Home brewing for me, as for many professional brewers, was the spark that ignited the flame. I brewed my first beer (ESB from extract) and got hooked. I always sought advice from the staff at my local homebrew store and over time I built up my technique, chose my favorite ingredients and picked the best techniques for the equipment I had. Here are a few important things I’ve learned while improving my beer.
- If you don’t have temperature control, brew in season. A fermenting beer usually gets a couple degrees above room temperature, so if you don’t have a cool place to ferment (15-17 degrees Celsius), consider something that doesn’t require strict fermentation temperature control (hint – Belgian ales and saisons).
- Make yeast starters or buy two packs of yeast. A starter is better because you know the yeast is healthy.
- Don’t put yeast in too warm a wort. This will cause them to grow exponentially, which often leads to side tastes.
- Aerate the wort! The 45-60 seconds of aeration before introducing the yeast is a huge benefit to the health of the yeast and the quality of the fermentation.
I happen to taste local homebrewers’ beers quite often. And almost every time I experience some sort of defect, it’s related to the fermentation. When I judge homebrew contests (not that I do it often, but it happens), picking the best brews in a particular category is always easy because most samples suffer from poor fermentation characteristics. A simple recipe, but cleanly and properly fermented, will beat out an outstanding recipe with fermentation defects anyway.