What's the hardest brew to get wrong?

[mashdar]

I've brewed the popular Guinness clone (recipe on Brewfather) every year since I've started brewing and it's always been 100% spot on. Possibly the only beer I've never had to tweak slightly over time. Super simple.

The nice thing about Guinness is the real deal is ~10% stale and soured, so O2 exposure and minor infection is authentic!

 

[bwible]

If you’re a fan of Belgians I always say its pretty hard to screw up a Belgian. If it got infected, what difference would it make?

But seriously, dark beers like dry stout have alot going on to hide any flaws. Or how about an old school Texas brown ale?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

a simple brown ale is hard the screw up

 

[MaxStout]

Plenty of good advice above on beers to brew, so I won't add to it.

I will say that good note-taking is very helpful, if you're not doing it already. Write down as much info as you can--even tiny details may help later.

If things go south, it may help you determine what went wrong and what to do differently. You can post to this forum, give lots of info and people will jump in to help troubleshoot.

If a brew works out well, you have a blueprint to copy next time.

 

[ninkwood]

Plenty of good advice above on beers to brew, so I won't add to it.

I will say that good note-taking is very helpful, if you're not doing it already. Write down as much info as you can--even tiny details may help later.

If things go south, it may help you determine what went wrong and what to do differently. You can post to this forum, give lots of info and people will jump in to help troubleshoot.

If a brew works out well, you have a blueprint to copy next time.

My biggest problem has been the constant changes to my process. I've been adding equipment slowly over the past year and I'm now brewing on a 3v1pHERMs. Each brew it seems I'm either doing something different or I've added a piece of equipment.

I'm finally satisfied with what I have to work with, and my plan now is to do a handful of simple 1 or 2 rest mashes, with no decoctions or whirlpools etc until I can mash, boil and chill in my sleep.

 

[ninkwood]

Yeast need oxygen only to replicate, not to ferment. Specifically they need oxygen to synthesize sterols for making new cell membranes and walls. Dry yeast are grown under conditions that allow them to build up sufficient sterol reserves for the growth phase. So if you direct pitch dry yeast you really don't need to worry about oxygenating your wort.

@mac_1103 I hope you don't mind me going off topic a bit and asking you another question about wort oxygenation/sterols.

While I've switched to liquid yeast, I've been making starters on a stir plate for every batch. Does this process build up yeast health/sterol levels to the level of a dry packet? Or were you already assuming I was making a starter in this manner?

I'm going to go with dry packets for the next little while regardless, but I'm wondering if I should either buy an O2 setup or ditch my stir plate entirely going forward.

 

[mac_1103]

While I've switched to liquid yeast, I've been making starters on a stir plate for every batch. Does this process build up yeast health/sterol levels to the level of a dry packet? Or were you already assuming I was making a starter in this manner?

I'm probably the wrong person to answer that question. I have read some things that suggest oxygenating the starter is sufficient but I have no idea if that's valid.

 

[passedpawn]

For sure, the easiest beer to nail is a german hefewiesen. Key: just use wheat extract (which is half wheat and half barley, perfect), Wyeast 3068, 1 oz of any noble hop at 60m, ferment at room temp. Couldn't be easier.

 

[day_trippr]

From the first post it appears the OP is into all-grain brewing. While an all-extract brew surely is the epitome of "can't fail", that may be a retrograde approach in this case...

Cheers!

 

[passedpawn]

From the first post it appears the OP is into all-grain brewing. While an all-extract brew surely is the epitome of "can't fail", that may be a retrograde approach in this case...

Cheers!

OK, make it with grain.

edit: I read the first post. where does it say that?

 

[ninkwood]

For sure, the easiest beer to nail is a german hefewiesen. Key: just use wheat extract (which is half wheat and half barley, perfect), Wyeast 3068, 1 oz of any noble hop at 60m, ferment at room temp. Couldn't be easier.

This is a bit ironic because the two worst beers I've brewed have been a German Hefeweizen and a dunkleweizen.

Both all-grain, and had to use domestic wheat malt because I couldn't source German. Both had what I would consider yeast issues.

 

[passedpawn]

What yeast?

 

[passedpawn]

What do you mean by "yeast issues"?

 

[ninkwood]

With the Hefeweizen, I used Lallemand Munich Classic, and with the Dunkleweizen, I used Escarpment Labs Weizen 1, which according to them is comparable to wyeast 3068.

By yeast issues, I just mean that I had some off flavors that I'm attributing to yeast.

The Hefeweizen was quite some time ago, but the Dunkleweizen was my most recently completed batch. It's been about 5 weeks since brew day and I kegged it two weeks ago. It still has a distinct sulphur note that to my taste makes it undrinkable. It still seems to be improving, and so I'll give it another month or so, but it might get dumped

 

[ninkwood]

I'm happy to hear that someone out there views Hefeweizens as easy though, it's one of my favorite styles.

 

[hottpeper13]

I had a wheat beer with some sulfur notes and put the CO2 on the out put at 5 psi with the prv open for ~ 30 seconds and the smell was gone. I could still taste a little bit, but was gone in a few days.

 

[day_trippr]

I thought it was implied, but a couple posts later it got definitive...

To answer your specific questions, I'm doing all grain

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

did I read that wrong, i was guessing the beer you can’t screw up, if you factor in the most complex beer you can’t screw up then I may be wrong?

 

[ninkwood]

I had a wheat beer with some sulfur notes and put the CO2 on the out put at 5 psi with the prv open for ~ 30 seconds and the smell was gone. I could still taste a little bit, but was gone in a few days.

I just tried this, but I did it a bit different. I've already carbed the beer to about 16 psi, so I attached a spunding valve set to about 15psi and attached co2 at around 17psi. I left it attached for a few minutes as the flow was quite slow. I'll give it a day or two, but the sample I took immediately after tastes a little better.

 

[z-bob]

American Porter: 90% pale malt, 5% light crystal malt (20L or 40L), 5% black patent malt. About 1.050 original gravity or *slightly* higher. Use whatever hops and yeast you like; mix it up to add variety. My best batch used Willamette hops and yeast cultured from a can of Bell's Oberon.