- Set Your Goals
Brewing great beer is an enjoyable way to spend your time and once you decide to become involved in it, the journey you will take on your home brewing adventure will be up to what you want to do.
But whether you only plan to brew a few times a year to start churning out some fantastic amber ales every couple of weeks, you will probably find the process much more fulfilling if you set some goals for your brewing. Even though it may only be a hobby for you, it is still worth considering why you are doing it, to make sure your set yourself up with the best chance of meeting your goals.
For example, the answer to the following questions may help you define what you want to get out of your home brewing:
- What type of beers do you want to make? Only one type or a range of different styles over time?
- How much money do you want to spend setting up your home brewery?
- How much money do you intended to spend.
- Where will you set up and store your home brew kit?
- Are you brewing just for yourself or are you intending to share it with others or perhaps enter it into home brewing competitions?
- Do you want to develop your own recipes or use some already created?
- Will you join a brewing club?
- Do you want to develop your skills over time to do more challenging types of brewing?
- Is it packaged beer (bottles) beer you wish to produce or would you like to serve it from kegs?
- Is home brewing your first steps towards your ambition to become a professional brewer and perhaps one day run your own boutique brewery?
There are no doubt a myriad of other questions in addition to those above that you might have, but by at least having a think about some of them, you can start to determine what your home brew goals are. They may change over time, but at least you will have a starting point which help direct you as you start your brewing journey.
Oh, yes, once you have figured out what your goals are, write them down so you can check them occasionally and check if you are heading in the right direction or do you need to change them!!
If I could summarise my home brewing goals in one line it would be ” to create some great beers from recipes I developed myself, to share with family and friends while having fun learning new brewing skills”.2
2. Plan
Like anything in life, the more you put into your home brewing the more you will receive in return. While it may not sound very glamorous, planning is going to be a very import part of being a home brewer for as the old saying goes, “proper preparation prevents poor performance”.
So you may have just gone out and purchased your first home brew kit. Naturally you are keen to open the box and get started and get your first batch under way. The prospect of drinking your very own brew will make you really eager to forge ahead. But before you crack the lid on your malt extract tin, it makes sense to think ahead and plan how you are going to do it.
What you will need to plan for may include some quite things that might seem obvious, but you still need to plan ahead so you will not run into any delays later on.
The first thing to think of is where will you brew? Have you organised a clear workspace where you will mix in all of the ingredients and have easy access to all of the tools you will need? Does it have easy access to clean water supply? Is it well-lit so you can see what you are doing- trust me this becomes more important the older you get.
You need to also have a plan as to where you will let your batch ferment. Do you have space set aside that won’t get in any bodies way and importantly cause any domestic problems with your partner who may not share your enthusiasm with your new hobby taking up space. In addition to where you will leave the fermenter, you need to make sure the temperature in the area is within the range recommended by your brewing kit. I would not be leaving an ale outside in a cold Northern Hemisphere winter to ferment, likewise a lager may not do too well outside in the tropics. So, plan ahead and have an appropriate space ready or you may have to look at some sort of supplementary heating or cooling devices (which we will cover later on).
Once your brew has fermented out and is ready for packaging, have you got that area ready with all of your bottles and caps sanitised? Do you know how to prime your bottles, and have you practiced using the new capper, so you are ready to go for the first bottle?
Speaking of planning ahead, I am not sure how many times over the year’s friends have put the call out for anybody with spare bottles they can use for their home brew. They have completed a batch and they realise they haven’t planned ahead and have enough bottles ready!!
So, once your brew is in the bottles, plan ahead as to where you will store them for a few weeks for them to mature and the secondary fermentation complete the carbonation process. Are the conditions in your chosen spot going to be beneficial to the beer?
Do you have an idea for where and how you will clean and then store your kit until the next time you use it. It needs to be stored in a clean area where it is unlikely to be damaged.
These are just a few of the things you will need to plan for when you start your brewing career with a kit. As you progress over time to more involved brewing processes, you guessed it, there will be more thing to plan for to be successful. In addition to those above these will include:
- The recipe you will follow and the ingredients you will need to organise
- What tests you will do during brewing- pH, gravity, temperature, etc?
- The equipment you will need
- Where you will store your raw materials?
- What will you do with your brewing waste, spent grain, yeast, trub (left over material after transferring the boil), etc?
- What records you will need to keep
So no matter what level you want to take your brewing to, a little planning ahead will make your life easier. No matter how well you plan, you may still run into some issues you didn’t consider, but these will be fewer than would be the case with not plan at all.
3. Clean , Clean and Clean!!
In my early days many years ago when I started home brewing, I was always keen to get my brews into the bottle so I could taste the fruits of my labours. I tended to rush and looking back now, I really cut corners on my cleaning of my equipment, especially the bottles that I was transferring my brews into. As a result I got my fair share of infected batches and the associated bad taste and smell before tipping it down the drain.
What has become apparent over the years is that home brewing is like most other things in life, where “what you put in determines what you get out”. That is certainly the case with your cleaning practices, if you don’t spend the time and effort required you will produce infected beers you can’t drink.
Brewing was once described to me by a Head Brewer as “80 percent cleaning, 15 percent production and 5 percent enjoying what you have produced”. I am not entirely sure those percentages are accurate, but one thing is for sure, good cleaning processes are an absolute fundamental key for long term home brewing success.
While working as a professional brewer, quite often home brewers would bring in their bottles to us to see if we could tell them what was wrong with their batch. As a matter of professional courtesy (and also it was always interesting to see what home brewers were making) we would always check out their brews and give them some feedback. I can honestly say that over 9 times out of 10, the problem with their home brew where they were infected by either a wild yeast or bacteria. Generally speaking, they would be cloudy and have either a really off sulphury smell or butyric (smells like vomit- not great to serve to your friends), meaning somewhere along the line, their cleaning missed the mark.
So, make sure you follow all of the cleaning requirements in the instructions for the equipment you purchase. Use the correct cleaning chemicals. Pay particular attention to any surface that comes into contact with your product after it has cooled down from boiling and make sure the packaging you put your final product in, be it bottles or kegs, is as clean as humanly possible. Cleaning your brewing equipment soon after use and storing it in a clean area is also important.
Equally important is to serve it in clean classes. The smallest amount of grease or residual detergent will kill the head on your homebrew. I know some home brewers, that keep their beer glasses separate from their general home usage ones, including washing them separately.
It is also worth learning the difference between cleaning and sanitising brewing equipment, which we will cover in more depth in the HBT blog elsewhere.
You will make mistakes, but as with most things, the more practice you have at it, the better your will be at cleaning and therefore your success at home brewing.
4. Records
Have you ever had a really good idea and thought you should write it down so you can remember it but don’t? Of course, when you do try and recall what it is you can’t and it is lost forever. Well the same thing can happen if you brew a great beer and don’t record how you did it and you cannot repeat it again!
Perhaps the hardest thing about home brewing is not making it great beer, it is to be able to replicate it again and again. This is also the main aim of commercial brewers as well to make sure that Carlsberg you had in Milwaukee tastes the same as the one you had in Manchester! Trust me, they keep accurate records of everything for every brew, from raw material specifications, times, temperatures, gravities, tints, bitterness and taste. So, no matter if you are new home brewer or a veteran of many years, keeping accurate records of each brew is really important to building your skills and knowledge to create even better beer.
It is just an important to capture the information that will stop you creating a beer that you didn’t like. Remember as far as a bad brew goes, “those that forget the past are bound to relive it”!
Also, the more complex your home brewing process becomes, the more data you will need to record. For example, if you are using a basic home brew kit, the sort of information will vary from the home brewer creating their own recipe and milling their own grain. It is important to not only keep accurate records, but also in a format that you can recall what they mean if you want to look back some time much later on.
Perhaps one of the most overlooked things home brewers forget to record is what the beer tasted like. Was it good? Is it what you are after? Were there any off flavours and what was the moth feel like? Get into the habit of rating your beer and start to develop you tasting skills and record your thoughts.
You can record your brewing information in a note book, a brewing diary, in a spreadsheet, a data base or even some brewing specific software which is available to purchase. It doesn’t matter what you use, as long as you use it well, it is secure, and it records all the information you want to keep.
The type of information you would want to include can be varied and vast, but should include things such as:
- Kit Brewer
- Date of brew
- Name of kit
- Original gravity
- Final gravity
- Packaging date
- Final alcohol based on gravity
- Priming type
- Package type and number (e.g., 30 X 330ml bottles)
- Taste note
- All Grain Brewer
- Date of Brew
- Brew ID Number
- Type of Brew/Style
- Raw Materials
- Malt
- Yeast
- Hops
- Water volume- mash/ sparge
- Water pH/ Mash pH
- Volumes- mash volume, pre-boil volume, post boil volume, all in fermenter volume, package volume
- All water additions
- Hop additions- amount and time
- Any other additives
- Gravity- pre boil, post boil, all in fermenter, final gravity
- Final alcohol based on gravity
- Package type and number (e.g., 1x 19l keg)
- Carbonation type
- Taste notes- taste, colour, clarity and head retention
So go sharpen your pencils and get ready to start recording your brewing vitals statics.
5. Support
Once you start home brewing you have actually become a member of an unofficial fraternity of brewers. Every one of us forms our small part of the entire brewing industry, covering the farmers who grow the grains and hops used, the suppliers of the yeasts, the brewing supply shops, the authors of the brewing books we read, the developers if the brewing software used, the manufacturers of the equipment required and the professional brewers who make beer for the living.
So anything we can do to help each other out can only be good for us all. By purchasing our raw materials, engaging with other brewers, buying publications to improve our skills, joining a local brewing club, sharing your recipes, purchasing from brewing equipment suppliers and trying some of the new and wonderful beers being brewed around the world, we are supporting the industry we are a part of.
Even though you can do you home brewing in isolation if you wish, I think there can be so much more gained by engaging and learning as much as you can outside your own brewing bubble. The bigger and better the entire industry gets, the better off all participants, large and small, will be with more development of new brewing equipment, economies of scale for production and more fantastic beers being made.
Where you can, I would strongly suggest visit as many of the fantastic new craft breweries opening up most regions around the world. You hopefully may have some near you. They need the support of sales and as home brewers we can benefit from tasting new styles of beers and perhaps having a chat to the brewer to pick up some ideas. Not only can you build your brewing network in the long run you will be a better brewer. Quite often these craft breweries have been started by young people with a vision, not lot of money, who are taking a risk and doing a lot of hard yards to follow their dream. Support them as much you can and your own home brewing will improve.
Perhaps join a brewing club, join a competition if you want to display your talents. Help a fellow home brewer where possible who might be having trouble with some aspect of their process, in person or online. What you put into the industry in the way of support often has a way of paying back when you need a hand yourself at some stage.
You are now a small cog in a very big and dynamic industry, support it where you can and we will all be better off.
6. Best Quality
If you are anything like me, you will look at all of the great beers that can be made and all of the fantastic shiny equipment available to do so and want to rush out and buy it. Unfortunately, reality sinks in and you desire to buy all of this equipment is not matched with your financial means.
So the only thing to do is to build up your equipment as your experience grows and you start to know what type of brewing you want to do. This certainly applies if you are starting off doing kit brewing. If you decide you like doing it, then you can start to think about moving onto extract brewing and then perhaps onto full grain brewing.
The key thing to consider with your home brewing is to do your research and as a general rule buy the best quality that you can afford to. This includes your raw materials of malt, hops and barely, as well as your equipment such as fermenters and kettles, right up to your consumables such as cleaning chemicals.
While you might be lucky and score a real bargain occasionally for a piece of cheap equipment, more often than not you will be disappointed. I am guilty of this. For example, I purchased a very cheap pH meter on the internet. It arrived in the mail, it looked great and had all the bells and whistles. There was however one problem, it didn’t work, was not even close, I think it might have been a random number generator in a previous life. So, I relented and purchased a more expensive meter after doing more research from a reputable supplier, and guess what, it works like a treat.
This applies to all aspects of your home brewing, get to know your local home brew suppliers if you can. Talk to other home brewers or contact home brewing forums to ask questions about what is good quality equipment that they would recommend. Try and check the age and storage conditions of the malt, hops and yeast you purchase. Compare prices from different suppliers, so once you identify the equipment you want, you can get it at the best price.
If you are in any doubts that something may worn out, not functioning properly or past its use by date, repair or replace it. All these little things add up to making sure your home brew is made from the best quality raw materials from the best quality equipment.
So buy what you can afford, but do your research. It may be better to take that extra time to save up to get better quality materials to save you in the long run.
7. Learn
I have been brewing for over 30 years now and it is safe to say I have seen a few things in my time, but I am still learning about brewing constantly, whether it be new equipment, techniques, science or types of beer. That is the great thing about home brewing, there is so much to learn and challenge you as you progress that it always keeps you interested.
That is not to say that it has to be complicated. You don’t have to learn about the enzymatic reactions in a grain of malt or the internal workings of a yeast cell to be a good home brewer. In fact you can make perfectly good brews by having no more knowledge than the instructions on the home brew kit your purchased. However, if you want to slowly develop you skills and appreciation of the art of home brewing, then yes you are going to have to learn a few more things to help you along.
Home brewing encompasses some wonderful science, from biology, chemistry and physics (apologies to any boffins from a field of science I may have left out), that there is always something to get you thinking or a little challenge to work on to make things operate more seamlessly in your home brewing.
So how do you learn more about home brewing? I think there are three answers to this question, the first is actually doing it, the second is reading about it and finally there is actually a third being undertaking a formal brewing course.
You are going to learn so much form actually brewing at home, the more brew you do. You will get to know your equipment, the stages of fermentation, the ways different malts, hops and yeast affect flavour, how to take gravity samples and the list goes on. The practical skills you learn and develop by doing it will be the basis of becoming better home brewer.
Competency is a combination of having the right skills and knowledge to undertake a set task. So if home brewing is the task and the skills part is covered by doing it we now need to cover the knowledge.
There are so many sources now days to build up your brewing knowledge we are very lucky. For a start there are so many home brewing books available that can take you from a beginner right through to an award-winning brewing. Really, browse them on the internet or at your brewing supply shop. The information out there in print is almost staggering. I would suggest read a few different ones and you will probably pick up different information from each book to build up your knowledge base. Some will become your favourites that you keep returning to and you will no doubt pick up some ideas for new styles of beers you might like to try.
The internet is obviously another great sources of information, whether it be websites (like this), brewing blogs, commercial brewers’ sites and suppliers pages. The amount of information out there now is almost overwhelming, however, like with books you will no doubt identify some key sites you will come to rely on.
Don’t forget home brewing clubs as a great source to build up your knowledge. If you have one in your area it can be a great way to meet other home brewers, ask them questions and learn from their experiences. I have always found home brewers a very friendly willing bunch to help each other out and pass on knowledge
There are also some great home brewing courses out there that can be of benefit. This range from an afternoon spent around a small brew pilot plant, right up to completing a formal recognised qualification in Brewing Science. I am not suggesting that as home brewers we need to all go out and get a PHD, but be aware there are some options for courses offering more formal learning out there that could help you along your way.
Whatever way you go, keep on learning!!
8. Take Your Time
Home brewers have to have to have a few characteristics, but perhaps one of the most important is patience. It is not like making a loaf of bread or baking a cake, where within a few hours of your efforts you can be enjoying the fruits of your labours. Home brewers talk in terms of weeks and sometimes even longer depending on the type of beer, from the time you start a batch until the time you can taste it.
There is no getting around it, brewing takes time. No matter if you are a new kit brewer or run a commercial operation, making good beer cannot be hurried up. Mother nature has to work its magic and no matter how keen we are to see how a batch has turned out; it doesn’t matter.
Trust me if there was a way to produce good beer within a couple of days, the big commercial brewers with all of their research facilities would have figured it out by now. It would save them lots of time, money and real estate for the numerous fermentation and storage tanks they have to operate while the beer conditions in their plants.
You just need to take your time when home brewing, stick to the required time frames and your results will be much better for it. You can’t hurry along the fermentation and the final product needs to condition before you should drink it.
You may be tempted to take a short cut here and there, but to produce good quality home brew, make sure you follow the guidelines whether they come as part of a kit or recipe you are trying from a brewing website.
If you can afford to give your batch extra conditioning time, it will not hurt the flavour and you might find it has improved not taste and clarity of what you serve.
So if you know that patience is not one of your characteristics, then perhaps home brewing will not be for you.
9. Responsible Brewing
Being a member of the unofficial fraternity of home brewers comes with some responsibilities, that we all need to keep in mind. No matter where you are in the world alcohol abuse is an issue and as home brewers we need to ensure that our activities do not add to any of the social problems that can be associated with it. Without wanting to preach, if anything, homebrewers should be role models for the responsible production and service of our alcohol to enhance the standing of our past time in the community.
Do it safely. It may not sound like it is a dangerous activity but is quite possible to injure yourself home brewing and it could be quite serious. There are all sorts of potential hazards out there from using a knife to cut open a raw material bag, to getting cleaning chemicals in your eyes, suffering a hot wort burn and of course hurting your back when lifting a fermenter, box of bottles or heavy keg. Use gloves and other protective equipment where necessary (I am legally blind in one eye and don’t want to risk my other for obvious reasons so sport a pair of safety glasses when brewing) and get some help if lifting could be a problem. Even though it may not seem dangerous, take care that your hobby doesn’t end up causing you some grief.
We also need to be aware of our safety and that of others when brewing. If you have children in the area when you are making a batch, they can find some aspects of the process very fascinating and want to get a closer look. For example, if you are doing extract or all grain brewing in particular, 20 gallons of boiling wort poses a real hazard to anybody. This applies to not only the hot wort itself, but the heat source you will be using, so make sure you keep everybody, including yourself, safe.
Another major responsibility we have is to dispose of our waste products in an environmentally friendly and depending on where you are, legal manner. I have some neighbours up the road who keep chickens. They love my spent grain and I receive some free eggs in return. I also know of some people you make dog treats out of spent grain from brewing (word of warning the grain must be kept separate from any hop residue which can be fatal to pets). Left over yeast and hops can be composted or depending on your area washed down the sewer. Any residue from cleaning chemicals needs to be disposed of in a manner applicable to where you live.
We need to keep in mind being responsible with the serving of our home brew. I have friends that think because it is “free” they tend to go overboard on consuming it (perhaps I should charge them). While it is great to enjoy some drinks with them and show case my beers, there is still a responsibility to ensure they don’t go overboard and do themselves or others any harm. This certainly applies to them getting home safely and not driving if they have had too much.
Responsibility also applies to children and drinking. The legal age to consume alcohol varies depending where you live. This of course applies to your home brew and you should make sure you comply as well. In addition, set a good example for the responsible consumption of alcohol around minors.
Finally, home brewing is great fun, but it shouldn’t ruin your life and health. Most things in moderation will be fine, it is knowing what moderation is, that can be hard for some people. As we are all aware over consumption of alcohol will not do you any good. You are responsible for yourself, so make sure you enjoy your homebrew, but don’t overdo it. If you think your drinking of homebrew and other alcohol beverages is getting out of control, it probably has, so seek some help.
Remember, homebrewing should be fun but nobody should be harmed as an outcome from it.
10. Enjoy It
Perhaps the most important tip about being a home brewer is don’t forget to enjoy it. It is home brewing after all. It is not about life and death; your income and job prospects don’t depend on it. Even, better if you have a disaster and make a bad batch for whatever reason, who cares, nobody got hurt and it only cost you some time and raw materials, just chalk it up to experience (if it is a really bad batch just give it to somebody you don’t like or that annoying relative at Christmas!!).
The whole point is, that home brewing is a hobby that you should like doing. You hopefully get a kick out of learning about brewing, engaging with the wider brewing community, developing your own recipes, starting a brew, smelling the raw materials, hearing the CO2 bubbles exit your fermenter, packaging your beer and waiting in anticipation or that first taste. Even better, creating a batch that you are proud to share with your family and friends.
So, matter what happens have fun and enjoy your homebrewing.