Back to basics

[yeastinfection]

so today im quite excited to be going back to basics,my last 3 brews have been very dissapointing, nasty flavours, etc but as they have all been large brews its basically 120 bottles of undrinkable beer, (or 240 shandy's)
so im doing a 10ltr smash,
2k of marris otter and 30g of amarillo
its less volume if its dissapointing and cost wise it not a huge loss if its pants,

im going ott with cleaning and sanitising,
one thing im guilty of is when i first started i was keen to get the beer in the bottles. so after 2 weeks it was out of the fv and it to the bottles.
but then i got a brew fridge and obsessed with clarrity ,so i left it in the fv few more weeks to clear, an extre 2-3weeks at 5deg ..
then bottled it, yes its clear but it didnt taste nice,
so with this brew, i plan to keep on top of things and do it by the book,
Fingers crossed ..

 

[MyQul]

I've done something similiar myself. I've been getting a harsh bitterness in my beers of late>So after lots of research and a bit of experimentation, I've tracked it down to a combination of yeast bite and/or carbonic acid from overcarbination. This has come about from me (trying to) cutting corners and being lazy. So like you I've gone back to basics.

I've now started to do a 90min mash and 90min boil. I let my beers sit in the FV for at least two weeks, whereas I'd be packaging after one if I thought I could get away with it. I've also started to use a bottling bucket rather than batch priming in the primary.

 

[yeastinfection]

so far so good, its so much easier doing a small brew too, less weight in the bag etc, i feel very calm today brewing ,

 

[MyQul]

so far so good, its so much easier doing a small brew too, less weight in the bag etc, i feel very calm today brewing ,

10L brews are nice to do. I switched to this brewlength a little while back. So much easier, especially in a small kitchen like mine

 

[Ajhutch]

so far so good, its so much easier doing a small brew too, less weight in the bag etc, i feel very calm today brewing ,

Good call. I've been making ok beers and struggling to get them to the next level so I'm going to take a similar approach, try and brew more often but a bit smaller batches. Focus on keeping things easy and not worrying about lugging extra bits and pieces around during the brew day.


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[Martybhoy]

I did a back to basics recently after several poor fermentations. I also followed my notes rigidly, as I was guilty of winging it a little, and therefore not paying as much attention as I should.

So far so good, plus I (hopefully) discovered the cause of poor fermentations - high mash temps.

I also found I enjoyed my brew days more.

Hope it all goes well.

 

[chub1]

I like my small 5/10 litre brews.Get a good turnover of different beers,more brew days and if anything was really good it is always re brewable:thumb:

 

[Gerryjo]

10L brews are nice to do. I switched to this brewlength a little while back. So much easier, especially in a small kitchen like mine

I took a leaf from your book and done a 10l stout using the oven to maintain temp in the mash and worked a treat.Less of everything though I did pitch a full packet of S04 into the fermenter as I had 12l litres in there hoping for 10 back.

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[yeastinfection]

Well all went well.i hit my pre boil reading .

Never checked that before. 1.030
My og should of been 1.044 bit was 1.040
If I checked first I guess I could of boiled it for longer?
But it's now sat in my brew fridge at 18°
10ltrs so I hit volume .

 

[Dutto]

I have to ask ... "How long do you leave a brew before you decide that it's 'undrinkable'?"

A lot of my brews only come good after a few months of conditioning on the shelf, so it takes me a long time before I decide to tip a load of work and expense down the drain. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[yeastinfection]

Hi Dutto.
Some of my brew have been in a bottle for over a year .I check a bottle every month to see if it's improved .the worst one is a hob goblin clone.it burned on the element and still tastes disgusting .the others I don't know what they taste of.
Or why.
I wonder if brewers can sample a bottle and know why it tastes bad. I have a book with the reasons of why a beer can be bad. But my subscription and his might be different.
So I'm none the wiser

 

[Dutto]

.......... I don't know what they taste of.
Or why.

I wonder if brewers can sample a bottle and know why it tastes bad. ..........

Ditto me with the first comment. Living in India and eating too many curries have virtually shot my taste-buds to ribbons. I do know that too high a temperature at various stages of the process can seriously affect a beer and one of the symptoms is the flavour of "grapefruit" in the finished article.

With the second comment I have this strong belief that commercial brewers brew stuff so bad that they just don't have anything that is "off" ...

... and if they do, they call it something different, double the price and sell it freezing cold so that Joe Public can't taste it.

Like yourself, my solution is usually to just put it back on the shelf and wait. The end product may be crap but generally it's very clear crap! :whistle: :whistle:

 

[Sadfield]

I have to ask ... "How long do you leave a brew before you decide that it's 'undrinkable'?"

A lot of my brews only come good after a few months of conditioning on the shelf, so it takes me a long time before I decide to tip a load of work and expense down the drain. :thumb: :thumb:

Sure, it can take a couple of weeks for a beer to fully condition, but if it isn't drinkable at time of packaging there is something significantly wrong in your process.

As for off-flavours, check out aroxa, they do sensory training kits, however their site has plenty of useful information on identifying the source of off-flavours.

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[foxbat]

Never checked that before. 1.030

This is good. It means your grain crush resulted in the expected mash efficiency. Don't change anything mash-related.

My og should of been 1.044 bit was 1.040

This could just be that the numbers you used for your equipment setup aren't accurate. Next time measure pre-boil and post-boil volumes and use that to setup your boil-off rate. All you need to do is measure the height of the liquid off the bottom of the pot (or down from the top of the pot) with a tape measure and do the volume calculation later when you're not so busy.

 

[Dutto]

Sure, it can take a couple of weeks for a beer to fully condition, but if it isn't drinkable at time of packaging there is something significantly wrong in your process.

..........

If you are ever in a lifeboat and in need of water please remember that your urine is "drinkable"; but I doubt if you would ever find it to be "palatable".

Because I am brewing beer which I hope will become "palatable" I can't see the point of attempting to judge how it will taste before it has had time to carbonate and condition ...

... and that takes an absolute minimum of two weeks.

 

[Sadfield]

If you are ever in a lifeboat and in need of water please remember that your urine is "drinkable"; but I doubt if you would ever find it to be "palatable".

Because I am brewing beer which I hope will become "palatable" I can't see the point of attempting to judge how it will taste before it has had time to carbonate and condition ...

... and that takes an absolute minimum of two weeks.

My comment says just that, the beer will need weeks to fully condition. However, as your comment was about tipping it away, any beer which has faults that lead to this are highly unlikely to improve with carbonation and conditioning, therefore if it isn't drinkable at packaging, it still won't be palatable once conditioned.

Given that cask beer leaves the brewery uncarbonated and conditioned, I think this is a fair point. The brewer will know whether the beer is good or not at this point.

There's something wrong if 'hope' plays a part in your process. ;-)

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[Martybhoy]

If my beer was undrinkable at bottling, I'd be worried.

If it was drinkable but not great, I'd be comfortable that it would improve with conditioning.

If it was drinkable AND great, I'd be ****-a-hoop.

 

[Dutto]

...........


If it was drinkable AND great, I'd be ****-a-hoop.

........ but worried that it may go off? :lol::lol: