WarblyTremolo
Well-Known Member
I'm fairly new to home brewing and just finished bottling my 10th beer and wanted to share 10 lessons I've learned from this process. In no particular order:
1. It's just beer! Sometimes your efficiency is low, sometimes you miss the timing of a hop addition, sometimes your final volume is low - whatever! It's still gonna be beer!
2. When your airlock is making a menacing hissing noise and is filled with krausen, remove the airlock so that the spray fires away from you, and not at you.
3. Carbonation level can make a beer amazing, or terrible. IPAs don't belong at 3.2 volumes and dunkelweizens shouldn't be at 1.5. Using the appropriate amount of corn sugar is important!
4. Don't assume you have full conversion without testing/tasting your wort. Let's face it, starch molecules in your finished beer aren't delicious or welcome.
5. Even if the beer comes out poorly, your parents/spouse/etc will probably still love it.
6. When turning the spigot on your bottling bucket, always turn clockwise...unless, of course, you want beer leaking all over your kitchen floor while you aren't looking.
7. Whirlfloc. 1 tablet per batch goes a long, long way to making prettier beer. And it's dirt cheap.
8. Don't ask your beer nerd friends for their honest opinion unless you're willing to hear some ugly truths about your brew. In turn, be prepared to take their criticism and learn from it to become a better brewer.
9. Understand your malt characteristics. Understand your hop characteristics. Blindly writing recipes can be good, or terrible...best to be informed regarding what you're putting into your beer.
10. Clean and sanitize. Clean and sanitize. Then do it again. And again. Your process cannot be too clean or too sanitary.
1. It's just beer! Sometimes your efficiency is low, sometimes you miss the timing of a hop addition, sometimes your final volume is low - whatever! It's still gonna be beer!
2. When your airlock is making a menacing hissing noise and is filled with krausen, remove the airlock so that the spray fires away from you, and not at you.
3. Carbonation level can make a beer amazing, or terrible. IPAs don't belong at 3.2 volumes and dunkelweizens shouldn't be at 1.5. Using the appropriate amount of corn sugar is important!
4. Don't assume you have full conversion without testing/tasting your wort. Let's face it, starch molecules in your finished beer aren't delicious or welcome.
5. Even if the beer comes out poorly, your parents/spouse/etc will probably still love it.
6. When turning the spigot on your bottling bucket, always turn clockwise...unless, of course, you want beer leaking all over your kitchen floor while you aren't looking.
7. Whirlfloc. 1 tablet per batch goes a long, long way to making prettier beer. And it's dirt cheap.
8. Don't ask your beer nerd friends for their honest opinion unless you're willing to hear some ugly truths about your brew. In turn, be prepared to take their criticism and learn from it to become a better brewer.
9. Understand your malt characteristics. Understand your hop characteristics. Blindly writing recipes can be good, or terrible...best to be informed regarding what you're putting into your beer.
10. Clean and sanitize. Clean and sanitize. Then do it again. And again. Your process cannot be too clean or too sanitary.
