New Brewers.....listen....

[DizzyPants]

I am one of you. I have only been brewing seriously for about a year. And at that only extract.

My first brews were from the LBS. Good yes,

spectacular no.

I bought more equipment and then went to an online supplier with more recipes and my quality went through the roof.

The main reason......controlling fementation temps.......

and WAITING.

I have had many of my beers way too young.

Tonight my beers from friends were equated to commercial brew. It sucks to wait....but wait.

~Diz

 

[kypher]

+1 for patience.

 

[GateTwelve]

+1 for accelerated aging chamber. Waiting is for chumps. (j/k). Time is usually the only thing that will correct most off flavors, or what can turn mediocre beers into great beers.

 

[Locorcr]

Ex-military so i'm used to the waiting game

 

[rico567]

I don't know anything about "accelerated aging," but I learned through experience the value of having a pipeline. Got enough bottles, brewed and filled them, and now I've got plenty of beer on the shelves that has a chance to age properly before tubes are cracked. There's a "Revvy thread" somewhere on the topic of pipelines, and it points out how important this tool is to the homebrewer.

 

[mparmer]

What you will see in many posts is "at least 3 weeks in the bottle, then 1 in the fridge" When I finally got my pipeline full and actually went beyond 3 weeks, the "at least" kind of hit me. I brew beers in the 50 to 60 point range and to me I can tell a big difference at actually 4 or 5 weeks. I brewed a Scottish 80 that really didn't get that good until about 6 weeks. Now at about 8 weeks, they're freakin awesome... and the batch is about gone... No question, the waiting is the hardest part, but if you don't want to sit your beer glass down and wonder, hmm something is not quite right, I wonder what went wrong, you have to wait the proper time.

 

[schweaty]

+1 to temperature control. Don't buy any other new brewing equipment until you get a temperature controller and a fridge to ferment in. I know space and/or funds can be limited but if you want beer that is great quality then you need to control your fermentation temperatures. Don't do what I did and go spend money on other pieces of brewing equipment thinking it would result in better beer. The single most important aspect to making outstanding beer is temperature. It effects everything in the brewing process.

 

[cmoon]

How much can you shave off the waiting game by using a carbonation system?

 

[Goatey]

On one of Revvy's posts he had a video of a guy that was opening bottles of home brewed beer every few days to demonstrate the process of carbonation. He recommended that you open a beer every week to see how your beer ages. That's my excuse to open my first bottle of home brew tonight. It's been in the bottle for a week.

Also, I'm "stocking up on bottles" so I've used that as an excuse to buy and drink extra beer these past few weeks. That's how I am holding off my home brew.

 

[rwinzing]

Pipeline makes the waiting easier

 

[bradsul]

How much can you shave off the waiting game by using a carbonation system?

None. Carbonated green beer is still green beer. The only thing that will age a beer is a calendar.

 

[3 Dog Brew]

+1 on patience being added to the homebrewer's list of required ingredients.

 

[Synovia]

None. Carbonated green beer is still green beer. The only thing that will age a beer is a calendar.

Disagree. Bottle carbing adds another small round of fermentation, and another small round of off flavors that need to be cleaned up.

 

[noble13]

+1 to temp control. It doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. I ferment in a spare small room (closet, bathroom) and control temp with an electric heater (in the cool months). Set the temp to the lower end of the optimum temp range for the yeast.

Don't like to wait? Do a few lower gravity batches to fill the pipeline. I mostly brew batches around 1.040 and like it best as soon as its carbed. I don't think it benefits much from aging the way higher gravity beer does, and some types degrade within a few months. I'm also relatively new and this is working for me.

 

[Sethwick]

+1 to temperature control. Don't buy any other new brewing equipment until you get a temperature controller and a fridge to ferment in. I know space and/or funds can be limited but if you want beer that is great quality then you need to control your fermentation temperatures. Don't do what I did and go spend money on other pieces of brewing equipment thinking it would result in better beer. The single most important aspect to making outstanding beer is temperature. It effects everything in the brewing process.

Can't this easily be accomplished with a giant plastic trashcan? Put primary fermenter in, fill with the appropriate temp water, toss in a thermometer? What would be better? What's your method? Fridge with temp control?

 

[Hang Glider]

Can't this easily be accomplished with a giant plastic trashcan? Put primary fermenter in, fill with the appropriate temp water, toss in a thermometer? What would be better? What's your method? Fridge with temp control?

Yes, it's literally this easy. A little warm water or a little ice - no problem. And a great way to start!

After you get tired of monitoring/adjusting the temp of the tub for a week or two, you start thinking about automation...

 

[cheezydemon3]

Can't this easily be accomplished with a giant plastic trashcan? Put primary fermenter in, fill with the appropriate temp water, toss in a thermometer? What would be better? What's your method? Fridge with temp control?

The water will cool, but ice or frozen water jugs can be added every day.

Yooper has a well proven design.

A tee shirt can be put on the carboy to wick water and cool from a much smaller vessel than a trtash can.

 

[Synovia]

The water will cool, but ice or frozen water jugs can be added every day.

Yooper has a well proven design.

A tee shirt can be put on the carboy to wick water and cool from a much smaller vessel than a trtash can.

Yeah, but atleast for me, during the summer, adding ice bottles 4 times a day gets to be a huge pain.