Biggest process improvements for better beer...

[hamster]

So I posted something around dry hopping the other day and how to extract more from the hops, lose less taste and aroma and it got me thinking...

There must be a set list of top level items that improve your beer and its consistency from brew to brew. I'm not talking about different methods to change taste or texture here but how to create a better beer, increase efficiency and more consistent brewing.

So far I've debated this with a friend and come up with a list of processes that when executed better would help

Water composition - Correct water type for specific brews
Mash PH - Have you hit the target 5.2-5.5
Mash completed - All complex surgars been converted to sinple sugars
Hop addition process - Previous post
Sparging - Loads of techniques
Oxidation - Reducing O2 contact with your beer
Fermentation temperature​

Can you add anymore ?
What do you think are the most important areas to concentrate on ?
Am I talking rubbish ?

I suspect that the bog standard brewer just chucks water together, boils some grains, adds hops and is happy with a drinkable beer at the end of it. Personally I like to do things to the best of my ability and get a little obsessed over it haha...

 

[MrN]

Petty sure the top two things by a long way are: sanitation/cleanliness and fermentation (specifically pitching the correct amount of healthy yeast and temp control).

These are often mentioned as priorities, if you can nail these then you can probably brew decent beer whatever you start with (e.g. malt extract rather than all grain etc.). Stuff like water chemistry and mash ph are more like tweaks to improve what you're already making once you've got the big stuff down and I'd probably put those relatively far down the list (perhaps ph less so). In the end, the mash is a relatively forgiving process, fermentation is where the magic happens (so far as my understanding goes).

 

[hamster]

Petty sure the top two things by a long way are: sanitation/cleanliness and fermentation (specifically pitching the correct amount of healthy yeast and temp control).

These are often mentioned as priorities, if you can nail these then you can probably brew decent beer whatever you start with (e.g. malt extract rather than all grain etc.). Stuff like water chemistry and mash ph are more like tweaks to improve what you're already making once you've got the big stuff down and I'd probably put those relatively far down the list (perhaps ph less so). In the end, the mash is a relatively forgiving process, fermentation is where the magic happens (so far as my understanding goes).

Didn't think of sanitation but I go overboard with this as a basic standard ! Fermentation temperature is another but how much of a variable I'm not sure. First 3-4 brews all done fermenting next to a radiator, now I have a fermentation fridge... Amount of yeast though that is not one I've heard of

See from what I've been reading water composition is very important and massively different dependent on what your trying to brew ! Today found out my water calcium levels are around 40ppm and the calcium is an important element to generate taste. My min aim for light IPAs should be around 100ppm so I'm massively under and could make a huge difference

 

[Simonh82]

I think water adjustments can make a significant improvement to a beer and will go a long way to make a good beer a great beer.

In terms of consistency and efficiency, I would suggest crushing your own grain. That means you aren't at the mercy of whoever is manning the grain crusher that day and you can tweak your crush to work with your system. Crushing your own grain also allows you to buy in bulk and not worry about crushed grain going stale.

 

[Fil]

well having spent every penny of my toy/brewbudget asap i can say hand on heart the biggest improvement in brewing for £'s spent on any aspect of the brewery has to go to the brewfridge,

shifting to a temp controlled fermentation had a HUGE impact, not only did primary complete in 4-5 days of pitching when S-04 was fermented @18-19C as regular as clockwork the ability to crash chill made kegging and presure conditioning a pleasure as the 0C beer transfered to the keg captures condensation as a ready level indicator, and then the cold Beer is SO much more welcoming to conditioning/co2 allowing a crafty sample to be drawn within a week of kegging

 

[MrN]

I think water chemistry is important to a point but as long as you're in certain ballparks it's fine and probably isn't the first thing I'd go to as a beginner to improve my process.

John Palmer says to think of chloride and sulphate additions more as "seasoning" which I quite like. You can use them to tweak the character of your beer but it won't make a poorly made beer drinkable. I believe calcium is important for beer clarity but I might be wrong.

Of course water also affects mash ph which is important but again, I think if you're within the right sort of range it should be ok.

It's not that these things aren't worth adjusting or playing with but I see them more as perfecting a good process rather than things that are going to have the biggest impact on the quality of your beer. A beer made with a good water profile will still taste bad if it's infected or been fermented at 30 degrees.

 

[Sadfield]

As we are nothing without the help of yeast. I'd go with fermentation temperature control, especially now you can get inkbirds, it is easy to set up and cheap, if you find a free fridge. Not only does it improve consistency/quality it also allows you more control over flavour.

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

 

[Honk]

There seems to be quite a few people recommending the brewfridge for temperature control here and on other posts but it's quite easy to control temperature using a trug of water and fishtank heater which works fine except for the heat of summer when i will either not brew or do something which needs higher fermentation temperature, The ability to crash cool would be nice but apart from this is a brew fridge really a big improvement for me?

I'm drinking an Exmoor Gold clone as i type which is the first beer i treated my water for and it's excellent, best beer yet, not sure if that's entirely down to water though as I'm learning all the time.

 

[Leon103]

One that hasn't been mentioned is yeast management which is key for all beer types.

 

[Graz]

There seems to be quite a few people recommending the brewfridge for temperature control here and on other posts but it's quite easy to control temperature using a trug of water and fishtank heater which works fine except for the heat of summer when i will either not brew or do something which needs higher fermentation temperature, The ability to crash cool would be nice but apart from this is a brew fridge really a big improvement for me?

Admittedly I only brew kits but having a brew fridge (well two actually) has made a large improvement to my brewing. Biggest gain is that I can have brews going out in my garage year round rather than cluttering up our utility.

Prior to sorting one out the fermenter did just get dumped on the worktop in the utility and just relied on the ambient temperature of the house. Problem with that was that we only heat the house when we're in it during Winter so it was cool for a large part of the day whilst we were out at work. I would now blame a number of either sketchy or stuck fermentations on this. Likewise in the height of summer I'm sure it could have been well over 20°C in there leading to some funny tasting beer on occasion.

The trug and aquarium heater is a good halfway house for sure and would have solved my Winter problems but it's no good in the summer time.

 

[Sadfield]

Having used both trug and fridge methods, I'd say there is a world of difference between protecting your fv from the external environment and actually controlling the exothermic process of fermentation. Keeping a heat generating fermentation within +/-0.3C of something like 17c (even closer with brewpi) is near impossible with just a heater, if your after a clean fermentation. When you can keep things with accuracy to a set temperature, you can really start playing with yeast as an ingredient, picking out different flavour profiles.

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[Gunge]

Getting the missus to sterilise the bottles.

 

[foxbat]

1. Brew fridge temperature control
2. Using bottled water
3. Crushing my own grain. Repeatable +10% efficiency from that one.
4. Not using any cleaner with chlorine in it.
5. The right yeast for the right beer (with the right starter if liquid)
6. Little bottler. It may seem trivial but damn that thing works well.

 

[Robin54]

1. Brew fridge temperature control
2. Using bottled water
3. Crushing my own grain. Repeatable +10% efficiency from that one.
4. Not using any cleaner with chlorine in it.
5. The right yeast for the right beer (with the right starter if liquid)
6. Little bottler. It may seem trivial but damn that thing works well.

The 'Little Bottler" is mighty useful for large batches

 

[hamster]

The 'Little Bottler" is mighty useful for large batches

I've got one but on a length of tube rather than a tap... Find the taps are too far up the buckets and you lost a lot of beer to the dreggs

 

[chuffer]

For me it's been temperature control

 

[Sandimas]

For me it's been temperature control

+1

I just doing it simply (garden trug and fish tank heater) but it's made a huge improvement in consistency of the brews.

 

[chub1]

I have nothing fancy in the way of gear,however have been crushing my own grains and dunk sparging which has helped me enormously to get nearer to my expected OG's:thumb:. And as Robin has said,little bottler makes life sooooooo easy.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

So I posted something around dry hopping the other day and how to extract more from the hops, lose less taste and aroma and it got me thinking...

There must be a set list of top level items that improve your beer and its consistency from brew to brew. I'm not talking about different methods to change taste or texture here but how to create a better beer, increase efficiency and more consistent brewing.

So far I've debated this with a friend and come up with a list of processes that when executed better would help

Water composition - Correct water type for specific brews
Mash PH - Have you hit the target 5.2-5.5
Mash completed - All complex surgars been converted to sinple sugars
Hop addition process - Previous post
Sparging - Loads of techniques
Oxidation - Reducing O2 contact with your beer
Fermentation temperature​

Can you add anymore ?
What do you think are the most important areas to concentrate on ?
Am I talking rubbish ?

I suspect that the bog standard brewer just chucks water together, boils some grains, adds hops and is happy with a drinkable beer at the end of it. Personally I like to do things to the best of my ability and get a little obsessed over it haha...

JMHO..I think that you have tried to ask every single question about the HB process in one post. Hve you ever brewed a AG beer, taken notes, tried to improve your next brew?
Or do you want a "quick fix"?

 

[Linalmeemow]

Why not ask for a "quick fix"? There's nothing wrong with what this chap has posted at all.