I recently, 3 weeks ago, brewed a breakfast stout clone and had multiple steps that didn't go as planned or go accordingly to what I thought I should do. The first was I bought two batches worth of grains from my LHBS as I was planning to brew back to back weeks. The grains were milled that day and sealed in a bag, not vaccumed sealed but just sealed. Life happened and i didn't brew that beer until 3 months later. The grains were stored inside the house in a cabinet. Second is when i was cooling the wort the thermometer on my kettle read 60, so I pulled the chiller and pitched my yeast. It wasn't until I sealed the fermenter and stuck the thermowell in that the temp read 70. I then tested my kettle thermometer with my digital thermometer and learned my kettle one was off more than 10 degrees, shit!! 3rd when I went to add pure o2 my tank had 2% left, just enough to start then die. So i shook the carboy best I could do. 4th i planned a small batch beer as my starter and since my brew day got pushed back I pitched yeast slurry about a month old. I recently pulled a gravity sample and got 85% attenuation, and the beer is tasting great! No booze no fusels and the beer is coming out at 9%. As a homebrewer who always wants to make the best beer possible I get focused on details that don't make a huge difference. Glad this batch didn't fit my perfect process so on future batches I don't have to worry about being so exact.
Brülosophy and Experimental Homebrewing are both debunking a lot of these myths. Turns out beer isn't as delicate as we all thought.
Oh yeah, run and gun brother. Some of my best home brews were total experiments, jot following the tryed and true. Glad it worked out
Exactly. I love how both are based on experiments that are tested as opposed to just opinion. When I do different things with my beer I don't have another batch to compare against to determine just how much improvement or lack of there was.
