As a brewer and an owner of a homebrew store, I would ask all brewers to support their local homebrew store and not shop online as much. Your local store needs your support.
As a professional brewer, it was good advices: 1. Have fun! You do this for experiment, to learn, to develope your skills and drink beer. Never lose the artistic side of brewing. Even if you go pro one day. 2. Learn to love cleaning. Keep it clean and even more clean. A spray bottle with 70% alcohol or sanitizer is your side arms. "Shoot" on everything! If you buy a brewing system with a pump, use it to clean hoses and other stuff hard to clean inside. Clean everytning as soon as possible. 3. The cellar work. Temperature controled fermentation. Learn to pitch. A good fermentation scheme, with diacetyl rest, cold crash. Oxygen free handling. It is in the fermentation cellar the magic is happening. 4. Keep it simple. My homebrew recipies have even kg of base malt (sometimes to a half kg). Relatively light special malts to nearest half kg. Dark special malt to nearest 100g. Even numbers, few ingredienses. If you buy hops in 100 g, try to use it all on 25 l of beer. Whatever that is left after right bitterness, put it in at the end of the boil. Don't fill your freezer with half used bags of hops. Better use an aroma hop for bitterness to use it all, than buy a special bitter hop and get two opened bags of hops. 5. Get your beer oxygen free in the bottle. In the beginning a piece of sugar in each bottle, beer on with a bottle filler from bottom up without splashing. Cap on. When money allowes you, buy a keg, learn to pressure with CO2 (or pressure ferment) and fill your bottles with a counterpressure filler. Cap on foam. If you do it right you get professional low amounts of oxygen. 6. Have your expectations right. You can make great beers at home. But it is hard to get the technical quality of a professional brewery. 7. This is a deep rabbit hole. It is a hobby that can take over your live with even more equipment, the urge to by things in stainless steel and fill up your home. Whatever you look at, you ask How can I use this in my homebrewing? You have been warned!
Great advice all around. Surprised no one mentioned water. It took me 3 years of brewing to figure that out. If you are lucky and live in an area with soft water then you are good. but if you live where the water is hard, you need to pay attention. My water where I used to live was 32 grains of hardness. You could make a stout but try making an IPA. Forget it. I learned about water chemistry in order to produce a good crisp clean IPA. I would rate in order of importance: #1 Sanitization. #2 Water chemistry to match your beer style. #3 Fermentation temp. . #4 Detailed note taking. #5 Avoiding oxidization after fermentation. Cheers!
Excellent advice throughout. As hobbyists, though, I think once we've got a handle on our sanitation and temperature procedures, it comes down to what makes you happy. Personally, I don't go into the chemistry and such; it bores me and I don't understand it anyway. But I like the creative aspect of it and researching different styles. My two rules for myself are: 1. Don't complicate things. I'm making beer, not sending a rocket to the moon. 2. Brew to please yourself. If you like the beer you made, you did it right.
When I get stressed that I've not done a step perfectly, or missed some timing a bit, I tell myself some advice a buddy gave me years ago "they used to do this in caves with clay pots, man, just chill."
I tend to do my fermentation in the basement in cooler weather. I've also done lager on our enclosed porch. I have an Inkbird to bring the temperature up if I need to. I use a hard heating "pad" for warming if the need arises. :D
Old hops will be much lower in alpha acids, so add more than you normally would. Old grain should be tasted, if it's edible than it's brew ready... same as the hops with AA, the grain looses sugars and decreases the malt flavors...
Good? or potent... overtime the alpha acids will weaken. I've used hops that are over a year old, they just go "stale" overtime(aka loosing potency) best tip for using older hops is increase the amount used...
It hasn't been mentioned but.. get your reps in. Can't improve your process if you're scared I'd your first brew. Likely the first ones are gonna suck, known that you're doing this to become better.
Temp control for a beginner made me laugh. Beer is very very easy to make, the more you know the better you'll be. Start off with cheap minimal equipment. Think process steps, keep notes. Good luck
An old fridge and a thermostat is all that is needed. Or just a basement/garage slightly lower than room temperature. If you are totally into belgian style beer. Then keep it in your house.
As a brewer and an owner of a homebrew store, I would ask all brewers to support their local homebrew store and not shop online as much. Your local store needs your support.
As a professional brewer, it was good advices:
1. Have fun! You do this for experiment, to learn, to develope your skills and drink beer. Never lose the artistic side of brewing. Even if you go pro one day.
2. Learn to love cleaning. Keep it clean and even more clean. A spray bottle with 70% alcohol or sanitizer is your side arms. "Shoot" on everything! If you buy a brewing system with a pump, use it to clean hoses and other stuff hard to clean inside. Clean everytning as soon as possible.
3. The cellar work. Temperature controled fermentation. Learn to pitch. A good fermentation scheme, with diacetyl rest, cold crash. Oxygen free handling. It is in the fermentation cellar the magic is happening.
4. Keep it simple. My homebrew recipies have even kg of base malt (sometimes to a half kg). Relatively light special malts to nearest half kg. Dark special malt to nearest 100g. Even numbers, few ingredienses. If you buy hops in 100 g, try to use it all on 25 l of beer. Whatever that is left after right bitterness, put it in at the end of the boil. Don't fill your freezer with half used bags of hops. Better use an aroma hop for bitterness to use it all, than buy a special bitter hop and get two opened bags of hops.
5. Get your beer oxygen free in the bottle. In the beginning a piece of sugar in each bottle, beer on with a bottle filler from bottom up without splashing. Cap on. When money allowes you, buy a keg, learn to pressure with CO2 (or pressure ferment) and fill your bottles with a counterpressure filler. Cap on foam. If you do it right you get professional low amounts of oxygen.
6. Have your expectations right. You can make great beers at home. But it is hard to get the technical quality of a professional brewery.
7. This is a deep rabbit hole. It is a hobby that can take over your live with even more equipment, the urge to by things in stainless steel and fill up your home. Whatever you look at, you ask How can I use this in my homebrewing? You have been warned!
Great advice all around. Surprised no one mentioned water. It took me 3 years of brewing to figure that out. If you are lucky and live in an area with soft water then you are good. but if you live where the water is hard, you need to pay attention. My water where I used to live was 32 grains of hardness. You could make a stout but try making an IPA. Forget it. I learned about water chemistry in order to produce a good crisp clean IPA. I would rate in order of importance: #1 Sanitization. #2 Water chemistry to match your beer style. #3 Fermentation temp. . #4 Detailed note taking. #5 Avoiding oxidization after fermentation. Cheers!
Awesome input, and great water tips! 🍻
Agreed. Good water, a healthy ferment, and a relatively sane recipe… you’ll get decent beer.
Excellent advice throughout. As hobbyists, though, I think once we've got a handle on our sanitation and temperature procedures, it comes down to what makes you happy. Personally, I don't go into the chemistry and such; it bores me and I don't understand it anyway. But I like the creative aspect of it and researching different styles. My two rules for myself are:
1. Don't complicate things. I'm making beer, not sending a rocket to the moon.
2. Brew to please yourself. If you like the beer you made, you did it right.
Awesome advice!
When I get stressed that I've not done a step perfectly, or missed some timing a bit, I tell myself some advice a buddy gave me years ago "they used to do this in caves with clay pots, man, just chill."
I tend to do my fermentation in the basement in cooler weather. I've also done lager on our enclosed porch. I have an Inkbird to bring the temperature up if I need to. I use a hard heating "pad" for warming if the need arises. :D
You guys have been putting out some excellent content! Some gold nuggets in this session.
Thank you for watching and for the kind words 🍻
My Home Brew Surprise: Controlling the temperature during fermentation.
Awesome and helpful as always
Great video. The tip about cleaning properly is golden.
Any tips for using old, out of date ingredients hops, grains, lme
Old hops will be much lower in alpha acids, so add more than you normally would. Old grain should be tasted, if it's edible than it's brew ready... same as the hops with AA, the grain looses sugars and decreases the malt flavors...
When will we get a t-shirt that puts it right? "More BEER NOW" "OR I Get Naked"
Adding it to the list now under “URGENT”
How long will hops stay good in a fridge? Please.
Good? or potent... overtime the alpha acids will weaken. I've used hops that are over a year old, they just go "stale" overtime(aka loosing potency) best tip for using older hops is increase the amount used...
Better to put them in the freezer if you're not going to use them right away
#HailYes & Thanks for all...
To summarize: Brewers Make Wort, Yeast Makes Beer!
It hasn't been mentioned but.. get your reps in. Can't improve your process if you're scared I'd your first brew. Likely the first ones are gonna suck, known that you're doing this to become better.
Temp control for a beginner made me laugh. Beer is very very easy to make, the more you know the better you'll be. Start off with cheap minimal equipment. Think process steps, keep notes. Good luck
Kveik yeast. Let it rip
An old fridge and a thermostat is all that is needed. Or just a basement/garage slightly lower than room temperature. If you are totally into belgian style beer. Then keep it in your house.
That's why right now is the perfect time to ferment as a beginner. But beginners always think about making beer in the summer and have a bad time.
@@ciderking4594 In summer go for a kveik.