What's something that has greatly improved your beers?

1245

 

Oxygen, making starters, avoiding oxygen.

 

beyond the obvious basics,

liquid yeasts - they're just better... I'm not talking about 1056/001 vs us05 because, like, who cares, but just the strains available in liquid form are more diverse and better than dry strains. and yeast, as we all know, makes the beer.

dialing in high pH for dark beers, low pH for pale beers also made a big difference.

 

This forum. BrewCipher.

ETA - Books.

 

Collaborating with others in person and the Internet.
Trying new hop varieties
Using woods other than oak,
Well, just speculating on what might be good , trying it and getting results. When I can include others I. The fun of brewing it just gets better.

 

1 through 5, and also:

Being around some really good pro brewers here in VT and getting to pick their brains a little.

Becoming a BJCP judge and tasting many wonderful and not so wonderful beers.

Culturing much of my yeast from commercial dregs, especially for Belgians.

This forum.

And, yes, pH control is huge.

 

These are a few of my favorite things that I have found that will improve your beer, based on 120+ batches experience:

1) The inherent value of patience
2) All-grain or at least partial mash
3) Participation in homebrewing forums as much as possible
4a) Liquid yeast starters & health
4b) Or just use dry yeast and not worry
5) Glass fermenters
6) Fermentation temperature
7a) Understanding the relationships between crush, sparge, volume measurements, and intended OG / size of grain bill and how each affects efficiency.
7b) Quit chasing efficiency when you hit ~80% -- higher efficiency ~90% works but reduces body and malt flavor
8) Calibration of thermometer, hydrometer, refractometer, and proper use of temperature and gravity correction tools
9) A good strong, vigorous, lively boil
10) More Munich malt
11) Gelatin, IF you care about clarity (haze usually doesn't actually affect flavor so then who cares)
12) Consuming the beer fresh and NOT aging it too long

Things that do NOT appear to matter as much as people think in MOST but not all cases:

A) Fancy and expensive equipment -- you too can BIAB on your stovetop and brew award winning beer
B) Racking to secondary "fermentation"
C) Fast chilling
D) Aeration
E) Water quality & pH control
F) More hops (diminishing returns)
G) More yeast (ditto)
H) Cold crashing

 

Attending the NHC. There is a wealth of information there:

• Attending the presentations
• Talking to industry folks
• Talking to other homebrewers
• etc.

The social aspect of the NHC is icing on the cake.

Cheers!

 

1. Using grain rather than extract.
2. Using liquid yeast rather than dry yeast.
3. Diacetyl rest.
4. Tweaking the recipe each time you brew the same.
5. Forums such as this for help (this one is by far the best).
6. Trying different beers at club meetings and discussing the results.
7. Fermentation temperature.
8. Adding a very small amount of Melanoidin malt to my pilsners.
9. Reading many books/magazines on the subject.
10. Using fresh hops.
11. Lagering for more than one or two weeks.
12. Being patient and aging some beers.
13. Making yeast starters.
14. Cleanliness.
15. Allowing the fermentation to continue for at least 2 weeks before bottling/kegging.

 

The biggest things I found was fermentation conditions (right under the kitchen window was NOT a good place to ferment, even though it was the only place in a small apartment that I could keep it more or less in temp range) so temp and darkness. Also it pitching good yeast - make a starter if using liquid (and it doesn't hurt to starter dry either) and at very least rehydrate the dry yeast.

 

I would say pitching rate. Not making starters, the acutal pitching rate. That made my beer much better.

I would guess a survey of how each of us makes and treats a starter would yield few, "Yes I do it exactly like that!" comments. This means there is a great deal of variability between us when growing yeast.

I started to think of starter production in the number of yeast per ml of starter and found my stirplate starters with my wort and my step/crash procedure were very close to the chart shown here. Abliet on the lower side of the spread That is between 150 million/ml vs. 350 million/ml. An 800 trillion cell difference in yield on a 4000 ml starter for a 5 gallon OG 1.100 barleywine calling for a 500 trillion cell total. So the possible error is larger that the target yield.

I went with the most extreme example for illustration.

Fortunately, when I was figuring all this out I had access to centrifuge, hemocytometer, trypan blue and a microscope. Still you can do this at home if you are creative.

One more point on the pitching rate. Another wacko example but some Belgian strains I use like a lower pitching rate. When dialing in things like that having an accurate grasp of you actual count is very important if you want to repeat your results.

Sorry for the long ass post. My phone was updating and I had to kill a few min before heading to the lhbs.

 

I finally saw a couple of the new White Labs Pure Pitch tubes. They are still clinging to claim that it's enough yeast (regardless of age up to 4 months, and despite the fact that their new process produces 60B to 120B per package) for 5 gallons of 1.070 wort. That's a buttload of possible pitch rates, all of which are apparently super. Why are you trying to make this so difficult? (Heh.)

 

Going all grain
Getting more of a grasp of water additions



On pitching rate I've found that a lot of the recommendations were too high for my tastes, although it's really very strain dependent. I'd pitch twice the amount of yeast for a clean american style ale than I would for an english one of similar gravity for example.

 

Hate to be the killjoy that says this, but brewing sober...

 

Peter, any 'good' stories of your non-sober brewing experiences?

A few days ago I brewed my 370th batch of beer and I am proud to proclaim that I have never had a drop of alcohol (beer) while brewing any of those batches. Needless to say that I enjoy drinking (beer) but the thought of combining beer drinking and brewing has never been something that I have considered. I suppose it is the concern of boiling liquids and safety? Hmm?

Cheers!

 

Brewing is serious business. So is drinking beer. I could not agree with you more.

I don't abstain on brew day (I mean, come on. Really?) but I do maintain not to screw with recipe or process while brewing. There is a time and a place for that. Recipes can be thought out while at the bar for example.
Pouring bad decisions yields to pouring bad homebrew.

Everything else, yeah, what they already said.

 

Jack, I was trying to recall if I ever messed up a beer because I was drinking while brewing. The answer is no. I am prone to making mistakes if I am tired, so I avoid anything alcoholic if I am brewing in the evening (even Coffee Stout). So I guess, technically, this is not something that has improved my beers. But if you ever listen to the brewing disaster episodes on Basic Brewing, it's clear that their are people out there who could improved their brewing if they heeded this advice.

 

Kegging hoppy beers and doing closed CO2 transfers from primary to keg.

Adjusting water for flavor and proper pH.

Experimenting with various pitch and oxygenation rates.

Experimenting with various fermentation temperatures.

Experimenting with various hops and hop schedules.

Using citric acid to enhance citrus and fruity hops.