Tips from a new brewer

[Chapster100]

Hi All

I have been brewing beer since August 2015 and have so far brewed 8 batches.

I have not had any failed batches and all of my beers have tasted great.

I make an APA, with Mosaic and Cascade, and IPA with Mandarina Bavaria and Citra, and Pilsner (Batch 2) with Saaz. It came out very nicely.

Now when I started I was so stressed out about everyting. So this is a list of the things I worried about, but for no reason at all.

1. Why is the airlock not bubbling?
Don't worry about the airlock. If you did everything right and your sanitization was good you beer will be fine. Tip: Make sure your grommet in the lid is airtight, so the CO2 can only get out through the airlock. My first batch leaked out the side of the airlock and I had no bubbles for the first batch. Not one! (that I saw anyway). The beer turned out great! Warning: Watching the airlock has been known to cause temporary psychosis.

2. The curse of the gravity sample!
All I wanted to do was take a gravity sample, and often, to see how things were coming along. As I said if you did everything correctly and you can see activity in your airlock, all should be good. Just leave it B. If your recipe says ferment for 2 weeks, then let it ferment for 2 weeks, and don't touch it. The more you fiddle, the more chance you have of contamination.

3. Cold crashing and viable yeast?
I cold crash my beer in the fridge at about 4 celcius and was worried about viable yeast for bottle conditioning. I have bottled all 8 batches straight from the coldcrash, straight into bottles, and everyone has carbonated brilliantly.

4. Bottle cleaning?
Bottle cleaning is easy. The tip is, rinse each bottle out with warm water as soon as you have poured your beer. One bottling day I take those rinsed bottles and soak them in a big tub of sanitiser. Works great.

5. Sanitisation?
Become obsessive!!! You can never have something too clean for brewing beer.

6. Yeast happiness!
This is the most important, because they actually do all the work. Keep you yeast happy. Make sure you ferment at a temperature suitable for your yeast, pitch at the right temperature, and try avoid temperature variation. A temperature controller can help tremendously with this.

Good luck and happy brewing.

 

[Minky]

Nice list. It sounds like you have a good handle on things.
I've been brewing since the late 70's (yeah, I'm OLD!), and in that time I've learned that it's often the little things you overlook that will cause problems.

I have always been obsessive about cleanliness and sanitation, but I had a period when I was getting infections and it drove me nuts. I eventually realized what I was doing wrong. Like many beginning brewers, I would cool my wort in a sink full of ice water. When it was cool, I would pour the wort in the fermentor. My mistake was forgetting to completely wipe all that nasty sink water off the outside of the kettle. Water was dripping off of the outside of my kettle and contaminating the whole batch! How could I be so STUPID! I changed my methods and haven't had an infection since.

Looks like you're off to a good start. Have fun.

 

[Chapster100]

Wow, you must have done a lot of batches! I try keep it simple. For example i ferment in the primary, cold crash in the primary, then straight to bottling bucket for bottling. Too many things can go wrong fermenting in a secondary. But i will try it sometime, especially when a start a lot of dry hopping.

 

[Yesfan]

.............Like many beginning brewers, I would cool my wort in a sink full of ice water. When it was cool, I would pour the wort in the fermentor. My mistake was forgetting to completely wipe all that nasty sink water off the outside of the kettle. Water was dripping off of the outside of my kettle and contaminating the whole batch! How could I be so STUPID!.............

Not stupid in my mind. I've not been brewing as long as you have (almost 4 years), but even today I wouldn't have thought about that. I have a chiller for my 5 gallon batches, but still use the ice bath for one gallon batches. Thanks for the tidbit.

Wow, you must have done a lot of batches! I try keep it simple. For example i ferment in the primary, cold crash in the primary, then straight to bottling bucket for bottling. Too many things can go wrong fermenting in a secondary. But i will try it sometime, especially when a start a lot of dry hopping.

The only time I do a secondary is if I'm adding fruit, but I think I'll even do that in the primary the next go around. I've never done a secondary strictly for dryhopping, always in the primary.



There was a recent thread/poll on what methods are used for dry-hopping. I've always done mine in the primary, never secondary, then I keg it. Many have suggested to those who do the same as me to try dry-hopping in the keg next time. The colder conditions of the keg vs a room temp carboy, along with the keg's co2 environment, keeps the hops fresher much longer. That's what I plan to do with my next dry-hopped beer.

 

[Chapster100]

Thanks for the tip. Definitely keep that in mind.

 

[brewsao14]

Haven't brewed for several years and getting set to start up again. Good post. Reminds me that brewing can still be a fairly simple process, and produce good beer when focused on the basics.