How many batches before you (mostly) quit screwing up?

[TNGabe]

I brewed my 7th batch of beer today. The first 3 were with a friend who is a pro and made it all seem easy, other than a thermometer mishap with a bad probe. The last 4 have been solo and have all been successful to varying degrees. I'm drinking my first solo batch now, a grisette that came up short on volume and high on gravity, but it worked out fine.

I think (hope?) I'll have the process smoothed out for my current set up in another batch or two. How many brews did it take you to start feeling like you were 'doing it right'?

 

[wormraper]

6 batches down, havent' screwed up yet

 

[Mojzis]

Been brewing for about 8 months. Screwed up 2 batches. After that smooth sailing except for minor things like investing in a temp controller, wort chiller, etc which makes all of my newer batches better than before.

 

[Revvy]

The answer is never. We're human, we're always going to screw something up. The thing is, it's not about not screwing up, it's about rolling with the punches when it happens. It's about saying, "Oh well, I still made beer."

It's realizing that our beer is really resilient that 99.99999% of our screw-ups are NOT going to ruin our beer, no matter what boneheaded things we manage to do. I've said it a million times, we've sunk body parts in our beer, and it's still turned out fine.

I've been brewing for years, and I'm sure I screw something up everytime I do it....BUT, I don't run on here asking for re-assurance or analyzing the "what if/what could happen " and worrying about it. Instead I trust that it's still going to be fine, because nearly every time, it is.

And if it doesn't, there's nothing I can do about it now. The deed is done and I won't know for 8 weeks or so anyway. And more than likely even if it doesn't turn out, if I stick it in the closet for 6 months or a year.....there's a 50% possibility it WILL still turn out fine.

I suggest all new brewers read these threads instead of worrying, they'll show you how strong your beer really i, and how all of us make mistakes.

Revvy's advice for the new brewer in terms of worry.

What are some of the mistakes you made...where your beer still turned out great?

And Never dump your beer!!! Patience IS a virtue!!! Time heals all things, even beer!

We're human, to expect that we won't make mistakes is silly. It still happens, I bet your pro-brewer made a bunch of mistakes while showing you what to do....but he didn't react to them, he just continued on.

That's what an expert does....it's not that he's perfect, he just doesn't let the screwups get to him.

 

[Revvy]

6 batches down, havent' screwed up yet

Been brewing for about 8 months. Screwed up 2 batches. After that smooth sailing except for minor things like investing in a temp controller, wort chiller, etc which makes all of my newer batches better than before.

I don't buy that either of you didn't make one mistake in your process, forget to do something in the right order. Didn't make a starter for liquid yeast, forgot to sanitize something.....Having your batches turn out, doesn't mean you did everything perfectly, it just means the beer turned out OK.....

That's not the same thing. The outcome is not the process......

 

[menerdari]

I have brewed 3 batches so far, batch 1 is in the bottles and taste wonderful, i boiled with the lid on. oops.
Batch 2 I haven't screwed anything up on that one as far as I know but give me time, it is still fermenting
batch 3 I let the water get above 170 deg for about 5 minutes while steeping, hopefully it wont make a huge difference, I expect it to be a great beer, (black cherry porter)

 

[Glynn]

I dont know im not there yet

 

[jagec]

Depends on what you mean by "screwing up". I've never made a beer that I wouldn't drink. My worst batch was probably my first all-grain attempt. I tried to make a 5-gallon batch of an imperial stout with a 5-gallon mash tun. I didn't have enough space, ended up spilling tons of wort and grain all over the floor, missed my mash-in temp by a mile and kept trying to add boiling water to bring it up, had a couple of boilovers, my smack pack wasn't getting puffy (didn't make a starter) and the bourbon that I got from a friend to soak my oak cubes in was cherry flavored.

Gave it a few months to age out, and my most honest/critical friend told me that it was the first beer I'd made that held up to her favorite microbrews. Should've saved some bottles.

 

[NobleNewt]

I screw something up just about every time I brew and I've been at it for about 2 years and 20 batches.. A lot can happen during the course of a 3-hour brew day.. Too many homebrews in the process can usually make you forget to do something or do something that is unnecessary.

I just call it my personal brand of serendipitous brewing!

 

[lumpher]

can't remember the last time i screwed up. literally. started on the ipa too early all i know is the final result wasn't what i wanted

 

[b-boy]

Just pick one thing to improve on every brew and you will get a little better every time. Start with the yeast, move to tempurature control, then oxygenation, then water chemistry, etc...

I think I started seeing good results after AG batch #8.

 

[bioguy]

Define "screw up".

If it means have drinkable beer at the end of the process, I'd say it's possible to never screw up (I screwed up once in 22 years by this definition)

Have a brew day come out exactly as I imagine it in my mind?
I'd have to say never--I have a pretty active imagination about hitting mash-in temp exactly, recirculating perfectly, no boil overs, adding stuff exactly on time, getting stuff cooled down, pitched in as little time as possible...well, that stuff happens once in 22 years too--but I imagine other stuff that is _never_ going to happen because my wife would never go for it.

 

[Mojzis]

I don't buy that either of you didn't make one mistake in your process, forget to do something in the right order. Didn't make a starter for liquid yeast, forgot to sanitize something.....Having your batches turn out, doesn't mean you did everything perfectly, it just means the beer turned out OK.....

That's not the same thing. The outcome is not the process......

I believe OP said how many times until you felt you were doing it right "doing it right", not doing it perfectly. Big difference.

As you said, its nearly impossible to do it perfectly, especially everytime. However, I believe the point of this was to describe the learning curve that everyone goes through.

I mess one thing or another up just about every batch (that I noticed!), however it was still smooth sailing. Once you get accustomed to the craft it becomes easier and you do worry less over little things.

 

[wormraper]

I believe OP said how many times until you felt you were doing it right "doing it right", not doing it perfectly. Big difference.

As you said, its nearly impossible to do it perfectly, especially everytime. However, I believe the point of this was to describe the learning curve that everyone goes through.

I mess one thing or another up just about every batch (that I noticed!), however it was still smooth sailing. Once you get accustomed to the craft it becomes easier and you do worry less over little things.

that's basically what I mean't. I'm sure everything hasn't been PERFECT. but I consider "screwing up" a batch to meaning you gotta dump it or tastes like crap.

 

[keggert]

Let see, since returning to brewing I've dropped the thermometer in the wort while cooling it (Don't ask how the thermometer was reteived) oh I've done that several times. Added ingredients in the wrong order, forgot to add the yeast (actually put carboy in fermenting chamber, came back into kitchen and saw yeast sitting on the counter). Dripped water or ice into wort while trying to cool it. Since trying partial grain mash temps are next to impossible to hit. Those are the ones I've remembered maybe one day I'll make one that will seem error free.

 

[TNGabe]

To clarify 'screw up' I don't mean anything necessarily catastrophic, just anything where you think, 'meh, i could have performed that step better.'

 

[billl]

I'm not sure you ever get to the point where you aren't thinking "I could do x better next time". Even when you are brewing good beer, there is always something you want to work on. It wouldn't be much of a hobby if there wasn't.

 

[Whattawort]

I'm almost 4yrs in and to be honest, I don't want to get a beer perfect. Where do you go from there? The motivation to brew again to do better won't be there. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to reign in my unicorn (Alaskan Amber), but I don't want to get it perfect. I've had 3 batches where I brewed again the very next weekend because it was going to drive me nuts if I didn't prove to myself that I could do better. Funny thing is that I'm definitely not a perfectionist. I just have a deep respect for my passion and it wouldn't serve me justice to accept mediocrity OR perfection. Maybe I should give myself a brew name....Nick Saban perhaps?

 

[dhathazy]

TNGabe, maybe another way I might put it is "feeling more comfortable" with the brewing process. I am on two years now and I would guess 15-20 batches and like you, I did my first batch with someone and then went solo. If you are anything like me (which I hope you are NOT!) I still continue to worry that I am doing stuff correctly along the way! Especially when I use a new method or process that I haven't used before. However, after the first two or three solo batches I did feel much more "comfortable" along the whole process. I am still working on getting the right batch of Moose Drool! Have fun and try not to worry like I do!

 

[mtk6006]

I screw up every single time.....but that doesnt stop me : )

 

[grathan]

I think time has been a better measure of improvement for me rather than quantity. I seem to get better even when not brewing.

 

[najel]

I am sure I screw up every time I brew, but so far I (and everybody else) always liked the resulting beer.

 

[kingwood-kid]

There's very rarely a moment where I say, "I have no idea what I'm doing" while I'm doing it. There are a lot of moments where I say, "Looking back, I had no idea what I was doing, but I was too dumb to know it at the time." My potential mistakes are reduced somewhat, as I tend to research things pretty extensively beforehand (We are all agreed that HBT is a legitimate research tool and totally not a waste of time, right? Show of hands, please. It's unanimous? Good.) As Revvy and others mentioned, screwing something up doesn't make it undrinkable. A lot of beer styles originated as happy accidents.

 

[iambeer]

I'm still learning a lot after 14 batches. I haven't brewed in a month and I'm learning a lot just from drinking what I brewed during the last 4 months.

 

[david_42]

I was comfortable after the second batch, but learn something new every year for the last decade. It's been two years since I had a problem batch.

 

[ktblunden]

I was comfortable with the extract brewing process after the second brew. I was comfortable with the all grain process after about 4 batches. Every batch I think of ways I could have done it better. I see brewing as a constant effort to improve my process every batch.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Just one more.

 

[TNGabe]

Totatlly meant scew-up in the perfectionist sense - I've made drinkable (good, even?) beer so far, I just haven't ended up with 100% what I'd envisioned. I guess the logical way to approach learning to brew would be to follow the prevailing advice - KISS, brew a pale ale or something....but I'm the sort of person who wanted to make bacon and bought pigs instead of a pork belly.

 

[jestmaty]

Now that's funny ^^ the post above TNGabe....

I JUST finished dumping the last of a 5 gallon batch that I brewed back in early June. My Mr. Beer capper took a dump on me and stopped making an airtight seal on my bottles....... result was flat, skanky, oxygen infested beer. It broke my heart to dump the batch (they really, really were awful) and I could only bring myself to do a couple of quarts at a time. (I bottle 75% of each 5 gallon batch in quarts... the rest in bombers and 12oz bottles)

I did a sort of mini-eulogy for each one

I consider myself a pretty experienced homebrewer of 1 1/2 years, about the last 12 months of that all grain, and still managed to have an 'issue' with 640 ounces of beer recently. Point is, you will almost ALWAYS learn as you go on....

 

[EROK]

Hey All,

I have made over 100+ batches now and seem to think I know a thing or two about brewing. BUT --- I just made an Amber Ale dry hopped it and all....let it sit 3 weeks in primary and then kegged it..... IT was a Dumper.... I sampled it over 6 weeks+ in the keg at different intervals. No way I would let anyone near this beer, I couldn't even drink a full glass of it on several occasions.

SO.... I don't buy the guys saying that they never made a mistake. I am as detailed and anal about procedure as they come and just made a dumper after 120 batches. It happens. In total I have made about 8 dumpers. Sometimes the brewing gods need to remind us that we are not in charge here. To strive for perfection is the goal, to hit it 100% of the time is not obtainable.

Keep brewing and it really is more about the knowledge you pick up and the journey than ever making that perfect beer (the white unicorn

 

[flipfloptan]

I am still screwing up. The good thing about screwing up is you learn a lot of things. I learned that my wife likes hoppy beers as long as I put the bittering addition in at 45 minutes not 60 minutes. That was a screw up.

I learned it is much easier on your back to cool your wort in a wheel barrow full of ice for the immersion chiller than a cooler. That was a funny screw up.