Want To Start Making Decent Beer

[stattonb]

yea thats the plane well sucks how the sharks are going this year but least ill have plenty of good beer to watch them next year

 

[nvs-brews]

i'd say 1st thing to get you going...you temp controlling?

 

[stattonb]

yep got myself a stc - 1000 and a fridge setup

 

[poggor]

Temperature control is a funny old thing. Remember beer was brewed (well!) for centuries before accurate temperature control.
When i started brewing I was told "ales need to be fermented warm" and sold a "brewing belt" by LHBS. Turns out this is complete ********. Most ales prefer temps around or just under 20c. Ambient temperature in most houses is perfect. I have never had to actively heat an ale in Australia.

Turns out keeping things cool enough is more difficult. But in winter in any part of southern Australia this is again not a challenge. I brew all my lagers in winter using the ambient outside temperature (ie in the shed). Again, I use no temperature control. I also condition all my beers outside during the cooler (8) months of the year. During the warmer months ales can still be brewed easily although having a cellar or cool space is very useful. I don't brew lagers during the summer.

Many (many) great batches of AG beer with no active cooling or heating.

g

 

[Adr_0]

Temperature control is a funny old thing. Remember beer was brewed (well!) for centuries before accurate temperature control.
When i started brewing I was told "ales need to be fermented warm" and sold a "brewing belt" by LHBS. Turns out this is complete ********. Most ales prefer temps around or just under 20c. Ambient temperature in most houses is perfect. I have never had to actively heat an ale in Australia.

Turns out keeping things cool enough is more difficult. But in winter in any part of southern Australia this is again not a challenge. I brew all my lagers in winter using the ambient outside temperature (ie in the shed). Again, I use no temperature control. I also condition all my beers outside during the cooler (8) months of the year. During the warmer months ales can still be brewed easily although having a cellar or cool space is very useful. I don't brew lagers during the summer.

Many (many) great batches of AG beer with no active cooling or heating.

g

The thing about this hobby is that if you took every little bit of advice (some things will give you a step change in beer quality... whatever that is; other things will just be incremental) you could probably go around in circles a few times and buy every little bit of gear out there, then throw it away and buy something else that does almost the same thing.

You could for example wrap it in a towel and stick it in the cupboard; then get a fridge and dangle a temp probe in the fridge; then get a thermowell and stick it in the beer; then get a programmable controller and input a temperature profile.

This is why I think it's important to understand the background behind why people do certain things, understand the principles of how something works when you get to a decision point, etc.

Having said that, yeast temperature is pretty bloody important. The same yeast can produce very different - tasteably different - flavours at different temperatures, though some have more consistency over a wider temperature band than others.

Having said THAT, you gotta do what you're comfortable with, step by step and not try to do everything at once. If you're happy with how you make the beer (you don't have a stroke chasing your brewery around the shed) and you're happy with the beer you make, that is THE most important thing.

 

[stattonb]

its alot easier now i think ,started brewing with hops and dme and now have temp control, love the fact that i can mix it all up and throw it in the fridge and keep it at a nice 18c without frozen bottles or muking around now

 

[fletcher]

Temperature control is a funny old thing. Remember beer was brewed (well!) for centuries before accurate temperature control.

how do you know this?

 

[Spiesy]

Temperature control is a funny old thing. Remember beer was brewed (well!) for centuries before accurate temperature control.

Besides the fact that I doubt you were around centuries ago to sample said beers, as Fletcher has pointed out, most old beers contained Brett and subsequently a lot of funk, due to the wooden barrels which the beer was stored within.

Also, Pale Malts are a relatively newer grain variety, and combined with clean yeasts are a lot more transparent in showcasing faults. Etc etc.

I'd imagine the beer served centuries ago was quite different to both the craft and mainstream beer of today.

There is nothing wrong with taking steps to ensure your beer turns out as good as it possibly can.

 

[fletcher]

Besides the fact that I doubt you were around centuries ago to sample said beers, as Fletcher has pointed out, most old beers contained Brett and subsequently a lot of funk, due to the wooden barrels which the beer was stored within.

Also, Pale Malts are a relatively newer grain variety, and combined with clean yeasts are a lot more transparent in showcasing faults. Etc etc.

I'd imagine the beer served centuries ago was quite different to both the craft and mainstream beer of today.

There is nothing wrong with taking steps to ensure your beer turns out as good as it possibly can.

amen. there is no means of comparison, and i've seen that mindset bandied about a lot; that beer was brewed great for centuries, 'why should we change it?'. i wonder who has proof of this, or if they're just romanticizing what they might believe the beers to have been like, or seen in some movie with knights drinking ale out of goblets etc

completely agree with your post spiesy.

EDIT: i didn't mean to come across as rude. apologies if i did. was just wanting to point out my disagreement with a seemingly common belief.

 

[verysupple]

Temperature control is a funny old thing. Remember beer was brewed (well!) for centuries before accurate temperature control.
When i started brewing I was told "ales need to be fermented warm" and sold a "brewing belt" by LHBS. Turns out this is complete ********. Most ales prefer temps around or just under 20c. Ambient temperature in most houses is perfect. I have never had to actively heat an ale in Australia.

Turns out keeping things cool enough is more difficult. But in winter in any part of southern Australia this is again not a challenge. I brew all my lagers in winter using the ambient outside temperature (ie in the shed). Again, I use no temperature control. I also condition all my beers outside during the cooler (8) months of the year. During the warmer months ales can still be brewed easily although having a cellar or cool space is very useful. I don't brew lagers during the summer.

Many (many) great batches of AG beer with no active cooling or heating.

g

To each their own. You obviously have your system figured out and it works for you. But there are far too many threads started by relatively new brewers asking why their fermentation stalled (often due to the temp dropping too low) or why their beer tastes like rocket fuel (pitching and/or fermenting too warm). I think a temp. controlled fridge is a fantastic idea for a new-ish brewer because it takes out one very important and influential factor making it easier to diagnose other areas to improve.

FWIW I like the simplicity of being able to set my desired fermentation temp. (or profile) and not have to worry about "What if there's a snap change in the weather?" (it happens a lot here in Melbourne). And for the princely sum of ~$120 for a second hand fridge, STC-1000 (including jiffy box and bits to make it work) and a heat cord, I think it was a pretty good investment.

PS. Centuries ago people weren't fermenting beer at 40 C in the Australian summer.

 

[stattonb]

thats what i noticed by spending as little as $30 and getting myself a temp control it makes the process so much easier then before when i was using a ice bath with frozen coke bottles, as for the beer been great for centuries.... dont think it would have been all that good i asume people just put up with a bad tasting,flat,hot beer back then cos life sucked so they just wanted to get pissed lol

 

[poggor]

amen. there is no means of comparison, and i've seen that mindset bandied about a lot; that beer was brewed great for centuries, 'why should we change it?'. i wonder who has proof of this, or if they're just romanticizing what they might believe the beers to have been like, or seen in some movie with knights drinking ale out of goblets etc

completely agree with your post spiesy.

EDIT: i didn't mean to come across as rude. apologies if i did. was just wanting to point out my disagreement with a seemingly common belief.

Hahah! seems a pretty passionate response! I just meant that many of the currently available classic european beers have been produced since the 19th century and earlier. Hence before electricity, refrigeration, and active temperature control. They were made by using the ambient temperature and cellars. I just think it's good to be sensible about temperature and make lagers in winter etc. Not saying don't get a fridge and accurate temperature control, but rather that it's not essential and that understanding processes and styles probably is more essential. Obviously the 3 months of really hot temperatures is a challenge without a proper cellar.

g

 

[panzerd18]

Temperature control is a funny old thing. Remember beer was brewed (well!) for centuries before accurate temperature control.
When i started brewing I was told "ales need to be fermented warm" and sold a "brewing belt" by LHBS. Turns out this is complete ********. Most ales prefer temps around or just under 20c. Ambient temperature in most houses is perfect. I have never had to actively heat an ale in Australia.

Turns out keeping things cool enough is more difficult. But in winter in any part of southern Australia this is again not a challenge. I brew all my lagers in winter using the ambient outside temperature (ie in the shed). Again, I use no temperature control. I also condition all my beers outside during the cooler (8) months of the year. During the warmer months ales can still be brewed easily although having a cellar or cool space is very useful. I don't brew lagers during the summer.

Many (many) great batches of AG beer with no active cooling or heating.

g

In Melbourne during winter the house normally stays around 10 degrees unheated. Perfect for Lagers!

 

[stattonb]

it sucks here in brissy the temps in my house never get low enough to do lagers without temp control,even under my stairs

 

[verysupple]

<snip>
Not saying don't get a fridge and accurate temperature control, but rather that it's not essential and that understanding processes and styles probably is more essential. Obviously the 3 months of really hot temperatures is a challenge without a proper cellar.

g

I get where you're coming from - particularly in terms of learning the styles - but I don't agree that the brewing process is more essential than fermentation control. How can you tell if a change to the brewing process makes a difference if you can't ferment the beer the same way each time (actually, this includes pitching rate, oxygenation etc, but temp. plays a big role)?

I agree that a fridge isn't essential if you're in the right climate, but you have to acknowledge that you're sacrificing reproducibility, and therefore making learning more difficult.