A yearn to learn..

[peteplus1]

Just wondered (and it's probably been asked a thousand times before) where experienced brewers on here gained their knowledge from.

Now obviously I know there is help and advice all over the place. Particularly on here, the internet in general, tons of books, and good old 'learn as you go' by brewing regularly as possible. I've done 3 AG brews, and learned a lot of basics in a year or so.

I've got a regular full time job which although takes up Mon-Sat, luckily gives me a lot of down time in each day to which Id like to make more use of. Brewing / craft beer and the general hubbub that surrounds it has made me a bit of an obsessive. I'd love to be able to take my homebrewing further one day (wouldn't we all?). If anyone can enlighten me as to courses, better understanding, further knowledge of brewing beer that I could learn in my spare time, I'd be very grateful indeed.

Cheers!

 

[Notlaw]

I've learned more on here than I have from any book. I think for a beginner, an internet forum is the best starting point, without doubt.

 

[MyQul]

If your anywhere near the big smoke (specifically Brixton) London Beer Lab do workshops

http://londonbeerlab.com/

 

[Covrich]

Reading articles on the internet, and books.. This place is helpful watching youtube videos when doing things for a first time and just in general getting down to it..

 

[Hoddy]

Reading in as many places as you can and then putting that reading and your interpretation of that information into your brewing is the best way to broaden your knowledge.

The more you do the more you learn. Rather than just brewing a clone of something why not try designing your own. Then critically assess it and tweak the recipe and have another go to make it better.

That coupled with this motley crew is the best course you can do.

If you want to get into commercial brewing then that's a whole new ball game. And barring understanding the principles of brewing techniques and technology, the mechanics of brewing on a 10 hect scale is very different to anything you do at home. That's where I've been for the past 6 months.

 

[lukehgriffiths]

In terms of getting learnt I have found experience. Trying something out... searching here for a symptom and learning why it came. E.g. After numerous successful brews I dropped my sparge temp... the next couple of brews fermented to 1005 and I discovered the sparge temp was likely cause. Next one sparged at high 70s and I got the higher FG I was aiming for. Depends what you are after by taking things to the next level... making better brews or doing this as a career.

I feel there are a few things that helped me learn and discover. Firstly brew a beer using nothing but Maris Otter/base malt and bittering hops I found it interesting to taste where my brews started. From there you can experiment with flavours and see what happens.

 

[GHW]

Theory and practical advice from the forum and reading.

But nothing beats experience. You can read everything in the world but til you do something for yourself it remains mysterious.

Also as I'm always going on about, there are so many variations in method that you really need experience to find your own way.

You could go mad reading about the need for a primary and secondary fv, maxi full volume biab vorlaufing decoction step mash protein rests with whirlpool hop bursted stir plates...

...or you could just get a 10L pan and a sieve and make some simple but great beer on the cooker.

 

[GHW]

Blogs
I like bear flavored, brulosophy is ok but a bit geeky, byo is very US focused but has some interesting stuff.

I don't really watch YouTube videos other than when I want something specific explained like making a wort chiller (it was very useful for this) or making yeast starters

There's a book thread somewhere on the forum too, all of the books listed will be of help

Edit, it's here http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=59427

 

[Notlaw]

Theory and practical advice from the forum and reading.

But nothing beats experience. You can read everything in the world but til you do something for yourself it remains mysterious.

Also as I'm always going on about, there are so many variations in method that you really need experience to find your own way.

You could go mad reading about the need for a primary and secondary fv, maxi full volume biab vorlaufing decoction step mash protein rests with whirlpool hop bursted stir plates...

...or you could just get a 10L pan and a sieve and make some simple but great beer on the cooker.

You're dead right mate. I'd have been brewing far earlier if I'd not just taken the books I'd read as the Bible on it. The books don't mention a simple method with a big pan to make 5 to 10 litres. They all go on about mash tuns, sparge arms and making 21 litre batches.

Start small, see how easy it can be and work your way up.

 

[MyQul]

Cocking things up.

The amount of times I've had an inperfection in my beer doesnt bear mentioning, so I've then gone away and learned all about what caused it.

 

[peteplus1]

I'm still lacking in knowledge I guess because as much as I'd love to design a brew, I wouldnt really know where to start! It's one thing following a recipe and getting everything right, but where do you learn how much grain to use, which varieties, amount of hops and at what intervals etc!

 

[Simonh82]

If you are scientifically minded and want to get really geeky the there is free access to the journal of the institute of brewing and distilling http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2050-0416

There is a one year embargo which only paid subscribers can access but everything else going back to the late 1800s is free.

A lot of the content is extremely technical and I wouldn't even pretend to understand but there is some interesting info too. A useful tip is to search for review articles which might summarise the knowledge of a particular area, for instance yeast strains or high gravity brewing.

 

[MyQul]

I'm still lacking in knowledge I guess because as much as I'd love to design a brew, I wouldnt really know where to start! It's one thing following a recipe and getting everything right, but where do you learn how much grain to use, which varieties, amount of hops and at what intervals etc!

I don't often design a reciepe from scratch, I usually take a reciepe from one of my books and tweek it. But the few times I've done it, I've decided upon the style of beer I want to make, say for example a robust porter. I then google, 'robust porter style guide(lines)." I then look for a BYO.com hit. The BYO.com style guide articles are REALLY good. They usually start off with some background about the style. Then suggest what grains to use and what percentages. They suggest what hops and yeast also to use. Then round off the article with a couple of example reciepes usually one extract and one AG.

 

[GHW]

The only thing I can suggest is take your time, follow a few recipes, think about what you might do to tweak them as myqul suggests.

If you follow a recipe then you're more likely to make decent beer and be able to focus on getting your methods sorted. Once methods are sorted you can start playing around with ingredients.

Tbh you can make so many differing styles of beer with a limited range of ingredients that you don't necessarily need to get into lesser used malts or liquid yeasts etc.

With say just maris otter, crystal or caramalt, plus maybe chocolate or black malt you can do loads of beer styles. Add whatever hops you fancy and you have a huge range of beers without ever getting into other stuff. Use dry us-05 or 04 yeast, or Nottingham for different styles.

Then once you know what those do, start playing around with other recipes, add hop combos, other malts, yeasts...

Of course this all takes time, but as long as you're making nice beer along the way it's bearable!

 

[peteplus1]

So helpful, thanks to all. Really do appreciate the comments.

Going to crack on and brew as often as able. The 3 I have done so far have all turned out great, 2 pales and a stout. Going to alternate between a simple brew (using differnet hop varieties) and something a bit more challenging. Got a recipe for a milk stout which is something I have found to love recently . Plus the hop leftovers should go towards the next brew of another simple pale. BYO.com is a great shout. Looks incredibly informative.

Final query on this post is.. which (if any) software/app do you recommend. Like Brewsmith or similar..?

 

[MickDundee]

You're dead right mate. I'd have been brewing far earlier if I'd not just taken the books I'd read as the Bible on it. The books don't mention a simple method with a big pan to make 5 to 10 litres. They all go on about mash tuns, sparge arms and making 21 litre batches.

Start small, see how easy it can be and work your way up.

This. I'd read 3 books and thought "I don't have time, money or space for all grain", then I joined this place, discovered BUAB and the only extra kit I needed was a boiler and a mesh bag.

A semi-regular search of Gumtree eventually found me someone selling everything I needed for £20 and I sampled my first AG beer last weekend.

 

[LarryF]

Cocking things up.

Sounds like my stout at the moment, it looks like it's heading for the 8% mark, I'll be conditioning it until Christmas. Then again I've got a Coopers Stout in reserve if I bang that straight on then I may well have a very nice Christmas Stout just in case I need any liquid anesthetic over the festive season.

 

[geetee]

I'm still lacking in knowledge I guess because as much as I'd love to design a brew, I wouldnt really know where to start! It's one thing following a recipe and getting everything right, but where do you learn how much grain to use, which varieties, amount of hops and at what intervals etc!

Get hold of "Designing great beers" by Ray Daniels for introduction to recipe design.Gives a good understanding of ingredients and beer styles. In some respect it does what everyone else on here does, takes recipes that have won competitions and suggests the best type of ingredients to use for that style and what might work for you.

Once you have made a couple you will get the idea of percentage base malt, additional malts for colour or flavour. Hop timings tend to be similar for most beers although some people prefer layered hops and some don't, it's a personal thing with no right or wrong answers

I think what I am saying is get a reference book but actually LEARN by doing it and drinking your own beer! I have picked up most of my knowledge by searching the internet and forums for answers.

 

[Deadhead]

Brew, brew and brew. Log, log, and log. Repeat. And really be critical of your beer. Take your time drinking and really smell, taste, pair with food, and give it to people to drink. Write it all down and learn from your mistakes. The more notes you take, the more you can figure out what went wrong or right! Read the internet and read the books and ask on forums for why if you can't figure it out. I'm an engineer, so I like to make things very repeatable and I like to know why things are the way they are. I'm at the moment trying to learn all I can about HERMS systems so I upgrade my kit so I can make my beer even more repeatable (and reading loads and loads here). But, I'm actually just as happy brewing on the stove top in small batches. As long as my house smells like beer and I hear gurggling from the storeroom, I'm a happy lassie.
Good luck!