How many batches until you nailed it?

[Fletch78]

To you vets out there, do you remember how many AG batches you did before you got one to come out perfectly? Hit all your numbers, nailed the recipe, no off flavors, no water issues, no infections, no tannins, just absolutely perfect.... with all the variables and points of failure between the LHBS and the pint glass....

I've done 2... and I've learned alot from each batch. I feel like #3 will be the one. :rockin:

 

[david_42]

I don't believe in perfection, but by your criteria, my first AG was perfect.

By my definition, a perfect batch would be so good you'd know that you'd never be able to duplicate it.

 

[Revvy]

I don't believe in perfection, but by your criteria, my first AG was perfect.

Yeah, I agree. Never had issues with any of this

Hit all your numbers, nailed the recipe, no off flavors, no water issues, no infections, no tannins,

That doesn't mean I've achieved beery nirvana or whatever. Just never had any of those issues. That's not perfection, that should be considered the bare minimum of successful brewing. The baseline.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Just one more......

 

[passedpawn]

I am super-critical of my own brews. I don't think I'll ever have a perfect one.

 

[Walker]

i never had problems with infection or off flavors even on batch #1, but I did miss my gravity and had trouble getting the water volumes and temps right.

The gravity issue was because I simply had no freaking idea what kind of efficiency to expect. I targeted 70%, but got 75%. I am pretty consistent with 75% even to this day.

The water temps and volumes drove me nuts for the first two or three batches, so I went all scientific and took measurements on my equipment to find out where and how much water and temp I was losing during the process and created a spreadsheet to calculate everything for me.

After that it was smooth sailing. I just plug the recipe into my spreadsheet and it tells me all I need to know about how much and how hot my strike water needs to be as well as how much sparge water I need so that I end up with 5 gallons of beer in my fermenter at the end of the day.

 

[JetSmooth]

Mine only took a few pints before I hit that......

Oh wait.....that's not what you meant.

(gotta remember to read posts and not just titles)

 

[pretzelb]

After 21 I'm still working on it

 

[BOBTHEukBREWER]

I have been brewing for 45 years, the first 40 were extract only. I brew a super beer, then the next one is "just ok". I calculate that allowing for different malts and gains and hops. and hop blends, and hop rates, and sometimes adding chocolate malt, and / or rye malt, and mashing temperature, and fermentation temperature, and yeasts, I will be dead before I can try 1% of the possible permutations. The recipe I come back to time and time again is 10lb crushed maris otter, mashed at 67/68 deg C, challenger hops for bittering and cascade hops for flavour and aroma.

 

[BOBTHEukBREWER]

oops sry that is for 5.5 UK gallons....

 

[BendBrewer]

My first AG brew won a Blue Ribbon in the APA category.

"The hardest part is reading braille with a nut in your hand."

- SquirllBoy

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Hit all your numbers, nailed the recipe, no off flavors, no water issues, no infections, no tannins, just absolutely perfect...

IMO/IME, hitting all your numbers is just hitting the numbers, it doesn't mean the beer will be good. I've fallen prey to: hit all the numbers perfect, recipe is sound, water/pH was good, etc. THIS BEER IS GONNA BE EPIC! But nah, it was just an average beer. I've also missed numbers, had various 'accidents', etc. and the beer came out fantastic.

I think if you're really discriminating about it you can always find something to improve. Don't think I've ever tasted the 'perfect' beer.

I don't make beer anyway, yeast do.

 

[WishYouWereBeer]

On the other hand, you could miss a volume, mash high or low, forget to add an adjunct or hop addition, underpitch, etc. and still come out with a fantastic product.

Perfection is subjective.

 

[JetSmooth]

The trick is missing your numbers consistently each time.

 

[hotbrew]

I've been extract brewing off and on for 6 years but I've only done a handful of AG brews. I've hit all my numbers except efficiency. But that's to be expected using a new setup especially when I'm new to all-grain. However so far they have been great. Nothing mind blowing or award winning but simple, good quaffable beers.

Though I must agree that even if you goof up... stuck mash, bad efficiency, accidental spillage, wrong pH, low yeast activity, etc.. It's still possible to walk away with a great beer. I know fellow homebrewers who have had everything go wrong on a brew day but end up with something that's astonishing. It would be impossible to duplicate but good beer none-the-less.

Don't let the numbers, math, and the pursuit of THE perfect beer overwhelm you. You're going to screw up sometime. Even if everything is perfect, it might not actually turn out quite as you expected. As long as the final product is something you would enjoy, then to Hell with everything else.

 

[passedpawn]

The trick is missing your numbers consistently each time.

good one

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

If perfection were possible AB/InBev would have it and yet they still have to blend batches for consistency in the packaged product.

That alone should tell you something.