It is that time of the year where we reflect on what we have learnt in the last 12 months. This list has turned out a little bit longer than I expected.
I brewed 55 times in 2020 producing just over 2,000 pints of beer. I used 191Kg of malted grain and 8.5Kg of hops.
- Don’t try to bottle condition NE-IPA. In fact, I wouldn’t try to bottle condition any heavily hopped, light coloured beer. It will only be ruined by oxidation – the hoppier the beer, the quicker this happens! The only practical way around this is to keg it (carefully) and drink it fresh! I blogged about it here.
- If you are going to keg your beer, you are going to have to invest in a place to put them. Either by buying a kegerator or building your own! I bought one. Force carbonating beer requires it to be cooled to help the absorption of CO2. Try getting a 19L (or even a 9L) keg in your fridge at home. You won’t be popular!
- Record keeping is critical to understanding what went right and what went wrong. It is easy to do and it is cheap. So why wouldn’t you do this? I often find myself looking back over previous brews so remind myself of what I did or didn’t do. Each of my brews has a brewsheet (I am now on version 6 of the sheet) as well as a printout of the Grainfather recipe (I print it out in case I edit it for later brews). I also keep a spreadsheet of all of my ingredients – malts and hops anyway – so I can see what I have without having to search through boxes and bags! Individual bags of hops are numbered and this is recorded as part of the brewsheet. So I have some traceability.
- Be open minded about experimenting. But make sure there is a purpose to it. e.g. I am trying to reduce the bitterness and improve the flavour, I am trying to improve the clarity, I am trying to brew something that tastes similar to [insert your favourite beer here]. Make sure you keep detailed records of what you did otherwise you will never be able to repeat it!
- Regard recipes as a starting point. How you brew your beer will be largely dictated by the kit that you have. So it follows that everyone’s process is going to be slightly different. You should bear this in mind when brewing from a recipe, so it is likely to be affect by the kit that you have. Be prepared to tweak it!
- I learnt how to use my refractometer properly! I blogged about it at the time. I now only use a hydrometer at the start and end of the fermentation. All the other readings taken during fermentation (I take them daily) are done with a refractometer.
- Invest in some decent books. Not only a good source of knowledge, but often a great provider of inspiration! John Palmer’s “How to brew” is a great reference book, but don’t try to read it from cover to cover. Start with Euan Ferguson’s “Craft Brew“, Greg Hughes “Home Brew Beer“, or “Brewing Class Styles” by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer. Anybody got any other recommendations?
- Invest in other brewer’s beers! I have bought a lot of different beers in 2020 as well as brewing my own. The amount of beer that I buy seems to have increased since I started brewing my own! Strange! However, I have found that 80-90% of supermarket beer is disappointing – despite all the promises on the label! For me, I just find them either a bit too middle of the road or that they don’t taste natural. I get the best results when buying bottles/cans direct from the brewer. Try Northern Monk if you are looking for inspiration.
- Try to get a good understanding of the brewing process and the basic chemistry involved. What difference does Mash temperatures make? How about the length of the mash? Same goes for the hopstand? What about pitching rates and pH? You’ll find some understanding of the basic principles goes along way. It will help you make improvements and spot how to fix things when they go wrong.
- Buying in bulk saves money. I buy my base malts in 25KG bags and popular varieties of hops are bought by the kilo. If you standardise on what you use, you can get the volumes up. I use Fermentis US-05 as my default yeast. I buy this in a 500g brick and then parcel it up into 20g lots. This means I get enough for 25 brews at about £40!
- Invest in a vaccum sealer. Mine cost £30 from Amazon. I vacuum pack my hops and keep them in the freezer. I also use it to vacuum pack my individual packages of yeast.
- Get your tap water analysed. Use Murphy and Son, or similar. It costs around £40. You get a breakdown of the minerals in your tap water and what additions are required for different beer styles.
- When cleaning bottles, use a bottle cleaner. It is great at removing any stubborn deposits (e.g. that haze that sometimes builds up on clear bottles) and gets the bottle squeaky clean! It is cheap and saves time.
- Sodium percarbonate is great at cleaning stainless steel. I use it once a month to deep clean my Grainfather G30 and fermenters. However, I always make sure everything is thoroughly rinsed afterwards. You can buy it in bulk from eBay.
- It is difficult to get everything from one supplier. Either they don’t stock it or only sell it in smaller amounts. Wherever possible I try to support local suppliers, but inevitably buying online is a major source. The main suppliers that I use are The Malt Miller, GetErBrewed, and BrewUK.
- Trust your taste buds. Not other people’s! Work out what you think tastes good and what you need to improve on it. You won’t go far wrong.
- Do your research. Found a beer that you like? Want to brew something similar? Have a look on the brewer’s website. You’ll often find the details of the malts and hops used. Some list the SG, FG and yeast used too. Often a good starting point for coming up with a recipe.