Any Beer Brewers Out There?

I wanted to start a beer making thread in the hopes of perfecting my craft with any useful suggestions. I would describe myself currently as a beginner brewer with a basic setup (pots/carboy, single vessel fermentation, ice bag wort cooling etc). I’ve completed about 10 batches and have never been completely happy with the end product. I’m thinking that I could improve the quality by purchasing a couple of megapot kettles with metal filters to help sparging and catch more of the debris, but they tend to be expensive.

Anyone have any other suggestions? Maybe employing a two-stage fermentation process to clear out some of the fermentation debris? I’m also considering a wort chiller but it is low priority.

For smaller batches (i.e. 5 gallon, etc.), I’ve had success with the Grainfather, its not cheap ($890 from MoreBeer & Adventures in Home Brewing), but it’s an awesome product for doing mash, sparging & boil all in one unit.

Wow, that is amazing…this is an excellent recommendation.

Using kegs gave me the biggest jump in quality for homebrewing. Bottles are just too hard to keep from oxidizing on the home brew scale.

I batch sparge with a simple bazooka screen and very little debris makes it into the kettle. What makes you think this is your issue?

Debris in the fermenter is a different beast. If clarity is your issue I would suggest looking at things like cold crashing, fining agents, or a different fermenter.

Reeve,

If you end up moving to Westchester, I’ll introduce you to the WHO (Westchester Homebrewers Organization) members.

Sorry I should have been more clear, it isn’t mash debris that I have in my finished product. My yeast cake is usually pretty large, and I feel like my beer often tastes “yeasty”. I was wondering if a secondary fermentation might clear up some of the expired yeast. My fermenter is a simple 5 gallon glass carboy.

That would be great Jorge, thank you!

Your brews might just be suffering from a type of autolysis from being on the yeast cake for too long.

Do you use Whirlfloc in the kettle? This really helps with floccuating out proteins.

Do you have temperature control for fermentation? This along with the yeast strain can have an affect on the quality of the ferment and the degree of floccuation. If you can do a hard chill before kegging / bottling you should be able to get most of the yeast to settle.

I would also suggest looking at Biofine Clear, Polyclar, or Gelatin to get everything to floccuate out.

Unless you are doing really long fermentations I doubt going to a secondary would benefit your beers. The transfer tends to do more harm than good because of the oxygen exposure. It is my understanding yeast autolysis shouldn’t be a problem unless the beer is sitting on yeast for several weeks or at excessive temperatures.

What type of beer are you brewing?

Thanks Dustin and Jorge, I’m going to order some grain right now to try some of this out.

I think I was definitely keeping it in the Carboy for way too long…I always assumed the longer the better.

I had long suspected that fermentation temperature was an issue, since I live in an apartment and don’t have access to a cooler garage or basement. But during my last batch I kept the Carboy in the sink for the wet t-shirt trick, which definitely lowered the temperature, but the resulting brew was not much better.

I’ve been mostly making amber ales.

Voila, your culprits right there.

I am a professional brewer. Get rid of the carboys and invest in a stainless steel fermenter - probably $300. Figure out a way to control temperature - refrigerators work well with a temperature controller attached (to keep the fridge warmer like around 60 degrees). Double the amount of yeast you pitch, and aerate the wort before pitching.

Your “yeasty” issue is probably caused by stressed yeast. Pitching more yeast will help, as will aerating the wort. If you aren’t happy with the beer you might want to go back to using malt extract so you have fewer issues to problem solve. Once you get the recipe down, switch to all grain.

Thanks so much Rick, I will try all of this. I was looking at some of those stainless steel fermenters, but live in an apartment currently so my wife axed the idea. We have plans to move shortly, so I am going to invest in a quality setup in the basement/garage. Are there any brands you could recommend?

I own a brewery and would be happy to help. Our brew crew has a wealth of experience from large production breweries all the way to down home brewing applications. Feel free to email me at justin@jailbreakbrewing.com

I am not a brewer, but my plan for this Summer is to make some non-alcoholic/low-alcohol Ginger Beer. I know… different process. Everything I have read recommends that I secure some “Ginger Beer Plant” (a bacterial/yeast symbiotic culture).

It appears that I will need to buy a lot of the same equipment that home brewers use…

It has probably been more than a decade since I brewed a batch but I think a simple and cheap step for you would be to get a second carboy and siphon it off after 5 - 7 days. Gets you off most of the sludge built up during the very active first few days.

I’m in no position to contradict Rick, who I’ve heard makes some of the best lagers in the PNW if not the country, but as a 5 gallon homebrewer who makes some decent beers, a stainless fermentor is not where I would start spending money. Used fridge or if the space is an issue (NYC) this could work http://www.brewjacket.com/

I agree about stressed yeast though. What are you doing yeast-wise. Dry? Are you making starters if you are using liquid? there are plenty of resources to help with pitch size.