August, 2010:

I forgot this one earlier: don’t under-tighten, or over-tighten the cap on your barrel. Too loose and you’ll lose pressure, too tight and you’ll distort the seal, and lose pressure.

Either way, no pressure = air gets in = beer oxidises and becomes unpleasant.

I had one cap where (somehow!) in the manufacturing process two of the white O-rings were in the cap. I didn’t notice (because I’m a bit dim at times), and put the cap on. It, oddly enough, didn’t fit, so I had a leak and a horrible barrel of Colne Valley Bitter…

So: lubricate the threads (and some people say the seal) with vaseline, and tighten just enough. I find finger tight plus a little bit to be spot-on.

I’ve definitely made a few mistakes.  Fortunately, only one brew so far has ended up undrinkable, but I rather think that’s due more to good luck than good practice.

So, what have I learned so far?

1. Cleanliness

   Everything should be clean.  If it comes into contact with the brew after it’s finished boiling, it should be sanitised.  StarSan is excellent, as it’s a no-rinse sanitiser.  Even if there’s foam left in the barrel after cleaning it doesn’t matter, the beer can be racked on to it.

2. Keep the lid off

   When I started I knew that I needed to get a good rolling boil going for the entire 90 minutes.  So, of course, just as if I were bringing water to the boil on the stove (partly because I was working on the stove for the first brews), I kept the lid on the pot.  Big mistake; one of the purposes of the boil is to drive off some undesirable volatile compounds.  If the lid is on, these condense on the lid and drop back into the brew.  Result: off tastes and cloudiness.

3. Hard water clears easier

   When I started brewing I used water bought from the supermarket – those 5 litre bottles of own-brand water.  I don’t actually remember why I did so, possibly it was a result of something I read somewhere.  More reading suggested that beer made from hard water drops clear more easily, and that the only treatment tap water needs in the UK is 1/2 a Campden tablet in 25 litres of water.  The Campden neutralises the chlorines and chloramines (though it seems debatable whether that’s even required with the low levels we get at our house, but for the price I err on the safe side and treat all my brewing liquor).

4. Irish Moss seems to work better when rehydrated

   A splash of cold water in a cup, a teaspoon of Irish Moss, leave for 15 minutes, then throw in the boiler with ~ 15 minutes to go.  I don’t understand why it should work better when rehydrated rather than just chucked in the boiler, but it seems to.

5. Allow cooling time

   I have a rather annoying habit of forgetting that water needs time to cool to under 30C from boiling!  For example, it seems to be good practice to rehydrate the dried varieties of yeast before pitching into the wort (certainly recommended by Mr. Wheeler in his book).  To do this I put some water in a measuring jug and zap it in the microwave until it’s boiling, then cover the jug with clingfilm and leave to cool to below 30C so I can add the dried yeast without killing it.  However, I frequently forget when I’m going to be wanting it and don’t allow enough time for the cooling.  It’s not the end of the world – you can leave the wort sitting around for a time as long as it’s sealed so no nasties can get in – but it’s definitely better to get your timings right!

6. Don’t believe every recipe you see online

   A lot of all-grain recipes can be converted to extract recipes.  However, some recipes you come across on t’internets just substitute liquid or dried malt extract for the malt parts of the grain bill and fail to account for other grains that require mashing.  For example, torrefied wheat is included in some recipes when my understanding is that there’s absolutely no need to include them unless you’re mashing.  Steeping them does absolutely nothing as they need the enzymatic activity of the mashing process.

7. Be aware of your diary

   My only complete failure was with the Rigg recipe, and the thing that caused the vinegar was that I’d brewed the weekend before we were due to go on holiday.  I didn’t have time to bottle it, so I racked it off into a secondary fermenter for the extra week that we were away.  Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but this was the hottest week of the year so far, and my beer caught an infection.  No idea how, to be honest, but if I’d remembered the holiday then I wouldn’t have brewed and the problem may not have arisen, and I wouldn’t have had to pour 8 litres of beer down the sink.

Right, that lot will do for now.  If anything else occurs to me then I’ll do a second of these posts.