtops, but "bomber" 22 oz-ers are great too. More bottle inventory = more capacity for you to do multiple batches & let them condition longer. (Also, if you like Grolsch bottles, it may be cheaper to buy them from your liquor store with beer in them, than to buy them on craigslist/eBay.)
   
6. Get a bottle filling wand. Absolutely worth it -- totally blows drawers off crimping & releasing a hose ~45 times, and trying to transfer that hose from bottle to bottle without drippage.
   
7. Know your yeast strain, and what temperatures it likes. Don't expect it to do its work outside that temperature range.
   
8. Sanitizer is your friend, and it's very cheap compared to a ruined batch. Use it liberally.

Hope some of you find this helpful, and please feel free to add any tips or hard-learned lessons from your first few batches....

 

[NineMilBill]

I do have one serious issue with one of your tips. If you don't pour your DME from the bag directly into the boil, where on earth do you expect to get DME candy?

 

[Tall_Yotie]

Never thought of putting DME in a bowl and scooping it in. Really smart idea there! I do all grain now, but a great tip for the extract folks.

And for the spigot, that is my wife's job to remind me, because I always forget. So far I have not had an issue, but that is because half the time when she asks me I have to close it.

 

[GoodDogShelby]

4) Before putting anything into a bucket with a spigot, make sure that the spigot is actually closed. Then check that again.

Yeah, this one's pretty important.

 

[zeg]

2. Got DME? Empty all your bags of DME into a large bowl, and then use a coffee cup or one-cup measuring cup to add into the boil slowly. DME is, by far, the stickiest/gummiest/clumpiest substance ever known to mankind. If you try to pour straight from a bag into your boil, it will clump up at the opening of your bag and create a huge mess.

Nice list. I've found I have the best luck just opening the bag of DME by shaking it down to the bottom, then cutting the entire top edge off. When it's time to add, I first turn off the heat and wait a couple minutes for the steam rising up from the kettle to dissipate, then give a quick pour/dump to minimize the amount of steam-stickified DME on the bag. If I'm using less than a full bag, I weight it out into a smooth-sided bowl and do a similar quick-dump.

When I tried a scooping procedure, I found that I the repeated exposure of the scoop to the steam and then DME and then steam and then DME, etc, led to more gunk.

 

[brtisbuck]

I've taken the liberty to edit.

Hi everyone, first of all, thanks for the awesome amount of collective wisdom on this site....I've found more answers here than I can count, and some great new recipe ideas as well.

So in the spirit of giving back, I figured I'd post my top "lessons learned" after about 7 batches...obviously I'm no pro but so far, all my brews (extract recipes with steeping grains at the start) have come out pretty well ...so maybe the tips below will help other newbies avoid some of the same mistakes I've made along the way.

1. Once your water (liquor?) is up to proper steeping temps (around 150), put your bag of grains in, then drop your heat down to its lowest setting. Otherwise, your temps will continue to rise and get over 170 (danger zone for tannin extraction) WAY faster than you think. (After a few batches, you'll get the hang of your system's behavior on this.)You can put your grain bag in as your kettle is coming to temp and save some time, just don't exceed 170.
   
2. Got DME? Empty all your bags of DME into a large bowl, and then use a coffee cup or one-cup measuring cup to add into the boil slowly. DME is, by far, the stickiest/gummiest/clumpiest substance ever known to mankind. If you try to pour straight from a bag into your boil, it will clump up at the opening of your bag and create a huge mess.
   
3. If you're moving from a primary in a plastic pail with spigot...into a carboy for secondary....be sure to remove the airlock at the top of the primary before you open the spigot and let the beer flow into the secondary. Otherwise, there's no way for air to get in and replace the beer that's going into the secondary...and you wind up with a vacuum that will a) stop the flow of beer, and b) make it nearly impossible to get the primary's airlock or lid off.Be sure to use a tube contected to your spigot long enough to touch the bottom of the carboy to help prevent oxidation.
   
4. Before putting anything into a bucket with a spigot, make sure that the spigot is actually closed. Then check that again.
   
5. Scrounge any & all re-cappable bottles from your friends...especially if they drink Grolsch swingtops, but "bomber" 22 oz-ers are great too. More bottle inventory = more capacity for you to do multiple batches & let them condition longer. (Also, if you like Grolsch bottles, it may be cheaper to buy them from your liquor store with beer in them, than to buy them on craigslist/eBay.)
   
6. Get a bottle filling wand. Absolutely worth it -- totally blows drawers off crimping & releasing a hose ~45 times, and trying to transfer that hose from bottle to bottle without drippage.
   
7. Know your yeast strain, and what temperatures it likes. Don't expect it to do its work outside that temperature range. +1. Temp is the 1 thing you CAN control with just a little effort that will make the biggest improvement in your beer.
   
8. Sanitizer is your friend, and it's very cheap compared to a ruined batch. Use it liberally.

Stir often and stir well when using extracts. Scortched kettles are a pain in the @$$.

Hope some of you find this helpful, and please feel free to add any tips or hard-learned lessons from your first few batches....