What changes made your beer better?

[BrewZer]

Once you have a pump or two you'll be like, why did i wait so long. 8.3 lbs per gallon buddy!

Yeah, but Johnny 5 (pump disassemble!) and 10 - 20 feet of silicone tubing to sanitize every time? Sounds like an easy path to an infection...

 

[Bobby_M]

Yeah, but Johnny 5 (pump disassemble!) and 10 - 20 feet of silicone tubing to sanitize every time? Sounds like an easy path to an infection...

I took my pump apart once in 5 years. Pump boil temp wort through the hose and back into the kettle for heat sanitizing before cooling it down. If this was a real world problem, thousands of brewers would have given up long ago.

 

[corkybstewart]

I took my pump apart once in 5 years. Pump boil temp wort through the hose and back into the kettle for heat sanitizing before cooling it down. If this was a real world problem, thousands of brewers would have given up long ago.

Periodically I pump boiling water with PBC through my whole system-pump, chiller, etc., recirculating for t least 30 minutes. It works well and is easy to do.

 

[hottpeper13]

I CIP the whole system with alkaline brewery wash every 3 brews, mostly because it will be more then a month before the next one. One thing I do is have the pump outlet valve 1/2 open so the cip kinda gose into the cavity behind the ball. I disassemble the valves on news years day or there abouts.

 

[bwible]

For me it was getting a water report and learning a little water chemistry, especially mash ph. Ph of different grain bills will be different and adjusting with acid malt or lactic acid makes a huge difference in mash extraction and in the finished beer.

 

[BrewZer]

I took my pump apart once in 5 years. Pump boil temp wort through the hose and back into the kettle for heat sanitizing before cooling it down. If this was a real world problem, thousands of brewers would have given up long ago.

So it's not as much work as it seems like it would be...?

 

[day_trippr]

It takes me less than 60 seconds to remove a head from my March 815pl pumps and another 30 seconds to expose the impeller. No big deal at all, and occasionally necessary to replace thrust washers...

Cheers

 

[G_robertus]

Experimenting has told me a lot about individual grains and combinations, and about hops to a lesser degree. It's easier to make simple fermented malt tea than it is to get one with changing hops and not have oxygen play as big a role.

pH was also major, mostly for darker beers. My stouts have massively improved. I actually need to try and recreate an old recipe with pH control to see if the recipe itself wasn't half bad. Lighter beers apart from hoppy styles seem less affected by mash or post boil pH though.

Kegging and the threads on IPA have massively improved my IPAs as well.

Apart from that I think I learned most from just doing and tweaking tiny bits to unravel their impact.

 

[johnsonpvb17]

My biggest improvement was seen from:

Investing in a G30, Conical Pro, modifying a cooler, getting some kegs, CO2, O2, and a dedicated fridge.
And appreciate I am able to do that.

Investing in time to read threads like this, and other books and articles about Home Brewing.
Thanks to those that post here.

Being more meticulous in all steps of the process.

 

[Snuffy]

Moving to all-grain with an electric system was the next level. I had brewed some very good beer with extract, kettle, stovetop, buckets and carboys. I had also brewed some mediocre stuff. If I stick to the recipe and use fresh ingredients with the G30, it never fails me. Mashing away as we speak.

 

[crazyjake19]

Liquid yeast
Closed transfers to keg
Stopped listening to Brulosophy
Fermentation temperature control (though not as much change as I expected)
Attention to pH throughout the entire process, not just mash pH
90-minute boils
Proper yeast pitching (overpitching is at least as bad as underpitching)

 

[seatazzz]

As many have noted above, fermentation temperature control was my big thing. I was lucky enough that we bought a new house fridge a few years ago, and the old one (a 15-year-old french door Samsung) became the ferment fridge. The compressor capacitor went out at one point, but a quick installation of a 3 in 1 Supco put paid to that quickly. I can brew lagers in the deepest summer heat, and kveiks in the dead of winter (although I usually do those in the house).

Other things that have improved if not the beers, then the process:

1. Having a T professionally installed from the natural gas line to the hot water heater, so I could use natural gas instead of schlepping to Home Depot for propane every couple of weeks. Costs me pennies a brew and I never run out of fuel.
2. Learning how to reuse yeast, to keep costs down.
3. Buying grain and hops in bulk.

For the actual improvement in my beers, other than the ferment fridge, it's been learning how to brew recipes consistently; detailed notekeeping helped there. Also last year I bought a fermzilla (albeit the one without the yeast catcher thing). We all may sometimes laugh at the LODO crowd, but having NO oxygen touch my beer from pitching time until it hits the bottom of my pint glass has vastly improved the quality of my beer.

 

[Willy]

I started this thread about 4 months ago... So many great contributions!!! And yeah ... It's a process - how do I make it even better is a never ending path but yields great suds.
So ... Here's my 5 most important things after learning from all the brewmeisters!!!

Temp control - whether doing a kyveik in summer or controlling a lager in a ferm chamber (used freezer from FB mktplace) or keeping a tight range with an inkbird.

Oxygen - your friend and enemy. It depends. I really aerate well before pitching and am insane about O2 free beer. Huge!

Yeast - nutrients, doing a starter, but mostly keeping yeast happy (temperature) ... Next up, learning to harvest and reuse yeast.

Kegging - when I began this thread, I had never fermented in a corny keg. Hey, try it ! It works pretty dang well - best with a floating dip tube.

Recipe testing, tweaking, perfecting. Long ago. I did a million styles and I loved most of them. But I now have 6 taps and all are "must haves" - so I tweak the recipe. Nottingham or US-05 or liquid? A little more hop fragrance ? More caramel less brown?
(Tap#1 - blonde ale, #2 - Nut Brown, #3 - Lager, #4 - Pilsner, #5 American Brown Ale, #6 stout )

Make better beer and be thankful. Ahhhh.

 

[monkeymath]

Tbh, I don't think my beers actually got that much better.

 

[Bobby_M]

Tbh, I don't think my beers actually got that much better.

Which of the anecdotal improvements did you try that didn't make any difference?

 

[Willy]

Do you use a spunding PRV to vent excess CO2 gas, or the blowoff hose into a jar? Or both?

My first attempt is in progress. Just winging it - no clue. Currently using a blowoff tube in a jar, which is inside the freezer/with inkbird - set currently at 57° F. Blowoff tube is connected to a corny keg lid fitted with a gas post. I took the spring and center rod out to allow easier gas exhaust during the early robust phase of fermentation. It is gurgling nicely at day 3+.

Sunday will be day 6 and most of the big ferment action is over. I will replace the lid with a std corny keg lid, purge with CO2 and use the KegLand spunding / prv on the gas post set to 10 psi to ferment under pressure and begin the carb process.

Doing 5 gallon batch of pilsner fermenting in a 6.5 gallon corny keg. 1st time.

Like I said... Just winging it.

Initially in a jar w sanitizer for 2-3 days depending on blop blop blop rate ... Then I take that off and put a cover on the triclamp port (or my homemade hop bong if dry hopping). On day 3-14 it is in the fermenter with about 10psi , with spunding off corny gas post. I also got a new corny lid with a gas post that has a carb stone that drops into the keg so I can carb thru liquid as opposed to just carbing the headspace.

 

[monkeymath]

Which of the anecdotal improvements did you try that didn't make any difference?

Well I started out with all-grain and adjusted my water four batches in, so I can't really speak to the efficacy of those. Same goes for yeast starters.

I've since switched from a pot on the stove top and a plastic lautering bucket that also served as a fermenter to a Grainfather and a stainless steel fermenter.
I don't think the mash recirculation or precise temp control during the mash has a noticeable impact on the final beer. Rapid chilling of wort instead of cooling over night? Probably. But I once had to resort to overnight cooling and can't say the beer came out any worse.

Controlling fermentation temperature is certainly a plus, but I think the effects are often exaggerated in anecdotal reports. In the blind side-by-side comparisons I've read about, the impact was much less significant.

I've flirted with the idea of going LODO, but ultimately decided it was a rabbit hole I didn't want to dive into. Reproducing generic German lagers is not a goal of mine at all, and certainly not worth the added equipment, complexity and headache for me.

Building my brewing water from zero is certainly something I look forward to, although reverse osmosis doesn't really go great with my currently low brewing frequency.
I have some issues with my brews and I believe they're mostly due to my grain crush, so I'd like to improve that area as well.

 

[Bobby_M]

Well I started out with all-grain and adjusted my water four batches in, so I can't really speak to the efficacy of those. Same goes for yeast starters.

I've since switched from a pot on the stove top and a plastic lautering bucket that also served as a fermenter to a Grainfather and a stainless steel fermenter.
I don't think the mash recirculation or precise temp control during the mash has a noticeable impact on the final beer. Rapid chilling of wort instead of cooling over night? Probably. But I once had to resort to overnight cooling and can't say the beer came out any worse.

Controlling fermentation temperature is certainly a plus, but I think the effects are often exaggerated in anecdotal reports. In the blind side-by-side comparisons I've read about, the impact was much less significant.

I've flirted with the idea of going LODO, but ultimately decided it was a rabbit hole I didn't want to dive into. Reproducing generic German lagers is not a goal of mine at all, and certainly not worth the added equipment, complexity and headache for me.

Building my brewing water from zero is certainly something I look forward to, although reverse osmosis doesn't really go great with my currently low brewing frequency.
I have some issues with my brews and I believe they're mostly due to my grain crush, so I'd like to improve that area as well.

Hmm, I would argue all those things should make a noticeable difference, especially in combination.

 

[BrewZer]

Tbh, I don't think my beers actually got that much better.