If you want to brew your own beer, then you have a lot to learn about the process. If you already brew your own beer, then you probably think that you know quite a bit about it. However, there are a few ways you could be going wrong. Want to know what they are?
Your Equipment Isn’t Perfectly Clean
To get the best tasting most perfectly fermented beer, your equipment and hands need to be as clean as possible. The brewers who make the best tasting home brew make sure that they clean all through the fermentation process, whether this is their equipment or their hands. You must use a good sanitizing solution to make sure everything is as clean as it should be. If your hands are dirty, your beer will ferment in the wrong way entirely. You don’t want that funky taste to be all down to your uncleanliness.
You’re Not Using A Lot Of Yeast
Yeast is one of the key ingredients in your brew. If you’re not using enough of it, then your beer isn’t going to taste all that great. Stop being stingy with your yeast for the best results!
There’s An Inconsistent Temperature
In order for your beer to come out tasting great, focusing on the temperature is important. Not only once you’ve finished brewing the beer, but once you’ve stored it too. If it is constantly changing temperature, the taste will likely change too. Make sure you keep it as consistent as you can.
You’re Going Too Big Too Soon
It can be so tempting to get exciting and try to go big right away, but going too big too soon is a mistake. Beginners should have a simple recipe in a small quantity, and expect bad batches. This is the only way you’re going to learn. As you continue to brew, you’ll learn and may even come up with some of your own cheats to make a great brew. If you’re wondering what your recipe should consist of, you can click here for a few ideas to help you. Remember, keep it simple!
You’re Using Tap Water
Why would you use tap water when there are so many better choices out there? Tap water isn’t the best quality, what with all of the chlorine, fluoride, and other nasties in there. If your homebrew isn’t tasting great no matter how much you try, it could be because you’re using water from the tap rather than fresh spring water.
You’re Not Trying To Improve
As you practice brewing, you should try to improve your techniques and knowledge. Exhaust all of your resources so you can learn as much as possible. Eventually, you will be able to consider yourself a pro, and might even have a signature home brew that your friends and family love!
Above all else, make sure you enjoy the brewing process and have fun with it. Who knows what tasty beverages you could create? Leave tips of your own below!
Note: The above article was contributed by Fat Joe Publishing
While I agree with some of your points, I believe there’s a few that either need to be clarified or corrected.
Equipment cleaning: While it’s important to properly clean all brewing equipment, the most important is ensuring that anything your wort/beer touches post boil is cleaned and sanitized to the Nth degree. Your fermenters, bottling buckets, lines, siphons, bottles and kegs cannot be too clean. Don’t be afraid to go overboard with cleaning/sanitizing these things.
Yeast: Using the appropriate amount of yeast is key. Too little and you can stress your yeast, creating undesirable off flavors, as well as not getting a full, complete fermentation. On the flip side, using too much can cause yeast to autolyze, or go cannibalistic, as there’s not enough food or nutrients in the wort for the yeast to be active and healthy. This can create sulphur compounds that make your beer smell and taste pretty terrible. Fortunately, there are a plethora of yeast pitching calculators available on the web.
Batch size:
This is nearly irrelevant, in my opinion. Again, with the wealth of resources available online, it’s easier than ever to get good advice and start brewing at any size, from 1 gallon to 1 BBL. I will say this, the smaller you go, the less efficiency you have, so your cost per ounce/pour can raise significantly. Don’t be afraid to start with 3-5 gallon brewing, as you can always start simple with extract brewing, then advance to partial mash and/or all grain. On the same token, I know folks that have been extract brewing for years, and don’t ever plan on brewing all grain. It’s all personal preference, really.
Water: Brewing water is nearly as important as sanitization of fermenting vessels. The chemical makeup of your municipal water can greatly impact the flavors and aromas in your beer, both good and bad. You can request a copy of your city/county water report to see the specs on what’s in your water. I used tap water for years, as our municipal supply is actually pretty good for brewing, and added mostly only campden tabs to help in removal of chlorine compounds. If in doubt, you can always go with RO (reverse osmosis) filtered water, available at most grocery stores.
I’ll end on this; Home brewing can be as simple or complicated as you want to make it. You can start, and stay simple, or grow and evole your processes and brewing prowess. The power is in your hands!!