What's the 1 bit of advice you wish someone had given you, which you'd pass on to a new brewer?

[Tetsuo1981]

Lots of towels for clean up on brew day. And maybe a present for the Mrs on hand to distract her from the mess before clean up!

 

[cmwood64]

Remember it's a hobby. If you got into it to save money get out now. Once you're hooked you will soon start to find excuses to buy just one more piece of kit........

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[GerritT]

Remember it's a hobby. If you got into it to save money get out now. Once you're hooked you will soon start to find excuses to buy just one more piece of kit........

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Cheapest beer I can buy costs £1 per liter . So yes, can't brew for that money. But my brews are way better than most mainstream beers, and compared to those prices... it's still costing me

It's the fun that doesn't have a price tag.

 

[svenito]

Cheapest beer I can buy costs £1 per liter . So yes, can't brew for that money. But my brews are way better than most mainstream beers, and compared to those prices... it's still costing me

It's the fun that doesn't have a price tag.

Yeah, but a "craft" beer is like £5 liter. I can definitely brew cheaper than that (only taking consumables into account, not equipment). The swill price however is hard to beat

 

[BeerCat]

Get a refractometer. Make sure your pre boil gravity is correct.

 

[Oneiroi]

Get a refractometer. Make sure your pre boil gravity is correct.

I’m curious about this (as I don’t have one...) what’s the advantage over hydrometer?


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[BeerCat]

I’m curious about this (as I don’t have one...) what’s the advantage over hydrometer?


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You just take a drop and have an instant reading. That way you can check the mash as it progresses and as the boil progresses. A hydrometer needs the wort cooled to 20c unless you use a correction calc. I always get the correct gravity now. You just need to know your boil off.

 

[F00b4r]

I’m curious about this (as I don’t have one...) what’s the advantage over hydrometer?


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Make sure that you give the wort a good stir though, if you don't your reading could be way off.
It also let's you then adjust your boil length, hopping etc on the fly so that the beer comes out exactly how it was intended (OG, IBU's).

EDIT: sorry a partial rehash of what Beercat put.

 

[Oneiroi]

Interesting, thanks both. Do you know if the cheap ones (10-15£) are good enough or is it worth getting a better one?


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[Zephyr259]

Interesting, thanks both. Do you know if the cheap ones (10-15£) are good enough or is it worth getting a better one?

I've heard mixed reviews on the cheap optical ones, some find they work perfectly well, others say they have a significant margin of error even when testing the same sample.

I wanted one to make it easier to check my post-fermentation gravity was stable so I didn't like the sound of that as I'd never know if it was truly stable. I was googling a digital model and found one half price at cash converters, turned out to be new and unused and it's great, gives a very stable reading on sequential tests. If I test a sample 6 times I'll get 1 or 2 readings at +/- 0.1 brix. Now that I've done a few brews with it I think I've got it's wort correction factor dialed in and it matches my hydrometer nicely.

 

[BeerCat]

Interesting, thanks both. Do you know if the cheap ones (10-15£) are good enough or is it worth getting a better one?


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I bought a couple. One was £15 and was the same sort of quality as the £5 one. I actually prefer the one with just the brix scale on as its easier to read.

 

[RichK]

I've got a cheap one. I'm happy with the results it's giving as I'm only looking to identify when fermentation has finished & am quite happy with an approx ABV calculation. 2 weeks in the FV is normal for me & I'm getting consistent figures at days 13/14/15. I do like only needing to extract a pipette full from the FV for testing.

 

[MogBot]

CANE SUGAR IS MORE FERMENTABLE THAN CORN SUGAR!
US recipes can refer to corn sugar when priming, check a conversion chart or risk bottle bombs and sprayers.
Also if using recipes, especially from the states, check your units and prepare ahead to convert:
US gallons are smaller than gallons, quart ~ litre, F to C, lbs to kg, oz to g, Cups & Spoons just get a set.

 

[Sadfield]

CANE SUGAR IS MORE FERMENTABLE THAN CORN SUGAR!
US recipes can refer to corn sugar when priming, check a conversion chart or risk bottle bombs and sprayers.
Also if using recipes, especially from the states, check your units and prepare ahead to convert:
US gallons are smaller than gallons, quart ~ litre, F to C, lbs to kg, oz to g, Cups & Spoons just get a set.

Easy to convert, use 10% less Table sugar than Corn Sugar.

Corn sugar yields 42 gravity points per pound per gallon (ppg), Table sugar 46. They're both 100% fermentable.

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[jon_ish]

Be patient. It’s evergreen advice and applies in many different ways. You have to be patient while beer is fermenting, but you also need to be patient with your process, and learn from each experience.

How many posts do we see along the lines of
- “nothing has happened in the 12 hours since I pitched my yeast is my batch ruined”
- “the beer I bottled four days ago doesn’t taste great shall I throw the rest away”
- “my second all grain isn’t as good as my local craft brewery so I’m going to quit brewing and take up wildlife photography”

Patience is the answer to all of these.

My favourite quote, can’t remember where I heard it first: malt wants to become beer

I would concur with this particularly on brews not tasting great, I kept the poor ones and eventually some of the stronger ones were amazing after 6 months.

 

[Nobbynormal]

Be very patient. Buy plenty of supermarket cans while you wait for your brew to mature. (Am still learning this).

 

[BarnBrian]

Don't watch the Royal Wedding

 

[mgrds]

OK here goes
- aim to brew what you like not what someone tells you you should like
- take your time - let beer ferment fully and slowly - give it time to condition and clear and you'll taste the difference
- go for full grain mash as soon as you can ! Its the most important step in your brewing learning and takes you into a whole new dimension
- learn to brew a good balanced barley malt based brew before playing round too much with novelty additions - everything is better if you got your basic brew right !

don't get cocky - I've been brewing since childhood (yes) and I'm now in my 60's - I have constantly experimented and taken on new ideas Many of the "new ideas" in the craft beer movement have actually been round for years. Some were fads 40, 50 , 60 years ago . Impatient newer brewers have always tried shorter mash times and shorter boil times. You can get away with it but it almost never results in superior brew.

Some new brewers get obsessed with either going for higher alcohol content or more recently for massively over hopping - if you like that fine - but remember long term satisfaction usually lies in subtlety depth and balance and beer.

Beers that "shout" may get attention for a short time - but we soon tire of them .

Personally as my brewing experience has grown I use a lower hop rate, use less adjuncts, pay more attention and experiment more with mash temperatures and durations. I'm returning more to the classic hop types and eschewing the high alpha acid varieties
Its also helpful to know that the classic brewing traditions German , Belgian, British grew up to match their local barley, hops water and climate.
They are different

Finally I find the craft beer movement a mixed bag. there are some excellent brews, but their are also people brewing **** and hoping a craft ale label will market it (it ever was so !) Go by taste and not the label!

But take all the above in the light of my first comment "aim to brew what you like not what someone tells you you should like" and feel free ignore anything that does not match YOUR taste !

 

[BarnBrian]

OK here goes
- aim to brew what you like not what someone tells you you should like
- take your time - let beer ferment fully and slowly - give it time to condition and clear and you'll taste the difference
- go for full grain mash as soon as you can ! Its the most important step in your brewing learning and takes you into a whole new dimension
- learn to brew a good balanced barley malt based brew before playing round too much with novelty additions - everything is better if you got your basic brew right !

don't get cocky - I've been brewing since childhood (yes) and I'm now in my 60's - I have constantly experimented and taken on new ideas Many of the "new ideas" in the craft beer movement have actually been round for years. Some were fads 40, 50 , 60 years ago . Impatient newer brewers have always tried shorter mash times and shorter boil times. You can get away with it but it almost never results in superior brew.

Some new brewers get obsessed with either going for higher alcohol content or more recently for massively over hopping - if you like that fine - but remember long term satisfaction usually lies in subtlety depth and balance and beer.

Beers that "shout" may get attention for a short time - but we soon tire of them .

Personally as my brewing experience has grown I use a lower hop rate, use less adjuncts, pay more attention and experiment more with mash temperatures and durations. I'm returning more to the classic hop types and eschewing the high alpha acid varieties
Its also helpful to know that the classic brewing traditions German , Belgian, British grew up to match their local barley, hops water and climate.
They are different

Finally I find the craft beer movement a mixed bag. there are some excellent brews, but their are also people brewing **** and hoping a craft ale label will market it (it ever was so !) Go by taste and not the label!

But take all the above in the light of my first comment "aim to brew what you like not what someone tells you you should like" and feel free ignore anything that does not match YOUR taste !

Absolutely spot on. Brilliant advice.:thumb:

 

[whinton]

Learn from your mistakes (there will be many) and don't give up.