things to improve after my first homebrew...

Tighten the screws and get more familiar with the process. Get comfy with what you're going to do next, and find ways to make brewday not last 8 hours, but rather 4 hours.

The three biggest things that I think will improve any beginning homebrewer's beer are:

Proper pitch rate
Proper pitch temp and regulating fermentation temp
Aerating your wort

If you leave out any of these, you will notice a big impact on how your beer comes out. With all of these steps in place and with proper sanitation you should be making great beer that shapes up to be great beer very quickly.

 

Without much to compare against, it's hard to say what to improve on.
However, I know that my first brew, I was so worried about getting everything exactly to the instructions, I didn't stop and think why they are saying to do X when every book and resource I had seen said not to.
The single most important thing for a beginner brewer is temperature control of the fermenting wort. I don't mean you need to have it exactly at 63 degrees or whatever, but at least keep things somewhat cool and dark. at least in the mid 60s if you can.
Also, patience. The yeast and the beer will tell you when it's done, not a calendar. I give my beer 18 or 20 days before I even think about opening the top. There is nothing constructive to be gained by sampling and testing every day.

 

Other than process streamlining...such as brew-day planning and organization...and technique improvements...such as timing and learning your how your 'system' works...you won't know what recipe improvements are needed until you've sampled Batch1...right?

No need to wait until Bottle1 exits the pipeline (you _are_ building a pipeline...right?)
Keep on Brewin' and taking notes and sooner or later you be makin' good beers at home.

 

1. Proper yeast pitching rates
2. Fermentation temperature control (most homebrewers use refrigerator or chest freezer + external thermostat regulator)
3. Conducting a proper mash

later down the road...

4. Understanding your water (until then, safer to cut your brewing water with reverse osmosis water) &
5. Mash chemistry

Recipe/ingredients, in my humble opinion, make up ~10% by weight the quality of a beer. The rest, ~90%, by weight the quality of a beer is determined by process and handling. Brewing the best beer isn't about combining a magical recipe, but rather perfecting the process through study of brewing theory and hands on experience. Good luck on your journey.

 

Make sure when it comes time to bottle your bottles are both cleaned and sanitized, especially if you are recycling old beer bottles.

If you choose to use the heat cycle to sanitize your bottles, that's fine, just remember to let them come back down to room temperature before putting any of your beer into them. The first time I bottled my homebrew I had used the heat cycle to sanitize my bottles, but I was too excited and didn't let them come all the way back down to room temp before filling them with my beer. This resulted in the bottles being too hot, and effectively killing my yeast. I knew this because my beer tasted fine but it had no carbonation.

Otherwise just keep reading, checking the forums, and watching videos, there's so much knowledge out there. Welcome to the great art that is homebrewing!

 

The idea behind yeast pitching rates is that there is some ideal number of yeast cell to pitch per volume per gravity of wort. Under-pitching or Over-Pitching can lead to off flavors or undesirable flavor balance.

An example of a pitch rate would be 750,000 cells per ml per degree Plato.

People will disagree about the ideal rate, and/or use a different rate depending on the style of beer. But most people will agree that for any given beer, there is some best pitch rate to try for.

The problem with pitching 'one package per batch' is that the pitch rate will then be different for every batch, both because of different gravities, and due to the fact that the older the package is, the less viable cells it will contain. There are some calculators out there that can help make sense of this...

Mr. Malty (online standalone calculator)
YeastCalc (online standalone calculator)
BrewCipher (downloadable spreadsheet that does yeast calculations and most general brewing calculations in an integrated way)

Of the three, BrewCipher has more user adjustable parameters (including target pitch rate). Disclaimer: I may be biased, because BrewCipher is my spreadsheet. It also contains work by a couple of other BAs.

 

I am only on batch 4 (I have completed 3), for me the biggest thing has been waiting until the wort is completely cooled prior to pitching. I have been progressively more patient with each batch and each one has been better than the last. Temp control to avoid boil overs (which happened the first time, and a little less the second) was big too, but that was more for ease of cleaning than producing better beer.

 

In warm climates like the southwest US, #2 is essentially your go/no-go limiting factor. Although I'm sure there are a few exceptions*, I doubt there are many experienced southern brewers who are making tasty beer on a consistent basis that don't utilize some variant of this type of temperature control.

And 90% process, 10% recipe? I suspect your numbers could be off by as much as 2-3 percent**.

*you could make saisons all the time, because saison yeast can handle higher temperatures. I actually do this in the summer in my small batch extract experiments. Or you could use an ice chest / water bath / fan arrangement to keep your wort cool, but I suspect that's enough of a PITA that eventually people will cave in and get a freezer/controller setup anyway. Or maybe I'm the only one with a freezer / controller setup, and everyone is pointing and laughing because al's spouting off bullcrap again.

**process is mostly everything, the recipe just allows the process to result in beer

 

I'm weeks and possibly months from undertaking my first batch but I have spent the last few weeks putting together my gear and voraciously reading and watching youtube videos. I'm a demonstrative learner so the videos help reinforce the reading that i've done and help me conceptualize the process that I will follow.

I feel that I am comfortable with the basics (cleanliness, following the recipe, temperature control, cleanliness and cleanliness) and am now focusing on the things that will eventually help me to more effectively make my favorite kinds of beer; making a good yeast starter and actively controlling the fermentation temperature.

This forum and the folks in it have been more than helpful in answering questions and clearing things up that I didn't even know that I needed to worry about.

Be a sponge and continue to read on those who are actively engaged in the process; that's my advice.

 

Yeast handling..

Without going into what you did, or didn't do. Or even don't know WHAT to do. Yeast is still the engine to a good beer. You can have a grist, and a hop/spice profile that is over the moon amazing, and pick the wrong yeast, or don't know how to use it, manipulate it, or care for it; and it will simply jack up any notion that you had of a great beer.

Temperature control, pitching rates, oxygen infusion. Learn to make starters, and learn to pitch the right amount of yeast for your beers. Give it adequate oxygen when you pitch, and for goodness sake, control the temperature. Each strain is different. They all don't like "room temp".

Everyone says they just ferment at "room temp 68-70*". The beer is warmer than that during active fermentation. If you've pitched enough yeast, you SHOULD have a pretty good fermentation chugging along, and that will increase the beer temp.

Your beers will always be half-ass until you learn to control yeast. Period.

 

What he said. I feel like the biggest jumps in quality in my beers took place when I a) switched from dry yeast packs to liquid yeast and starters; b) got a used wine fridge off craigslist and temp controller and was able to control fermentation temperature, and c) got an aeration stone and started properly aerating the wort.

Also, d) when I switched to all grain. But I digress. The main point, I think, is that managing the fermentation is possibly the most important thing in brewing. A lot of people get into the hobby thinking it's all about being creative and coming up with your own recipes, but in my experience, it's mainly about managing yeast.

 

Make copious notes before an after brewing. The 'before' notes are all part of the planning, and I do so by printing the recipe and starting a timeline at the beginning of the mash/steep and then the boil. I think it was my third batch before I remembered to take a gravity reading before pitching, and I only remembered it because I had written a note on my recipe.

The 'after' notes come in handy in case you brew that recipe again, or in case you discover any flaws in the beer after packaging, then you'll be able to look back to see if you 'documented' your mistake, and then you can learn from it.

 

See, I think it's funny. I couldn't make a good hop-forward beer for the longest time. I kept trying different liquid yeasts. I even tried 001, and 1056 with poor results. I didn't like my results so I started doing half batches with US 05 and Nottingham. I found that I made terrific beers with a little water adjustment and a little GU:BU adjusting. I'm using dry yeast pretty exclusively for hoppy beers now. I still really like some of the liquid yeasts, but I'll save $3 or $4 every time I use an envelope instead.

When talking to new homebrewers, I generally mention that dry yeasts are pretty forgiving, have a long shelf life, and can make great beers. Liquid yeasts win with variety. You can really hit a bulls-eye with these yeasts but they take more prep and more work.

 

I should probably clarify that the jump in quality in my beers probably resulted from more from better attention to yeast management in general than it did to any difference between dry and liquid yeasts. For my first few fermentations, I was pretty much using the "just throw it in there and hope for the best" approach. So it wasn't really the yeast's fault that I got off flavors. I don't have any problem with dry yeast per se and would recommend them to people who don't have the capacity to do a starter.

 

Made a wort chiller after the first batch, in the sink with ice for 1-1/2 hours is BS

 

With all this talk on yeast.....what are some good articles/papers out there on the subject? I would really like to strengthen my understanding on an ingredient that is so key to the beer.

 

There are some articles at mrmalty.com . There's also the book "Yeast."

 

For me, the things that made the biggest improvements were:

1. Taking Notes
2. Going All Grain
3. Standardizing my process.

Not to start a Extract vs All Grain debate, but I just find my all grain beers to taste better. That being said, I made some really good beers with extract and specialty grains. I found the secret to those were to use only very light DME and build from there. Build a extract beer as close as possible to an all grain.

When I first started all grain, my brew day would take over 8 hours. Now that I have my processes down, i can do a batch from heating of mash water to finishing clean up in just over 5 hours. This includes eating, have a few brews, and playing darts during mash and boil times.

Take notes on everything. Don't review right away, wait until the next day. I like to just relax after brewing (besides the fact that people like to come over on a brew day.) I like to look over my numbers the next morning. I find this is also the best time to come up with the ideas for the next brew day.

As for Dry vs Liquid yeast........I use both but mostly dry for ease of use. Most of my brews are fairly simple in design and I like using a clean yeast to let the ingredients show through. When I use liquid yeast, I make a simple starter (1 qt water to 1/2 cup DME) as most my beers do not go above 1.065 OG.


just my $.37.

RDWHAHB