It's been nearly two months since my last homebrewing day and I've got the itch to get another batch going. My first batch has been in the bottle for nearly 6 weeks and I think it as done as it's going to get. I got mixed reviews from my friends and myself on my first batch and I know that I have a lot of room for improvement.
One way to improve your homebrew is to keep a list of items that you'll want to do differently next time. Here's my list.
Things I need to fix
1. My wort chiller is too small for my brewpot. Need one that can do 10-15 gallon batches. I've seen some on eBay that look good. May trade in my PayPal bux for a bigger one. Hopefully this one won't leak like the other one did. I'll have to test it before brew day.
2. The plastic tube from my bottling bucket to my bottling wand was too big. It's 1/2" inside diameter but should have been 3/8". Again, it will pay to test before needing it.
3. Need to pick up a 2nd propane tank. I probably spent most of the 1st tank and need to keep that with my outdoor grill. A separate one just for homebrewing would be nice. A 40 lb tank might be even better than a 20 lb tank.
4. Invest in a bottle tree that can hold up to 40 bottles. Get one with a sanitizer pump at top. Didn't like sanitizing shortly before bottling as I felt there may have been too much sanitizer residue left in the bottles.
5. Need a better way to spot sanitize. Perhaps use a squirt bottle and fill it with Star San. I wasted way too much sanitizer last time.
I'm going to have to make a shopping list again. I'll probably shop online at my favorite homebrew store - High Gravity Homebrewing and pick up the rest at my local store in Fort Collins (Hops & Berries).
What I'd do differently this time
1. I need to remember that using Dry Malt Extract only needs to be 80% of what you need in Liquid Malt Extract. If the recipe calls for 5 pounds of LME then you only need 4 pounds of DME. I used way too much base malt in my last recipe. Beer was too sweet.
2. Steep my specialty grains longer. Only did 20 minutes at 160 degrees as per recipe. I think I should have done it for 30 minutes at least.
3. Sparge my steeped grains with 180 degree water before discarding them. I merely let them drain last time and should have given them a hot rinse. Would have yielded a bit more sugars out of those grains.
4. Add higher AA bittering hops to the boil. 1st recipe called for low 5% AA hops for bittering but wasn't nearly enough for my tastes.
5. Create my yeast starter only 1 day before brew day instead of 3. I think the yeast was too dormant by the 3rd day in my starter. It did ferment well after 12 hours and got done in 5 days though.
6. Aerate my wort a lot more BEFORE pitching my yeast. I pitched the yeast and then aerated but probably shouldn't have done that.
7. Try using water that has had a chance to settle out the chlorine before using. I used it fresh out of the tap last time and may have contributed to some off flavor.
8. After filling the first bottle, insert the bottling wand inside the 2nd bottle while I'm capping the 1st. Having to lay down the end of the wand on a questionable surface worried me. At least the insides of the bottles are sanitized.
9. Fill some 12 oz bottles this time instead of all 22 oz bottles. Would like to just have a single brew to try and not have to drink down a full bomber.
10. Need to stock up on more PBW and Star San. I seemed to go through a lot last time.
11. Try making a yeast starter outdoors. Small pot on the burner should work fine and keep me from filling the house up with beer smell.
What I'd like to brew next
There are many styles that I enjoy and have yet to brew myself. Styles like: stouts, ESB, APA/IPA, Kolsch, Pale Ale, Porter (real one this time), Ambers, Belgians, Old ale, or perhaps even a cider. I want my next brew to be more hoppy with a better balance with the malts.
My first batch was supposed to be a dark porter but ended up more of a light brown. A stout sounds good but at same time I'm tempted to make a nice lighter Springtime ale. Leaning towards an ESB or Pale Ale.
I want to create a beer with a much better head to it and with some lacing. And it has to be adequately carbonated. Someday I'll just keg my homebrew but for now, bottle conditioning will suffice.
That's a lot of items to consider for my next batch. I'd better start working on them as soon as possible. If I wait much longer it will soon be too hot outside and that will give me a whole other list of things to do differently.
Related articles:
- 1st batch of homebrew for the year.
- Creating a yeast starter for homebrewing.
- Putting together the home brewery.
- The trials and tribulations of bottling homebrew.
- Bottle washing day.
This article came from FermentedlyChallenged.com
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Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Planning for my next homebrew batch
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I've already purchased a new wort chiller this afternoon. It's on order. Should be here in a week hopefully. I'll get new tubing when I visit the homebrew supply shop.
ReplyDeleteYour improvement list looks good. Don't be too concerned with the aeration / yeast pitching order - it really doesn't matter. I have found that preparing the yeast starter the day before works well - unless you have old yeast. Then a few more days are needed. Otherwise, good luck with batch 002. Refining and revising is all part of the fun - and a budget to go with it helps.
ReplyDeleteFieldpointeBrew
Great list - just finished my second batch myself.
ReplyDeleteOn #8, the guy at my local brew store recommend that I do a final rinse/heat clean in the dishwasher for my bottles, use the dishwasher door as a racking shelf, and then just put a sanitized cap on each bottle and set it aside, moving the wand bottle to bottle. Then, at the end, I capped each bottle. Did it twice - worked well.
Best thing I did to improve my brewing was to scrap the idea of bottling. Get some small kegs and an old fridge. If you're going out someplace, fill a growler off your own. Bottling is where most people get infections that make your beer funky bad (as opposed to funky good).
ReplyDeleteKegging is definitely in my future. Saving up for that now and doing bits at a time.
ReplyDeleteI've thought about using the dishwasher for final bottle prep but I heard that if your dishwasher uses that JetDry additive that you don't want that on your bottles. My dishwasher has JetDry built in and I can't just remove it for a single wash.
Use the Cleaning/Sanitizing solutions sparingly! I have found that Oxyclean (Yellow Top) is cheaper by volume than PBW. Soaps can kill the head on any beer. I use about 1/2 of the recommended amount with great success!
ReplyDeleteNo SOAP or Jet Dry in the Dishwasher when you sanitize your bottles. Just use the Sanitize function. When you drink a beer, make sure you rinse your bottles out. It helps keep the Fuzzy's from growing for the next beer!
Cheers
Preston
I never did use soap on any of my bottles. It was scrubbing with PBW followed by a thorough rinsing and then sanitizing by immersion in Star San followed by turning the bottles upside down. I don't put my stuff in the dishwasher as my wife keeps it loaded up with a liquid Jet Dry and I don't want to mess with getting that out of the dishwasher. I may try Oxyclean if it is indeed much cheaper than PBW. Thx.
ReplyDeleteGlad you finally got to homebrewing...
ReplyDeleteBryon - I'm actually getting back into it after a long hiatus. I used to homebrew a bit back in the 1990's but gave it up to focus on my kids for a while. Glad to be back at it.
ReplyDeleteJust so happens I received my new wort chiller today (3/21/09) from an EBAY purchase. Looks nice and fits my 15gal brewpot perfectly. Can't wait to brew my next batch now.
we use RO water and add a little gypsum, have had good results with this.
ReplyDeletehave never used a yeast starter, we use liquid yeast from white labs.
kegging is so much easier than bottling.
Matt, I've not had to modify the water in a recipe yet as I think the water here in Greeley is quite good. I tried a yeast starter to get things going faster. Seemed to work well and I also used a liquid yeast from White Labs. Kegging will be on my list in the near future as bottling is quite labor intensive.
ReplyDeleteWell Chipper Dave, you don't seem to lack for advice on your next brew and I'd normally pass on adding my two cents, but ... I'm bored! So here we go.
ReplyDelete1. If you're trying to hit an exact style, clone an existing recipe, or hit a particular final gravity, this is very important. If, however, you don't mind a little higher alcohol beer, and some color variation, this factor really isn't that critical. If you take frequent gravity readings, and have pitched a healthy starter, just let the beer stay in the primary until you get the gravity down where you want it to be. The beer will only be too sweet (F.G. too high) if you rack it out too quickly, or the yeast gave up the ghost.
2. You might try the 150 - 155 degree range for a longer period. I always get a little nervous about hitting 160 or slightly above ... too close to the 170 degree no-no range and you'll get tannin release from the grain husks = astringency.
3. No arguments there, although 170 degree will suffice, especially with a longer "steeping" period.
4. Go for it, killer.
5. Shouldn't be dormant on the third day. Are you draining off the wort and pitching the settled yeast trub only, or are you shaking up the starter and pitching the entire thing? I'd advocate for the latter. Sounds to me like you had a typical fermentation, so I wouldn't mess with success too much.
6. Really doesn't matter if you aerate before or after pitching, as long as you aerate well. What method are you using? Forced oxygen? Fishtank air pump? Shaking? I'd also recommend adding yeast nutrient, like servomyces, at the end of your boil to give your yeasties their vitamins.
7. Oh yeah, boil the water, let it sit over night, or use stor-bought drinking water (reverse-osmosis, type) Can make a big difference.
8. Call me a rebel, but I fill about 2 dozen bottles before stopping to lay a sanitized cap on top of each, then fill the remaining half and repeat the process. By the time I'm done, the first half have waiting long enough for the residual CO2 to push out any air, and likewise with the others. Never had a problem with contamination at this stage.
9. Good idea. I do the same.
10. One of the biggest helps I discovered was the spray bottle of Star San. I keep it on hand all the time. In fact, the last time I racked to secondary, I didn't even mix a new "bath" of Star San ... I just poured about 1/3 of the bottle into my carboy and swished it around for a good while, while I sanitized my auto-siphon, tubing and airlock with spray from the bottle. Quick and easy!
11. We like the beer smell, but if that workd for you ... awesome!
There ya have it. Take 'em or leave 'em, Dave. I understand that half the fun is figuring all this stuff out for yourself! What workd for you.
Happy brewing! Oh, and if you do an ESB, you might consider the collaborative recipe about a dozen of your Aleuminati brethren have brewed/will brew soon! Should be a good one!
Shawn - wow. What a great bunch of comments. Thanks. I'm still opting to do the Aleuminati ESB as I originally said I would. I hope that I'm not too late for that. I'm already a month behind getting my 2nd batch started as it is. Targeting to do the batch between April 11 and April 18th at this point. Just have to get my butt moving on this one. Keep the comments coming as I always welcome advice, afterall, I've only done 4 batches of brew in my life so far so I'm still learning as I go. Cya over on the Aleuminati.
ReplyDeleterandom thoughts ...
ReplyDeletei always use a starter - my brew day starts the day before with a starter even if i'm using wyeast or white labs. with this i get noticeable fermentation in 3-4 hrs
bigger containers are better - anecdotal but rumor has it the bigger the bottle, the better the result so i'd lean to the bigger bottles. in fact, i always keg except if i'm doing a batch of fancy fruit beer where it will ferment for 6+ months and then i bottle age for another 4 or so.
IMO forced CO2 is not as good as keg/bottle conditioning - if you do go to kegging, I feel like forced carbonation in the keg does not give as good a result as priming and waiting. Conditioning seems to lead to a better-balanced beer, better head, etc.
Been a while since things have popped up on your blog, hope you're still brewing.
b
Bill - I'm not homebrewing that often these days, but I did just join a the Treehouse Homebrew Club that's here in Greeley. I'm going to use the group to learn all-grain brewing and then start doing a few batches later this year. I'm as busy posting about Colorado breweries though.
ReplyDeleteThe homebrew club is going to be brewing up a sour flanders ale next week and I hope to help them out doing that. Then look for another batch from me sometime in March.