Homebrew Beer Myths

[Cwrw666]

Not sure it's possible to water down Guinness. Cask beers yes, but don't see how you could tamper with Guinness without some elaborate modification of the lines, which begs the question 'why?' for the sake of a few quid.

Well my daughter recons it's true - she worked there for 6 months or so and actually saw the landlady at it on numerous occasions. And yes, for the sake of a few quid lots of people do lots of stupid things for a kick back that destroys their careers and future employment.

 

[terrym]

How about priming your beer with malt extract makes a noticeable difference to what your beer tastes like compared to just using ordinary table sugar.

 

[trueblue]

This is a brilliant thread!

Surprised no one mentioned “liquid yeast makes better beer”.

You can definitely make worse beer with liquid yeast if you don’t know what you’re doing (e.g. low cell count due to poor storage, batch age, insufficient starter for OG, infection due to poor sanitation etc. etc...). I’m sure there’s many commercial and craft breweries using dried yeast and producing great beer. You do have more choices with liquid yeast though, want to make a lager with Pilsner Urquell yeast, why not. Want a Belgian blonde with Achouffe, go for it.

Without starting another off topic debate I personally think live yeast, either direct from a brewery or commercial ones does make better beer but as you rightly pointed out you need good brewery practice and of course there is the potential for more to go wrong but that little bit of effort is more than worth it.

 

[kelper]

Does anyone calculate how much they spend in total (including equipment) to cost each pint brewed? Kit brews are roughly 50p a pint but not including the equipment. Should it be calculated over five years?

 

[Hew's Brews]

Off topic, but I just listened to the most recent Brulosophy podcast (ep 140) and they read out a comment I sent to them! It's at around 6 mins in Re: Short and Shoddy English Porter. I forgot I'd sent it in (was definitely pissed) and it was just to make them laugh by fitting as many over the top Britishisms into a few sentences as I could. Anyway does this mean I'm famous?

Wow that was you! Just listened to that this morning, it was very funny, and make no mistake!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Does anyone calculate how much they spend in total (including equipment) to cost each pint brewed? Kit brews are roughly 50p a pint but not including the equipment. Should it be calculated over five years?

Are you depreciating your kit over 5 years which is sensible I.e. Bought £500 of hardware so deprecate at £100 a year, so if you make 10 brews then £10 per brew plus materials say another £10 plus some energy and water if on a meter. So even if water and energy are £5 then your 23 litres brew is just over £1 per litre.

 

[Hew's Brews]

You need to cool the wort right down to "pitching temperature" before pitching the yeast.

I tend to use dried yeast and ferment at 18C for ales. Getting the hot wort temperature down that low is often a struggle so I don't bother, as long as I get close to 25C I sprinkle the yeast on top and put it in the brew fridge set at 18C. I nearly always get to my expected FG and haven't noticed any flavour issues.

 

[kelper]

Are you depreciating your kit over 5 years which is sensible I.e. Bought £500 of hardware so deprecate at £100 a year, so if you make 10 brews then £10 per brew plus materials say another £10 plus some energy and water if on a meter. So even if water and energy are £5 then your 23 litres brew is just over £1 per litre.

So why do so many here think homebrew is more expensive than bought beer? A Wilko kit is £12. A kilo of sugar is 28p. Brew in a bucket and bottle in reused plastic bottles and you get forty pints for £12.28. 30.7p a pint........

 

[MickDundee]

You need to cool the wort right down to "pitching temperature" before pitching the yeast.

I tend to use dried yeast and ferment at 18C for ales. Getting the hot wort temperature down that low is often a struggle so I don't bother, as long as I get close to 25C I sprinkle the yeast on top and put it in the brew fridge set at 18C. I nearly always get to my expected FG and haven't noticed any flavour issues.

I've pitched S-04 at 27C and the whole batch tasted like nail varnish. It had such an effect on me that I have never used S-04 again and it happened 3 years ago.

 

[Drunkula]

I've pitched S-04 at 27C and the whole batch tasted like nail varnish

s-04 really doesn't like to be pitched higher than the ferment temp. Jamil Z mentions that you should pitch a few degrees under ferment temp all the time on the podcasts. S-04 is a spoilt little bitch, I can see why you don't want to use it.

 

[cushyno]

Thing is, if you brew a beer and measure it's OG and FG you can reasonably accurately measure the ABV. Though most of us probably forget about the priming sugar. Commercial beers are allowed + or - a certain amount over or under the % stated on the label to allow for variations in production. I think my locals microbrewery said it was 3%. So in fact your pub 4% beer could in fact be 3.7%. Something to bear in mind if driving is also a 4.5% beer might actually be nearer 5%. Best not to have that second one.

Oh, and that is assuming the landlord isn't watering the beer. I know one pub where if you go in and look at the guiness pump the barman, who I know, will quietly shake his head if it's been doctored.

I think you need to check your maths, there.
3% tolerance on a 4% ABV would result in a range of between 3.88% and 4.12%. That's (4*0.97) to (4*1.03).

5% is 11.1% more than 4.5%

 

[strange-steve]

You need to cool the wort right down to "pitching temperature" before pitching the yeast.

There are lots of things you might "get away with" but that doesn't mean they are myths.

 

[MickDundee]

I think you need to check your maths, there.
3% tolerance on a 4% ABV would result in a range of between 3.88% and 4.12%. That's (4*0.97) to (4*1.03).

5% is 11.1% more than 4.5%

It’s 0.3 percentage points tolerance. So a 4% beer could be between 3.7% and 4.3%

 

[cushyno]

It’s 0.3 percentage points tolerance. So a 4% beer could be between 3.7% and 4.3%

Thanks for clarifying, that puts a different slant on it. 0.3 percentage points is not the same as 3%, or 3% of 4%.thumb

 

[Cheshire Cat]

So why do so many here think homebrew is more expensive than bought beer? A Wilko kit is £12. A kilo of sugar is 28p. Brew in a bucket and bottle in reused plastic bottles and you get forty pints for £12.28. 30.7p a pint........

Because they put the cost up front both equipment and materials and don't spread across the "life" of both. For your example the equipment should be amortised over several years so a bit more than 30p but not much.

 

[strange-steve]

It’s 0.3 percentage points tolerance. So a 4% beer could be between 3.7% and 4.3%

It's interesting that Orval actually uses different labels depending on where the beer is being sold, some say 6.2% ABV and others say 6.9% due to differing legal requirements. This is because the ABV actually changes from about 5.9% up to 6.9% depending on how old the beer is because of the brett working over time.

 

[kelper]

Because they put the cost up front both equipment and materials and don't spread across the "life" of both. For your example the equipment should be amortised over several years so a bit more than 30p but not much.

What equipment? It was all stuff lying around.

 

[trueblue]

I have never worked out the cost of my beers, it's irrelevant to me as I brew to make the sort of beer I want to drink at home i.e. as near to cask conditioned as possible. Can't buy that in Tesco's.

 

[kelper]

With beer costing about £5 a pint I'm annoyed that so many pubs don't use oversize glasses. So, you get short measure or spill some on the way back to your perch.

 

[kelper]

I have never worked out the cost of my beers, it's irrelevant to me as I brew to make the sort of beer I want to drink at home i.e. as near to cask conditioned as possible. Can't buy that in Tesco's.

But I'm more interested in those who do 'cost' their beer!