What should I focus on?

[Swift Pint]

OK, so I guess the purpose of this thread is to brainstorm some ideas of areas of my brewday that I should be thinking about more and focusing on. I've been jumping around a lot with recipes, but I think going forwards I'm going to try and hone in on a house sessionable pale ale, tweaking one thing at a time, brewing more often and trying to focus on technique and process.

I think it would be quite hard to post in depth description of my technique, so I guess from a high level what are the top aspects of brewing that you think are the most important? What changes have you made that have had a noticeable increase in quality?

Any help or ideas are welcome. I'm getting a bit fed up of brewing beer, tasting the first bottle and thinking "meh, its OK".

 

[graysalchemy]

Firstly give them time 6 months time they may well be the best thing you have ever brewed.

Secondly base you recipe on something commercial that you like from GW's book, get that right and then start tweaking, that way you have a firm base to expand on instead a concocted recipe, that way you can improve your brewdays first getting techniques right and consistent before moving onto tweaking. At the moment you probably have two many variables.

:thumb:

 

[robsan77]

Process.

Not over sparging and getting water treatments right.

If you brew a poor recipe very well, you'll get a good beer.
If you brew a great recipe poorly, you'll get a crap beer.

 

[Ceejay]

The most important aspect for me has to be the fermentation control. You can screw up everything else, but a decent, temperature controlled fermentation can mitigate all sorts of bad things. Likewise, a lousy fermentation will invariably produce sub-par beer.

Temperature control (no matter how rudimentary) and giving yeast the best start by re-hydrating dried yeast, or making a starter for liquid yeast are key, IMO.

Also, Sanitation. Maybe even more important than fermentation control. :ugeek:

Have to agree with GA too, time can work wonders for beer (not Hefeweizen though!)

 

[LeedsBrewer]

Also, Sanitation. Maybe even more important than fermentation control. :ugeek:

+1

 

[Swift Pint]

Cheers for the thoughts guys.
Focussing on a known recipe and nailing my process seems like the way to go. I'm going to be brewing 1 or 2 gallon BIAB batches. So will hpoefully be brewing often so will have more scope for practicing and nailing it.
I think I need to strip down my technique and take it back to basics.

I'll have another look at my sanitation, I've got to the point where I'm using what I think is the right amount of oxyclean, or the right amount of iodophor. I really need to calculate my amounts and make sure I'm using the correct dilutions.

I've not given water much thought, but being based in London I've got very hard water. I think this will probably have an impact. I might try brewing one batch with tap water and one with bottled to compare how the final beers taste.

I've been working on a temperature controlled waterbath for my demijohns, cooled with a maxi beer chiller, so will have to get that fully operational and dial in the fermentation temperatures.

Also I think I've become lazy with my dried yeast, just pitching it from the packet into the wort when I aerate. I should also focus on re-hydrating and also ensuring I get good aeration. (is it possible to over aerate wort?)

 

[artyb]

i think that temps in the country through the year are too random ....hot in the morning,cold in the aft,
freezing one day warmer the next ,
i think temp controlled brewing is the one thing that will really affect the finished product,

im building a simple fermentation cabinet, a controller and a light bulb ,with in a kitchen base unit ,
will cost me around £20

 

[LeedsBrewer]

oh and serving temp! I've been putting all of my brews in the fridge before serving out of habit. Just tried some ales at room temp and they taste and smell so much better. :thumb:

 

[RokDok]

Cheers for the thoughts guys.
Focussing on a known recipe and nailing my process seems like the way to go. I'm going to be brewing 1 or 2 gallon BIAB batches. So will hpoefully be brewing often so will have more scope for practicing and nailing it.
I think I need to strip down my technique and take it back to basics.

I'll have another look at my sanitation, I've got to the point where I'm using what I think is the right amount of oxyclean, or the right amount of iodophor. I really need to calculate my amounts and make sure I'm using the correct dilutions.

I've not given water much thought, but being based in London I've got very hard water. I think this will probably have an impact. I might try brewing one batch with tap water and one with bottled to compare how the final beers taste.

I've been working on a temperature controlled waterbath for my demijohns, cooled with a maxi beer chiller, so will have to get that fully operational and dial in the fermentation temperatures.

Also I think I've become lazy with my dried yeast, just pitching it from the packet into the wort when I aerate. I should also focus on re-hydrating and also ensuring I get good aeration. (is it possible to over aerate wort?)

It's not possible to over aerate wort at the outset. Vigorous stirring will only get you a max of 5 ppm of O2 , ideally should be about 8 ppm according to the yeast book which has been reviewed on here.

RD

 

[dennisking]

Try liquid yeast. the yeast is the most important ingrediant you use and eachone will be different so try a few and you shiuld find one to suit,

 

[Swift Pint]

I'd like to use liquid yeast, but am a bit concerned about the cost & wastage considering the sizes I'm brewing in.
Is there likely to be any issue with shaking the vial up, pouring 1/4 into my wort (assuming a 1gallon brew), and then screwing the cap back on and putting back in fridge?

Obviously I dont want to be using a whole vial per brew, so would that work, or is there a better approach? Maybe making a starter and then divining up into smaller bottles and then storing in the fridge?

 

[graysalchemy]

Make a starter and then divide it would be my advice :thumb:

 

[pittsy]

its been covered what i was gonna say , temp control will make the biggest difference in quality control , then liquid yeast can make a big difference , yeah make a 4l 400g starter then split into 330ml bottles store in fridge and use 1 with 100g dme with 1l water (or make a batch of beer at 1040 and store in freezer in 1l bottles and use than instead of dme,cheaper)
As also said concentrate on 1 (or 2) style of beer , keep % of specialty grains low so you can taste all the flavours .
So i'll add mashing , many books i have suggest difference mashing temps at different times such as 60c for 15 mins then 45/60 mins at 68c and that mostly depends on what your are brewing like other styles of beers ask for 64c then 72c for so many minutes .
Doing this will give you plenty of sugars and good mouthfeel.
Also there is decoction to think of but this is not needed or wanted for some styles while is great for other beers.
When i was making my first ag brews i followed recipes but didn't give the above much notice and i made ok ish beer , now i make sometimes great beer

 

[Swift Pint]

Hmmm, I've never thought of step mashing. Its an interesting thought, so I might look into that.
In another thread re HERMS there is talk about stirring and consisten temperatures throughout the mash which I think is something I should look into to in order to make sure I'm actually mashing at the temperature I think I'm mashing at!

Thanks for all the ideas guys. :thumb:

I'm probably going to have a break over Christmas but will but focussing hard on this in the New Year!

 

[artyb]

i built an fv cabinet from kitchen parts,
it cost around £35,
but £20 of that was for the matching door,
the controller was £10.. from china,

it is up and running, and happily fermenting at a constant 20 deg,

6 gallons of an ipa, [biab ]

 

[wilsoa1111]

guess im a bit late to this one, im after a fv cabinet too, getting the roomspace from swmbo might be a bit of a job though (unless im prepared to use/lose the kegerator)

as for the liquid yeast, DONT freeze it without glycerin, i tried that- really didnt work, did get a nice nutrient rich and sterile starter medium though :lol: fridge is perfectly fine for at least 3months in most peoples opinions. As far a managing the yeast try to keep a master culture, a working culture-or two- and a backup master, they needn't be large but just make sure the masters dont go off (why peeps go for yeast banks)