How do you fight paranoia when brewing?

[makomachine]

I'm doing only my second lager, Munich Madness Oktoberfest from BCS, and I'm starting to get 'nervous' that the beer isn't going to come out right. I keep giving myself the speech that ingredients want to become beer, and you don't have to have everything perfect to make great beer, but that voice in the back of my head won't shut up!

On this beer it's saying:

"You missed your target mash temp (150 vs 151) and it's going to come out too thin."

"Your starting gravity was too high for the style." (1.063 vs 1.055)

"Your diacytl rest is screwing up the beer!" (started at 1.026 - 1.063 OG, 1.015 target FG - from 49 to 59F)

Help a brewing brother out with some reassurance and let me know what you do to fight that voice, other than RDWAHAHB!

 

[petep1980]

As long as you pitched enough yeast you'll be fine.

 

[Zamial]

I'm doing only my second lager, Munich Madness Oktoberfest from BCS, and I'm starting to get 'nervous' that the beer isn't going to come out right. I keep giving myself the speech that ingredients want to become beer, and you don't have to have everything perfect to make great beer, but that voice in the back of my head won't shut up!

On this beer it's saying:

"You missed your target mash temp (150 vs 151) and it's going to come out too thin."

"You starting gravity was too high for the style." (1.063 vs 1.055)

"You diacytl rest is screwing up the beer!" (started at 1.026 - 1.063 OG, 1.015 target FG)

Help a brewing brother out with some reassurance and let me know what you do to fight that voice, other than RDWAHAHB!

1st off, RDWHAHB! that is why that saying exists!

2nd you are going to have beer. Cold delicious beer that YOU made! I have come to grips with the fact that many of my beers are "snow flake" even within a recipe. I keep notes and every brew day I learn something new to apply to the next brew day.

 

[Homercidal]

Uh... With beer?

Guess what? I messed up my last brew. I missed by target OG by about 10 points. Didn't have any extract to up the gravity and was NOT going to boil any longer (cause I already added my flavor hops by then (should have measured the gravity before adding the hops, live and learn)

So my STOUT is going to be a stout instead. Big whoop.

Plus, I placed the bucket and two 1-gallon jugs of stout in the basement to start fermenting while I got my new ferm chamber wired up and they exploded. Forgot the blow off tube. One of the jugs had the foil covering the opening blown right off.

They sat that way for a couple of days, but no worries. We'll see what happens.

I think other than I mis-estimated my efficiency it went pretty well.

My only real concern is that the basement may have been too warm.

 

[Vance71975]

I'm doing only my second lager, Munich Madness Oktoberfest from BCS, and I'm starting to get 'nervous' that the beer isn't going to come out right. I keep giving myself the speech that ingredients want to become beer, and you don't have to have everything perfect to make great beer, but that voice in the back of my head won't shut up!

On this beer it's saying:

"You missed your target mash temp (150 vs 151) and it's going to come out too thin."

"Your starting gravity was too high for the style." (1.063 vs 1.055)

"Your diacytl rest is screwing up the beer!" (started at 1.026 - 1.063 OG, 1.015 target FG - from 49 to 59F)

Help a brewing brother out with some reassurance and let me know what you do to fight that voice, other than RDWAHAHB!

I used to be just like this, i would freak about every little detail. What broke me of the habit was one brew i got REAL busy with life,kids,GF, Etc and i totally forgot i had it in the bucket, it sat in the bucket for 37 days before i had that "oh S&it" moment and remember it, so i kegged it, and the beer was AMAZING(Oat Brown Ale) So from then on all my beers get a 30 day primary and they are much better for it. So my advice get busy with other parts of life and forget the batch for a bit!

 

[makomachine]

I know consciously that it will be fine. This voice seems to get me most on brews that I really want to turn out well. This is for an Oktoberfest party I'm hosting and putting a lot of pressure on myself to get it right!

 

[beerloaf]

I know how you feel. I just brewed my first lager on 6/26 and it's also an Oktoberfest. As you, I was worried as well since lagers are a whole new world to me with a new set of learning curves. So far it's working out well as far as I can tell but the reality is that I won't know until it's fininshed lagering for another 2 months. So just relax and drink and make more beer.

beerloaf

 

[jeffjm]

The more you brew, the less paranoia you will have. Experience goes a long way in removing worries. There's a big difference between knowing you should RDWHAHB and feeling it's time to RDWHAHB because you've seen your brews succeed many times.

Maybe not so coincidentally, experience helps remove a lot of the factors that led to your paranoia in the first place.

 

[makomachine]

The more you brew, the less paranoia you will have. Experience goes a long way in removing worries. There's a big difference between knowing you should RDWHAHB and feeling it's time to RDWHAHB because you've seen your brews succeed many times.

Maybe not so coincidentally, experience helps remove a lot of the factors that led to your paranoia in the first place.

Agree. That said experience won't help my 2nd lager in the cooler!

 

[Homercidal]

I had an excellent brewday for my first lager, an Oktoberfest. Everything went pretty well and I was so excited. After the long wait I got to taste it and... hmm... somethign not quite right. Then I found that I underpitched, which wasn't the worst problem. I also found that the city is now using Chloramine to treat the water. Which you can't really taste much in the water, but can really affect the flavor of a fermented beverage.

Just goes to show you never know. Eventually stuff gets to be second nature and what you used to worry about you now do without thinking about. And there are other things that pop up you never even thought about!

 

[makomachine]

I had an excellent brewday for my first lager, an Oktoberfest. Everything went pretty well and I was so excited. After the long wait I got to taste it and... hmm... somethign not quite right. Then I found that I underpitched, which wasn't the worst problem. I also found that the city is now using Chloramine to treat the water. Which you can't really taste much in the water, but can really affect the flavor of a fermented beverage.

Just goes to show you never know. Eventually stuff gets to be second nature and what you used to worry about you now do without thinking about. And there are other things that pop up you never even thought about!

I use bottled spring water, so good on that front. Pitched 1 gallon starter for the WLP830 Bock yeast that had been stepped up twice with 3L each off of the stir plate. Think that should be fine as the yeast dropped it down to the 1.026 in 7 days with no lag to start.

I'm most concerned about the diacytl rest as I'm afraid I started it too early and just don't have enough lager experience to KNOW for CERTAIN!

 

[Homercidal]

I didn't do a D-rest. I started out at 50 and after 4 weeks dropped it down to 34 for another 6 weeks. I could not taste any. But I had enough phenolics from the other stuff going on that it's possible I could have used one.

We'll see. I did the same process for this American Lager I started lagering a couple of weeks ago. So far it tastes ok to me, but I don't think I have a very low threshold for Diacetyl. My young one said she could taste a bit of butter, but then she was also in a hurry to wash her mouth out with the garden hose. Still waiting for the wife to have a taste.

 

[Paulgs3]

I don't worry about beer, brewing beer is what I do to get my mind off of stress/work, if I start getting all tight about it....

It is what it is. I made a mistake on my last batch when I lost track of time and added an oz of hops too early. Carry on man, call it experimentation, have another sip of beer.

I've been in science in the medical/research field for over 20 years. I used to get nervous just doing a cross-match on an oneg unit back in the day. Now, trust your work, pay attention, but always trust your work. And remember, its not always gonna work, its called science.

 

[beergolf]

Just relax.....

You will make beer.....

My first few brews I almost wore out a path in the stairs going to checkon my brews. I would gomcountbthe bubbles. Now I pretty much don't even look at them for at least 3 weeks. I have two going now that are on weeks 4 and five. I may think about bottling them this weekend. But if not no big deal. They will be fine.

I have plenty of brew to drink in the pipeline....

 

[scrambledegg81]

x1000 for beer while brewing. Just don't over-do it & smash your glass thermometer in the boil kettle while cooling it. *nervous cough*

 

[beerloaf]

Yeah I guess it would piss off the SWMBO when she tries to pull into the garage after work at around 5 pm and you're passed out next to an empty propane tank and some boiled off wort in the kettle with empty beer bottles around you droooling on yourself on the garage floor........mine got pretty pissed......

 

[toxick]

Even if you screw up your D-rest and come out with butter beer (as I did with my first lager), you can fix it by pitching more yeast into it at room temp for a few days (as I did with my first lager). Was fine after that until the end of the keg.