Tips you would like to have known when you first started brewing?

[SFC Rudy]

Patience (luckily I started brewing while stationed in Germany so I had access to some great biers!) I read all too often of people opening fermenters during fermentation. Wait 14 days and you'll be rewarded; with experience you'll know when to check. Also brewers opening their bottles after three days and complain about no carbonation. Again, wait 14 days MINIMUM depending on style. Every bottle you open early just to "check" is a good beer that that you will not be able to drink later.

Oh, and you don't need a lot of shiny expensive sh*t to make great beer.

 

[Woodland Brewer]

I think a few things I've learnt being a very, very new brewer is organization has been very big for me. I never seemed to be properly prepared and I'm always running around looking for things at the time I needed it. I bought a brewing box (clear bin) from the dollar store to keep what I needed in. Everything from Campden tablets to Ph strips is in one box, one place and it on the table on brew day.
Totally agree with McMeador [On a related note, I also didn’t realize that anything that would be used before flameout didn’t need to be sanitized, so I was spending unnecessary time and energy sanitizing everything]
and
Brewing In Bethesda [Be thorough in your sanitation but not psychotic]
about cleaning. I absolutely hated the cleaning part and it was ruining my brew day. I thought I had to first clean and then sanitize everything, even if it was already clean from last brew day. You'll be a lot happier on brew day
Last thing. Try some easier beers to start, like SMaSH beers. Simple ingredients and ease into brewing. Beers with multiple grains, adjuncts with multiple hop additions can be overwhelming.
Just my cents from what I'm learning.

 

[Velnerj]

I hope this doesn't cone off as arrogant. When I started I went right into all grain brewing and creating my own recipes. I've never tried extract or using a kit. Here are the tips I would say got me to be able to brew successfully since day 1.

1. Absorb as much information as you can, then read some more. I calculated out by hand my entire first recipe. Calculating the water amounts, temperatures, gravity, IBUs, ABV all of it. I used brewing calculators only as sanity checks, and through this process I understood the what and the why of brewing.
2. When formulating a recipe I took the same approach as in the kitchen. I would choose a style of beer and look at dozens of recipes. You soon see patterns of what is required in that style and what brewers have added in for their tastes. Do research on these optional ingredients and make educated guesses on what you think you will like. Calculate their impacts on measurables and try to imagine their perceptible impacts on flavor, mouthfeel etc. Take detailed notes so you can track what works and what doesn't.
3. In your first few (all grain) brews you should be targeting either a specific gravity or a specific volume. It's quite difficult to get both correct on a system you've never used before.
4. Though equipment isn't the most important I couldn't imagine brewing without a chiller and a refractometer. A chiller will eliminate hours from your brew day (unless you go no chill). A Refractometer allows you to check gravity quickly without affecting the volume of your batch and stay on top of your brew day. If you know what your doing you can make adjustments accordingly in order to hit your target numbers.
5. Make sanitation ritualistic. Get in good habits early. To be honest new equipment is pretty clean and the danger of infection is low. But through time and multiple brews is where creepy crawlies enter your system. If your sanitation is on point you'll delay infection and perhaps avoid it all together.

Here are some things I learned later that I wish I paid more attention to in the beginning :
1. A brewer makes wort and yeast makes beer. Do your best to create good wort but invest time in learning good fermentation practices. Healthy yeast pitches and temperature control will make a huge difference.
2. Water chemistry may not matter until it does. At the very least you'll need to treat your water against chlorine. Campden tablets... Enough said. Get a water report and learn how to manipulate your water to fit your expectations. If you can't get a report. There's nothing wrong with experimenting with gypsum and calcium chloride (can even experiment with finished beer).
3.Stick to one system and try to learn it and improve it. Don't get distracted by new methods or equipment that's going to drastically change your brewing process.
4. I started brewing 2.5 gallon batches. Quickly found out that it was too little and jumped to 5 gallon batches. If you're starting small buy big equipment so you can scale up easier.

Sorry that was way long.

Cheers

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Patience (luckily I started brewing while stationed in Germany so I had access to some great biers!) I read all too often of people opening fermenters during fermentation. Wait 14 days and you'll be rewarded; with experience you'll know when to check. Also brewers opening their bottles after three days and complain about no carbonation. Again, wait 14 days MINIMUM depending on style. Every bottle you open early just to "check" is a good beer that that you will not be able to drink later.

Oh, and you don't need a lot of shiny expensive sh*t to make great beer.

I agree with the "wait 14 days suggestion". Depending on my brew schedule, it's 14 to 21 days.

January 8, 2021 I transferred my Steam Beer brewed on December 23, 2020. Hydro, adjusted for temp, is 1.014. Now lagering. Was 17 days in the primary.

 

[bwible]

Time management. I definitely never thought about how long the whole process took before my 1st brewday. It was the day after Christmas (Christmas present of a kit), and I told my wife I'd be ready to leave to go visit family "in about an hour and 1/2". 3 hours later...........

I take advantage of down time during the process to prepare or clean things up along the way. Grind grain while waiting for mash water to heat up. Measure out hops, fetch Irish moss, clean and sanitize fermenter waiting for the hour mash. Empty and clean mash tun, dispose of grains while waiting for wort to boil. Don’t wait til the end of everything after beer is in the fermentor to start cleaning up, rounding up and putting things away.

 

[bwible]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply!
Bottles. Cleaning them is getting a little annoying but I don’t think I’m ready for kegs just jet, I feel the bottles are simple enough.

I don’t mind additional fermentation time for the fruit.

also I didn’t know that that’s a good sign of healthy yeast, thanks!

Top parts of bottles where the capper grips are different. Some have a large top for the capper to grab, others have a couple small rings and the capper can’t get a good grip on those. I only keep the good ones now.

I have 2 large 7 gallon pails I use at bottling. One is full of pbw solution, the other is full of star san solution. I put the bottles in pbw for 1/2 hour first, then drain, rinse and transfer them to the star san. I take them out 6 at a time while bottling.

11 cases is not enough bottles. I love Fullers bottles. Nicest looking bottles I have.

 

[bwible]

Also, get a fermenting vessel with a wide mouth. So much easier to clean

And easier to add dry hops or oak and get it back out.

 

[bwible]

Patience.

In all things.

As to the filtering, I dump the entirety of the BIAB kettle into the fermenter, wort, break material, hop material, and sometimes reading glasses. Try not to do that but it still worked. Even dumping everything in, the beer still clears.

Keep notes to help repeatability.

If it doesn’t clear, try gelatin. Plenty of info online how to use it. The stuff is magic.

Make a form to fill out for each brew’s notes. So you have the same info recorded for each beer. All the important stats plus notes for things that happened during brewing, equipment used, mash temp, tasting notes, etc.

 

[bwible]

Things I've learn from the beers I've dumped

1. Have fun. Relax. Have a homebrew.
2. Water is important but not that important filter out chlorine with a charcoal filter or buy it. Spring not distilled. You only need to worry about salts and PH if you are going for something very specific.

Water is the majority of what’s in your beer. Most drinkable water is safe to brew with, but it’s certainly not a bad idea to spend $40 or whatever it is and get your water tested to know for sure what’s in it. I mean if you’re going to spend money on equipment and want to brew beer for a long time that’s a very small expense compared to other things you’re going to buy. I thought my water was ok til I had it tested. My water has several issues that have been causing me problems.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

I take advantage of down time during the process to prepare or clean things up along the way. Grind grain while waiting for mash water to heat up. Measure out hops, fetch Irish moss, clean and sanitize fermenter waiting for the hour mash. Empty and clean mash tun, dispose of grains while waiting for wort to boil. Don’t wait til the end of everything after beer is in the fermentor to start cleaning up, rounding up and putting things away.

Do as much as you can the night before (e.g., collect water, add salts, grind grain, etc.). But yeah, make use of that "downtime" to clean as you go. I usually only have ~20 min of cleanup work left once my fermenter goes into my chamber.

 

[Scottsdale]

Conditioning my grain before milling. Makes a huge difference on my efficiency and almost eliminates stuck sparge with my false bottom

 

[UncleD]

TOOL
Refractometer. Easy to take SG reads during the boil and make sure you're on target for your OG.

SOFTWARE
I built my own app for doing calculations, storing recipes, brew log notes, and timers during brew day. Regardless of what you use, use SOMETHING to document your readings, calcs, and recipes.

TIME MANAGEMENT
I have reduced the overall length of my brew day by organizing my tasks better. Don't worry about pulling stuff out that you wont be using for a couple hours. If you are done with something for the day, clean it and put it away while you're still brewing. Don't wait until the end to clean EVERYTHING. There's alot of downtime, so use that time to not add too much time to the beginning or end of the brew day.

RECIPE CHANGES
Early on, if there was something I didn't like about a recipe, I'd try to change a bunch of factors. Unfortunately, this make it impossible to correlate your changes to your next beer. Try to only change 1 or 2 things, whether it be process-related or ingredients.

 

[JimC]

Simple is better
Make beers that don't let you hide process issues. Your first beers should be APAs, Bitters, Blonds with simple 2-4 grain/1-3hop recipes so you can build a process and pallet. Do not make kitchen skin beers, 160IBU hop monsters or 10% coma inducing drunk bombs. You will be unable to detect problems in these sorts of beers.

Do not forget the cold side
Wort is made in the kettle. Beer is made in the fermenter. Pay attention to your fermentation and yeast. Don't spend your whole budget on the shinny stainless hot side with all the electronics or roaring propane. Budget some for fermentation, even if it just a few sheets of foam board, ice and a thermometer.

 

[jrgtr42]

THere's some great tips here - I almost think this should be a sticky at the top for all beginning brewers.
At the risk of repeating some things, things i have picked up:
Relax, Don't Worry, Have a HomeBrew. (RDWHAHB) Honestly, there's not a lot you can do to truly ruin your beer. It may not come out perfectly, but it;ll be beer and you can drink it.
The other biggest things to remember in brewing are: Santation, yeast health / Happiness, sanitation, temperature control, sanitation, and sanitation.
Don't worry about having to go to all grain or whatever, or needing the latest and greatest shiny toy. You can make great beer with extract in buckets if the rest is on spot.
Your first few brews may not be perfect, or commercial quality - don't get frustrated - it takes time to work in your procedures, and it will get better, I promise. On that line, I recommend that at least for the first couple brews, use a pre-made kit, and resist the urge to modify it. Those are designed to be easy and give good results. Taking a regular stout, and adding coffee, vanilla, breakfast cereal and bourbon on a first brew isn't going to give a good result.

 

[TkmLinus]

Are you using the paint strainer bag in front or behind the siphon? Just wrapping it around the intake?

I put the paint straining bag into the bottling bucket, then siphon into it. Lift out the bag with all hop particles and whatever else when done. I tried with a bag on the suction end of the siphon and it was a big pain.

 

[tdf]

Make sure your valves, spigots, and other fittings are watertight before you put something in them that you don't want to spill.

 

[Beer Viking]

Even if everything doesent make sense to you, make a batch anyways. You will learn from your mistakes and gain experience!

 

[TkmLinus]

Make sure your valves, spigots, and other fittings are watertight before you put something in them that you don't want to spill.

This! I always fill above any spigots with water to check for leaks, water is much cheaper than whatever you are brewing.

 

[Beer Viking]

This! I always fill above any spigots with water to check for leaks, water is much cheaper than whatever you are brewing.

Thankfully I read about this before I tried to make my first all grain batch! I had to reassemble my boil kettle 4 times to get it water tight. Last night it held all the water I put into it for 90 mins without a leak. Moving on to the next step now!

 

[deuc224]

Buy base grains in bulk. It may suck at first but just opt to buy a 50 or 55 pound sack of base grains, the money you save over a small length of time is really substantial. I buy MO, 2 row, wheat, pils all in bulk and it really beats having to wait to get something in or going to the brew store to get what i need every single time.

 

[WeirdoWines]

The importance of sanitization and also the necessity of a hydrometer. I'm a cheap mofo but just spend the money on necessary brewing equipment because you'll pay more money throwing out ruined attempts at brews and waste slot of your time too

 

[iamninjabob]

I wish someone had told me that yeast produces it's own heat when actively fermenting.

 

[deuc224]

I wish someone had told me that yeast produces it's own heat when actively fermenting.

Me too!!!!!!! I had a big starter neipa run into the high 70s from low 60s in a day and didnt know what was going on until i read up on it.

 

[Cloud Surfer]

Buy a few quality cleaning and sanitising products specifically made for brewing.

I’ve kept notes on every beer I’ve made and find it invaluable to check back when refining recipes or processes.

Use a bottling tree for cleaning and sanitising bottles. It’s amazing how such a simple device makes the bottling process so much easier.

I’m a newish brewer myself, but have spent hundreds of hours reading everything I could find over the interweb and in books. I feel like my knowledge is well advanced and the experience level is catching up quick.

Of everything I’ve read, it is apparent the most repeatable mistake new brewers make is not pitching enough yeast.

I can identify a few things that have had the biggest impact on improving my beer. Understanding recipe construction and the relationship between FG, IBU and ABV and how they create a balanced beer. Buying a temperature controlled Grainfather conical fermenter with pressure transfer kit. Buying a CO2 kit and kegs so I can pressure transfer from fermenter to conditioning kegs or bottling kegs in a low oxygen environment.

 

[khannon]

Tips I wish I had known:
My god it's easy to spend money.. Get a few under your belt.. then think about what you need.. Then "buy once, cry once" if you can, if not, "buy, make beer, figure out what you need, sell on craigslist for more than you paid, buy what you need(/think you need) .

Fermentation temp control is huge, probably more impact/$$ than any other starting step.

Clean/sanitary is more important to have down before the temp control, but a lot less expensive.

Pre world gone to ****(and maybe post), find a brewery you like, talk to the brewer. Let them know you brew. If they are ********, move to another brewery you like. When you find one that is decent, start a conversation/relationship. Most brewers are decent people, They are dealing on larger scales, but most started out where you are. Advice/bulk grain purchases/a sounding board to bring a beer in for trial for an opinion is invaluable.

Talk here, there is wisdom even if you have to filter through BS(like mine).

There are all sorts of tricks out there to save you time or money or? Figure out what is important to you. Start there, ask questions, have fun(a homebrew), but don't get paralyzed by what you think you need, make a beer or two on the minimal equipment, sell it and buy what you need.

Final thought of the night, CO2 and pumps make life a lot easir on those who are "lifting challenged".. incorporating these into the brew day(and beyond) makes life so much easier on those of us who no longer desire to lift 10 gallons of wort/beer however far we have to.. it is now just "transfer"

Out before the beer kicks in more..

 

[V-Fib]

Make sure your valves are closed before anything. You normally catch it fast but it really sucks if you dont.

 

[Bilsch]

I wish I would have known all the money I was going to spend on this hobby would have bought a LOT of good beer with way less work.

 

[jrgtr42]

I wish I would have known all the money I was going to spend on this hobby would have bought a LOT of good beer with way less work.

yeah, but don't you know you SAVE money by homebrewing (at least, that's what we all tell our SOs...)

 

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Be sure to use distilled water to wash yeast. Just because distilled vinegar is next to it in the cabinet and has a similar label and container doesn’t mean it will work the same.

 

[youngdh]

Clean and sanitize like it’s the end of the world including disassembling spouts/ valves that the cooled wort will contact. Replace vinyl tubing that cooled wort will contact about every six months or if it looks scratched/etched. Try to hit your volumes and SG through all phases of brewing if you want to hit your recipe targets in your final product. Sometimes you may have to trade off target volume to SG or visa versa. Grain absorption and boil off rates will be your biggest variable in this balancing act.