11 Mistakes Every New Homebrewer Makes

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2012/02/11-mistakes-every-new-homebrewer-makes.html

Per "The Mad Fermentationist"

Inspired by coaching one of my coworkers through his first batch of homebrew (an English bitter) to write up a list of the mistakes that many new homebrewers make. Several of these are things I did on early batches, while others I have tasted at homebrew at club meetings. Many of these issues stem from poor kit instructions, bad homebrew shop advice, and common sense that just doesn’t work out.

1. Using the sanitizer that comes with a beer kit. This powdered sanitizer is slow and not especially effective. Instead get a no-rinse sanitizer like Star-San or Iodophor, which are faster and easier to use. Sanitize everything that touches your beer post-boil, and make sure it is carefully cleaned after each use (sanitizers are most effective on scrupulously-clean scratch-free surfaces). Keeping wild microbes out of your beer is the single most important step to brewing solid beer.

2. Starting with a recipe that is strong or unusual. Brewing a big complex beer is lots of fun, but play it safe on your first batch and brew something simple. High alcohol beers require more yeast and time. Interesting adjuncts add complexity to the recipe and process. These are things you don’t want to deal with on your first batch, so keep it easy.

3. Brewing with unfiltered, chlorine-containing tap water. If you are on a municipal water supply odds are that it contains either chlorine or chloramines. To remove them you can either charcoal filter or treat your water with metabisulfite, or alternatively use bottled water. One of the most common off-flavors I taste at homebrew club meetings is medicinal chlorophenol, which is formed by the combination of chlorine in the water or sanitizer and phenols from malt and yeast.

4. Squeezing the grain bag after steeping. Steep your grains in a small amount of water (no more than three quarts per pound) and then rinse them by either pouring hot water over the grain bag or dipping the grain bag into a second pot of hot water.Edit: I've had a couple people dispute squeezing being an issue in the comments. I've tasted some tannin-y beer from new homebrewers, but maybe it was just from a high water to grain steeping ratio.

5. Using liquid yeast. "Pitchable" liquid yeast cultures barely have enough cells to ferment a standard gravity beer on the day they are packaged, and their cells die quickly from there. A high quality 11.5 g package of dried yeast starts with as much as twice the cells as a fresh package of yeast from either Wyeast or White Labs, and retains high cell viability for much longer. While Fermentis, for example,claims a minimum of 6 billion cells per gram at packaging, the actual number tends to be much higher. Liquid yeast can produce great beers, but require a starter unless you are getting extremely fresh yeast and brewing a low-alcohol beer.

6. Not aerating the wort adequately. It takes several minutes of shaking for the chilled wort to absorb the ideal amount of oxygen to allow the yeast to complete a healthy growth phase. The healthier your yeast cells are the cleaner and quicker they will complete the fermentation.

7. Pitching when the side of the pot or fermentor feels “cool enough.” Use a sanitized thermometer to check the actual temperature of the wort before you add the yeast. Pitching when the wort is above 100 F is rare, but will kill the yeast. Ideally the temperature should be at or below your target fermentation temperature to allow the temperature to rise as the yeast grows and ferments. You can pre-chill the sanitized water you use to top-off after the boil to help bring the temperature down.

8. Fermenting at too high of a temperature. Take note of the ambient temperature of the room the beer is fermenting in, but realize that at the peak of fermentation the yeast can raise the temperature of the beer by as much as 7 F. Fermenting too warm can cause the yeast to produce higher alcohols and excessive fruity flavors. Letting the ambient temperature rise towards the high end of the yeast's range as fermentation slows helps to ensure a clean well attenuated beer, but for most strains is unnecessary. If you are unable to control the fermentation temperature, then choose a yeast strain that fits the conditions.

9. Racking to secondary. I know the instructions included in most kits call for transferring the beer from the primary fermentor to a secondary before bottling, but all this step accomplishes is introducing more risk of oxidation and wild yeast contamination. There is no risk of off flavors from autolysis (yeast death) at the homebrew scale in less than a month. At a commercial level the pressure and heat exerted on the yeast can cause problems quickly, but those conditions do not exist in a carboy or bucket.

10. Relying on bubbles in the airlock to judge when fermentation is complete. Wait until fermentation has appeared finished for a couple of days before pulling a sample of wort to test the final gravity. There is no rush to bottle, and doing so before the final gravity is reached results in extra carbonation. Once fermentation is complete and the beer tastes good, you can move the fermentor somewhere cool to encourage the yeast to settle out for clearer beer in the bottle.

11. Adding the entire five ounce package of priming sugar. In almost all cases this amount of sugar will over-carbonate the beer. Even for five gallons of beer this will produce too much carbonation for most styles and most brewers will end up with less than five gallons in the bottling bucket. Instead use apriming sugar calculator to tailor the weight of sugar you add to the actual volume of beer, the style of beer you are brewing, and the fermentation temperature.

WHY YOUR BEER DOESN'T TASTE RIGHT: THE MOST COMMON OFF-FLAVORS EXPLAINED

Everyone has a different idea of what the perfect beer tastes like, but there's one thing most people can agree upon: it shouldn't taste like gym socks.

You're much less likely to receive a bad beer than a botched cocktail or corked wine, but it happens more than you might think. To help better understand the brewology behind why a beer doesn't taste quite right, we chatted with Matt Eggers, a certified ciceronewho runs the taproom at Woodland Empire Ale Craft in Boise, Idaho. Here are nine of the most common off-flavors.

"'Did he really just say baby vomit?' Yeah, I did."

Skunky

This term has become a catch-all adjective for bad beer, but it actually describes a specific taste. When beer is exposed to light, UV rays create a photochemical reaction with the hops that causes a smell that's equal parts wet animal and flatulence. Brown glass bottles help stop this reaction, but green and clear bottles are notoriously susceptible. Companies that stick to clear/green glass are rumored to actually account for skunking in their flavor profile. "A good way to understand this flavor is to pour a good craft pilsner into two glasses and leave one in direct sunlight for a few minutes," says Matt. "The difference is noticeable that quickly."

Boozy

If it tastes like cheap vodka, it's referred to as "hot beer". This defect is most prevalent in beers with high ABVs that were not aged long enough.

Creamed corn or cooked vegetables

Dimethyl sulfide (or DMS) is a result of infection or lazy brewing practices and stinks like boiled cabbage. Watch for it in pale lagers.

Buttery

If your beer tastes like something out of a movie theater (and not one of these awesome, boozy movie theaters), then the culprit is likely diacetyl, which is caused by either a bacterial infection or removing the beer from the yeast too quickly. The most common offenders for this are lagers.

Cardboard

If a beer isn't properly packaged or is moved through multiple temperature fluctuations, it can throw off the oxygen levels. Bottles, cans, and kegs are all susceptible to this, and it results in a flavor that's "similar to licking a cardboard box".

Green Apple

If your beer tastes like a Granny Smith it's probably due to acetaldehyde, a chemical that occurs naturally in the brewing process but is generally consumed by the yeast. This is a sign that the beer might've been rushed and bottled before the fermentation process was complete. Matt says this can also result in a cut grass or latex paint flavor. Bonus facts about acetaldehyde: some blame it for hangovers, and it can cause certain people to turn red in the face.

Baby vomit

"'Did he just say baby vomit, really?' Yeah, I did," says Matt. It's a result of butyric acid created due to poor sanitation at either the bar or the brewery.

Gym socks or stale cheese

The hops have either gone bad or there's just too much of them. The sweaty/stinky flavor is produced by isovaleric acid, the slightly older and less vommity cousin of butyric acid.

Vinegar

"If you've ever opened a beer and thought it would be better used as a salad dressing, you know the problem is infected beer," says Matt. Sour and wild beers aside, vinegar aromas are present because wild bacteria has turned sugars into acids instead of alcohol.

4 Homebrewing Tips You Won't Find in the Books

Ask any home brewing expert and they will tell you: The best tips on brewing the perfect batch come from real-world experience, which is exactly what four homebrewers are sharing here.

Don't Be Afraid to Experiment With Flavors

"With one exception I've never brewed the same recipe twice," says James Schirmer, an institutional research analyst at the University of La Verne. "I've brewed beers with various spices, chocolate, fruit, and anything that I think may lend itself well to a beer."

Schirmer says one of his most successful batches was a wheat beer brewed with hibiscus flowers. "I got the idea from my mother-in-law, who mentioned one of her favorite drinks is made with hibiscus flowers," he says. After trying it, Schirmer says he immediately knew the hibiscus flavor would meld well with a nice, light, easy-drinking summer beer. "And so I brewed an American wheat-style beer and added some dried hibiscus flowers in the boil," he says.

That beer went on to win the 2012 Samuel Adams Longshot competition. It's available now (under the name James Schirmer's Beerflower Wheat) in the Samuel Adams Longshot Variety six-pack, along with the two other winners of the competition.

Keep Your Hands Away

"I showed my rookie stripes during my very first brew when I stuck my hand in the wort to retrieve the thermometer," says home-brewer Ron Perez, a CAD manager for an engineering firm in Northern Colorado.

What he did is a huge no-no because it can contaminate the brew before even getting it to the fermentation process. "When I started home brewing, I was also pretty lax about keeping all the measuring equipment sanitized and did not use an acid sanitizer to clean the fermenter," Perez says. "As a result, my first batch was a little fruity—a characteristic of contamination."

Keep a Brew Log

"I am a believer in recording data throughout the brewing process," says Scott Klym, who works as an institutional equity trader and has been home-brewing for more than two years. Why? Because if something goes wrong, a log gives him a better chance of identifying the problem and correcting it.

Klym uses a software program called Beersmith to develop recipes and record his brew day data. "I print out a brew sheet and record water volumes, temperatures at various stages, original and final gravity readings," he explains. Then he compares those to the expected values. "If there are large deviations, I can track down what caused the problem," Klym says. "For example, if my temp was too high during the mash, it would alter the original gravity and body of the beer."

Update Your Equipment

"The basic kits and ingredients available today are much better than in the past, but they have limits," says Brent Shelton, an online shopping expert and media relations specialist for FatWallet.com. For really passionate brewers, the goal is to keep improving the process and the results, so upgrading to better equipment and ingredients is a logical step toward custom brewing and possibly competing with other brewers, he says.

First, Shelton says, simply upgrading your boiling kettle will make a big difference in the mash and cook. This is especially true if you buy a glass kettle, which is superior to plastic when fermenting. He also recommends investing in a counterflow system for cooling your batch, which improves the time and accuracy of this process.

"I started out with a five-gallon pale kit from Midwest Supplies, but I've since graduated to more custom equipment, including a grain crusher, an extra burner (saves about an hour per batch), refracometer, better cleaning supplies, tubing and connectors, and an auto siphon — a must!" Shelton says. An electric all grain brewing system from www.Brew-Boss.com will also help make great consistent home brew. 

So heed the advice of the experts. Whether you've been brewing for a while or just getting started, there's always room for improvisation, experimentation, and improvement.

4 Home-Brewing Mistakes Most Beginners Make

When you start home brewing, mistakes can be discouraging. But they don't have to be. What you see as a mistake could turn out to be a learning experience on the path to great home-brewed beer. Here are four of the most common brewing mistakes and what you can learn from them.

Neglecting Sanitation

"The primary foes of new brewers are wild yeasts and bacteria," says Chris Cohen, founder and president of the San Francisco Homebrewers Guild. You can do everything else perfectly during your brew day, but if your sanitation practices are poor, you'll likely end up with a beer that's been fermented by something other than brewer's yeast. "The result is typically a bad beer that can be sour, over-attenuated, and can have phenolic flavors," Cohen says.

The solution? Clean, clean, clean. And Cohen recommends replacing any plastic brewing gear every year. Scratched plastic creates microscopic hiding places for wild yeast and bacteria and is difficult to properly sanitize.

Overcomplicating the Process

Minneapolis home brewer Michael Porter says that one of the things that confounds new brewers is the overwhelming amount of detail. "Forums and books lead people to think that you have to go to great lengths in order to get good results, while the truth is that brewing is remarkably simple," he says.

Porter says these advanced techniques will help you get maximum yield and consistent results from batch to batch. But they're not absolutely necessary, especially when you're just trying to get the hang of beer making.

"When I first started brewing, I read advice that said you must 'build' your water," Porter says. That's where you add things like salts or gypsum to turn your hard or soft water into the "proper." "And forums are full of people that will make you think that if you skip this step, your beer will be ruined," he says. The reality is that this is important only if you're trying to replicate a commercial beer. For amateur beer making, this isn't necessary, Porter says.

Not Controlling Your Fermentation Temperature

Next to fervent sanitation, Cohen says fermentation-temperature control is one of the most important variables in home brewing. Yeast likes to work within a certain temperature range (your yeast packet should spell out what that range is).

For example, typical American ale yeasts prefer a temperature of between 68 and 73 degrees Fahrenheit. "Fermenting at higher-than-recommended temperatures will typically cause the yeast to create more esters, leading to fruity aromas and flavors that may not be appropriate," Cohen says.

Another important thing to keep in mind: The temperature should stay at an even level for the duration of the fermentation. Cohen recommends wrapping your fermenter in a blanket and placing it in a dark closet in the center of your house or apartment to avoid temperature swings. "If the temp drops during fermentation, the yeast will stop working and you'll be left with a very sweet and unpleasant brew," he says.

Too Many Changes at Once

Jamie Floyd, cofounder of Ninkasi Brewing Company in Eugene, Ore., advises beginning brewers to take it slow. "It is important when trying to perfect your process to change only one thing at a time," Floyd explains.

For example, if you want a beer with a good amount of caramel flavor and a robust hop profile—but you make a beer that has no caramel flavor and isn't hoppy enough—the best thing to do is change one aspect of the beer at a time so that you can mark the progress, Floyd says. "If you make more than one adjustment at a time you may not know what you did right or wrong the next brew."

Remember, beer making is not an exact science. Chances are good you will make mistakes, especially at the beginning. The key is to learn from those mistakes and have fun in the process.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/a9560/4-home-brewing-mistakes-most-beginners-make-16039544/