The Brew Times Homebrewing Blog
What is that cidery taste in my beer?
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="C7xiPISbBjU" video_title1="What is that cidery taste in my beer?" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} One of the most common off-flavors in homebrewing. We talk about how to prevent that cidery flavor from showing up and what you can do if you get it in your beer. This is a question we get quite often. You crack open your first homebrew and you have this kind of odd cidery taste to it. It’s not overbearing but you know that it is something that should not be there. That is an off-flavor in your beer. We discussed in a previous video Off Flavors and & How to prevent them, but we thought this cidery after taste deserved its own video. This off-flavor seems to be the most popular one that homebrewers get. The technical term for this off-flavor is Acetaldehyde. The common off-flavors associated with this are green apple, cidery or even rotten apples if its really bad. Acetaldehyde is naturally occurring in the brewing process and is a chemical created by the yeast. So if something is off in your fermentation this flavor will not ferment out and be more noticeable. It is important to make sure that you are doing a few things properly during your brewing process to help prevent this from happening. The first one would be to make sure you have flawless sanitation practices. Makes sure everything item or service that might come in contact with something that will come in contact with your wort is sanitized. This is critical. Make sure that you are oxygenating your wort very prior to pitching yeast. This helps the yeast be healthy and makes sure they are going to eat up all those sugars that are in your beer. Once you pitch your yeast you want to do all you can do avoid introducing more oxygen to your beer. Make sure to keep the lid on unless you are adding some late additions to your beer. In that case, keep the lid off for as short as possible. Also, if you must move your fermenter do so very carefully and keep the liquid as stable as possible. The most important part, in my opinion, is to maintain the proper temperature. If you are too cold the yeast will not perform to its max and if you are too warm it can lead to that cidery flavor. Now if you have this in your beer there is hope to fix it. Keep your bottles at room temperature and let them age. Let them sit for 3-4 weeks and then try one and see if its better. Often times this flavor can be conditioned out of the beer. So never toss your beer, always let it condition and see if your off-flavors clean up. Cheers!
Read moreThe Brew Times Homebrewing Blog
A Discussion with Dr. Tim Cooper
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" hero_layout="single_hero" image_1="" image_link1="" image_overlay1="no-overlay" image_title1="" image_copy1="" image_text_color1="white" image_cta1="" image_cta_color1="white" image_text_position1="left" image_2="" image_link2="" image_overlay2="no-overlay" image_title2="" image_copy2="" image_text_color2="white" image_cta2="" image_cta_color2="white" image_text_position2="left" image_3="" image_link3="" image_overlay3="no-overlay" image_title3="" image_copy3="" image_text_color3="white" image_cta3="" image_cta_color3="white" image_text_position3="left" image_4="" image_link4="" image_overlay4="no-overlay" image_title4="" image_copy4="" image_text_color4="white" image_cta4="" image_cta_color4="white" image_text_position4="left" image_5="" image_link5="" image_overlay5="no-overlay" image_title5="" image_copy5="" image_text_color5="white" image_cta5="" image_cta_color5="white" image_text_position5="left" video_embed1="eroEPtCeEGc" video_title1="A Discussion with Dr. Tim Cooper" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} We have a special guest host this week, Dr. Tim Cooper. He is the Managing Direction of Coopers Brewery, Chief Brewer and a past president of the Institute of Brewing & Distilling. We talk about how Coopers got into Homebrewing, how malt extract is made and some different things the Brewery does for environmental sustainability. We hope you enjoy our conversation!
Read moreHow to Make Your Own Mr. Beer Recipe
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="6jyfoRplq8M" video_title1="How to Make Your Own Mr. Beer Recipe " video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} If you wanting to play mad scientist and create your own unique brew. We put together some helpful tips and advice to help you do that. We have an extremely wide variety of Recipes. Before creating your own recipe I would go check out what we have as we may already have what you are looking for. You can also look at the archived recipes to see all of our old recipes as well. You can find this in the footer of our website. These recipes could also help provide a good foundation for you to create your unique recipe. Style The first thing you will want to decide on is what beer style you will be making. Depending on what style you want to brew that will help you select your ingredients as you get started. You can choose from your base styles like Lager’s, IPA’s, Stout’s Etc. If you want to get real serious about your style then check out the BJCP guidelines. The BJCP guidelines, or Beer Judge Certification Program guidelines, are used by Beer Judges all over the US. The guidelines will inform you on what ingredients tend to go into your favorite beer, and what aromas, flavors, and appearance characteristics you will be aiming for. If you have a commercial beer in mind, look up that beer specifically. Sometimes the brewery will list hops and grains, and sometimes other homebrewers will post their own clone recipes. Base Malt Now onto selecting your base malt. I would go by two characteristics when picking your base malt. Color and IBU’s. Color more related to lighter beers. If you want to brew a light color lager, IPA or pale ale then you will want a light color base beer. However, if brewing an amber or stout you do not need to pick a dark base. You can always add ingredients to make it darker. You can always darken a beer but you can’t lighten it. Hops Selecting hops can be maybe the most fun part of building your own recipe. There are so many varieties of hops nowadays it can be overwhelming on what to pick. If you wanting to create an IPA or pale ale or something with some bitter bit then go for the bittering hops. It’s always good to add some hops for aroma as well so adding hops late in your boil at flameout or dry hopping is a great way to get more aroma than bitterness. Before you select your hops do a little research on what style you are wanting to brew, and you can usually find hop recommendations for that style. Then read the description of the hops to learn more about what flavors they provide to make sure it is right for your beer. Adjuncts Next, you will want to decide is what specialty malts or adjuncts you will want to add to your beer. These can be things like a booster, dextrose, DME or LME or 2-Row, crystal malt, and the list can go on and on. There are a lot of different adjuncts so make sure to pick something that will be beneficial for your beer. If you want to brew an IPA then maybe a light DME so you can boil your hops in that too for bitterness. If your brewing a big stout, then maybe some chocolate malt and roasted barley. If your not sure about what to pick you can chat with us and we can help you our or you can go to that magical machine Google and there is a ton of information out there about this stuff. Yeast The last part is the yeast. The style of yeast you pick can impact the flavor of your beer greatly. If your brewing a wheat beer you want to pick a wheat yeast, if you brewing a Saison then you want Saison yeast and so on. Some yeast styles are just for certain styles of beer while others can brew a few different styles and are more versatile. Make sure to do some research so you are selecting the right yeast. If you ever have any questions or are not sure just contact us and we would be glad to help you out.
Read moreIs Malt Extract "Twang" a Thing?
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="euCDgPkDoV4" video_title1="Is Malt Extract Twang a Real Thing " video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} This is something that we hear quite often being extract-based brewers. When you look around online and in other homebrew forums, they will talk about how brewing with malt extract can have this certain twang to it or off-flavor. However, there is no real proof this is a thing. If brewing with extract gave you a twang, then in every batch you brew would have this twang flavor, but that is not the case. If people keep telling you that malt extra beers have twang or they taste a certain twang in your beer, then the culprit is most likely something different or they just are basis against extract brewing. Which is totally fine. Everyone should brew the way they want to and enjoy the beers that want to. I am going to layout a few things that can lead to this perceived off-taste in your beer. The first one is using high-quality malt extract. You want to make sure that the malt extract you are using is of good quality. You always get what you pay for, so you want to make sure that you are using the best possible malt extract that is available. How the malt extract is prepared, where the grains are sourced from, all that is extremely important. That is why Coopers, our parent company who creates all our Malt Extracts is committed to quality. They control the entire process from the grains in the filed to the malt extract that you are using to brew with. They take special precautions and invest in the equipment needed to make the best quality malt extract. From there own malting house to the top of line low-temperature evaporator that they use to pull the moisture from the wort. This keeps the integrity of the extract as adding heat at this stage can degrade the quality which affects the taste that you get in your final beer. Next, you will want to make sure that you are using fresh ingredients. If you use expired or old malt extracts, it could impact the final taste you get in your beer. This would result in some off-flavors. You get the best beer from the freshest ingredients. Another culprit for this can be sanitization. If you are not being thorough in your cleaning and sanitizing, then you can get off-flavors. It is always important to make sure that you are sanitizing everything that will come in contact with your brew. This is the most important step in brewing. Another reason for this is the lack of temperature control. If you have big swings in your fermentation temperature from day to night each day then that will impact your beer. That can create some off-flavors in your beer. So, make sure to always hold the best consistent temperature that you can. Some have voiced their concern that water choice caused a twang-y finished beer. As in, the water they used was high in chlorine or high in alkaline, and this is noticeable in the beer. For this issue, we always suggest using natural spring water, or filtered water and avoiding tap water that has a noticeable flavor/aroma The last one is insufficient time for brewing. You want to make sure that you are following the directions that are provided with your recipe. You want to give the yeast the proper amount of time to eat all those sugars up. So, if you do get a batch and the first bottle you taste has an off taste or something is just not right then let the beer age. You will want to let the bottles sit out at room temperature for another few weeks. This bottle conditioning will help clean up your off-flavors and can dramatically improve the taste of your beer. Homebrewing, much like baking cookies at home instead of purchasing them at the store, means that your process must be tried, tested, and won't be perfectly executed every single time. Still, the claim that extract will hold you back from brewing a commercial-quality beer or always cause a twang is simply not true. Too many extract beers have won competitions and wowed beer fans for the extract to be cursed with a noticeably peculiar flavor. So check that expiration date, stay determined, and keep brewing.
Read moreBest Way to Keg Your Mr. Beer Homebrew
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="y1DyK9sHXPU" video_title1="Best Way to Keg Your Mr. Beer Homebrew" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} Sometimes bottling can be a tedious process so we wanted to talk about some of the best options out there to keg your homebrew.
Read moreBrewery Spotlight Dragoon Brewing Co.
In our brewery spotlight series for this week, we wanted to focus on one of our favorite local breweries, Dragoon Brewing Co. They make truly amazing beer and one of there founders Eric Greene, was once a Brewmaster for Mr. Beer and is the Head Brewer at Dragoon. Dragoon was started in 2011 and become one of the most successful Craft Breweries in Tucson. They are a great representation of what brewing is all about. They brew 4 base beers that you can get all year long and the rest of there brews are seasonal. Those 4 base beers are the Dragoon IPA, Stronghold Session, Santa Cruz’r and Refraction. These beers are staples around town and always tastes great. If anyone comes to Tucson from out of town, Dragoon is one of the breweries you must visit and try their beer. For our brewery spotlight, we had our amazing brewmasters, Ashley and Zach try Dragoon’s beers and provide some notes on how they taste and their review on the beer. Unfortunately, we were 1 beer short of getting the 4 staples that they offer year-round. Dragoon IPA Taste- This beer has dank, herbal bitterness upfront and all the way through. Earthy and piney, the flavor is in your face. The hop punch sticks around but fades into a tingle on your tongue. A great example of the West Coast IPA. Smell- herbal and dank with bright citrus, almost candy-like aroma Refraction Pale Ale Taste- Bright, lemony flavor with solid malt undertones. A piney punch comes in around midway and compliments the hint of stone fruit. Smell- mild tropical fruits, fresh bright citrus notes with a detectable cereal type note Santa Cruz’r Golden Ale Taste- Good hop bite, toasted-bread comes in and smooths the bitter. Finishes clean with a slight hop linger. Smell- Mild, sweet citrus aroma with a hint of stone fruit and a slight biscuit character.
Read moreBest Way to Add Fruit to Your Next Homebrew
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="qpWqdevu0ZE" video_title1="Best Way to Add Fruit to Your Next Brew" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} Spring is right around the corner, and one of the great things about spring is brewing up those awesome fruit beers. They can be super refreshing and transform your next brew into something amazing! When is the best time to add fruit to your beer? It kind of depends on what you are going for but I personally prefer to add fruit whenever possible to the later stages of fermentation, say day 7 of 14. This gives the most fruit flavor IMO. Fruit can be added to the boil as well, but this increases the chances of blow off and can sometimes yield a lower flavor potential. Will you get a different flavor from adding canned fruit vs fresh fruit to your beer? You will. Canned fruit is usually cooked and it can lose a bit of its flavor intensity compared to fresh frozen fruit. You may also notice a difference in the clarity with canned fruit, as canned fruit tends to contain more expressed pectin, which can contribute to chill haze. What are the best practices for adding canned fruit to your beer? If you are using canned fruit, make sure there aren’t a ton of additives. Fruit water, sugar and possibly natural stabilizers like citric acid, are all your canned fruit should ideally contain. Before adding the canned fruit directly to a fermenter, it’s not a bad idea to sanitize the top of the can and the opener. You can also blend canned fruit to provide a higher concentration of flavor, but you will also need to sanitize your blender prior to doing so. What are the best practices for adding fresh fruit to your beer? You really want to make sure whatever fruit you are adding is sanitary. That is so important. If you wish to add fresh fruit, it’s important to make sure you are stopping any possible bacteria growth with either freezing, cooking or with the addition of distilled alcohol. For example, citrus zests can be easily sanitized by soaking them in vodka. It’s also important to make sure that you are going to enjoy the flavor of the fruit you are adding once the sugar is fully fermented out. You also want to make sure that if you are adding fruit in the later stages that you are ensuring that your fruit has been fully fermented prior to bottling. Will adding fruit cause your fermenter to overflow? It can, this is more likely to happen if you add fruit during the boil or at the start of fermentation. Basically anytime you add fruit around the time of exponential growth (first 5 days or so) you could get a blow over. I find these overflows happen far less when you add fruit later, around day 7. Is there such as thing as adding too much fruit? There is. I usually say the range for fruit is about 1-2lbs per gallon. Too much fruit can cause clarity and bottling issues from time to time, but also you can run the risk of messing with the viscosity of your beer or running into cidery or wine-like flavors if too much fruit sugar is present. It’s also important that whatever you add, should ideally not sit exposed on top of the surface of the beer as it can mold. So just all things to keep in mind. Can you add fruit to your bottles? You can add refined fruit syrups but I do not advise adding actual fruit to your bottles.
Read more6 Homebrewing Mistakes to Avoid on Your Next Brew
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="7kFSIPkNNq8" video_title1="6 Homebrewing Mistakes to Avoid on Your Next Brew" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} It's easy to get excited and bust out the brews. So we wanted to go over 6 homebrewing mistakes to avoid for your next brew day. This is perfect for new brewers and a great refresher for seasoned brewers. 1. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Sanitation New brewers often end up battling with unruly yeast and rampant bacteria. The reason could be because the excitement and anticipation of the finished product are so high, that often thorough sanitation and cleanliness gets put on the backburner. So in order to avoid a disastrous end product, sanitize effectively. 2. Don’t Overcomplicate the Brewing Process There is a ton of brewing information out there. You can spend all day reading different articles or checking in on different blog posts and finding out all kinds of information. Our instructions and brewing processes are set up precisely for brewing with Mr. Beer. Make sure to always follow the directions on the website and your brew day will be awesome! 3. Try Not to Use Alternate Forms of Filtering the Beer Brewers might consider using coffee filters or cheese cloths to filter the beer. Unfortunately, those methods will only produce an aerated beer and cause spoilage. Always give the beer ample time to settle in the fermenter, and do not disturb the fermenter during the bottling process. The best way to clear your beer is to cold crash before bottling and try propping up the front of your fermenter so the trub settles to the back. 4. Never Open the Beer During Fermentation (unless instructed to) New brewers will usually want to check to make sure the fermentation process is working by opening the fermenter, and often too early. When the fermenter is opened before full fermentation, you will run the risk of rogue organisms that can, and will, sour the beer. Some of our instructions do call for dry hopping or late additions to your beer. Make sure that everything that you are using is clean and only leave the lid off the fermenter for the few seconds when you're adding your extra ingredients to your beer. 5. Do Not Rush the Process There is nothing worse than the frustration of waiting weeks to bottle your beer, only to find the taste is painfully awful. Your first thought to yourself might be "where did I go wrong?" Often, if you know you've followed every step instructed in the guidelines and the beer is still unpalatable, you more than likely did not let it ferment long enough. Always follow the suggested brewing time. Also, remember that off-flavors will clean up with conditioning. So if you try your beer and something does not taste right, let the remaining bottles sit out at room temperature for another week or two and then try one again. Repeat this process until you find the perfect taste. 6. Make Sure to Maintain the Proper Temperature When the directions ask you to fill your LBK with cold water, take heed. Filling with room temperature water will mean that your wort's temperatures stay high, and likely much too high for pitching your yeast. Be aware that the temperature range each refill and recipe has is for the wort temperature, and not the temperature of the room or space your fermenter is in. While the room may feel nice and cool, your wort could be staying hot, especially considering the heat created by fermentation. Be sure you've got it right with one of our stick-on thermometers. It is those above-range temperatures that can cause cidery off-flavors in your beer.
Read moreBrew Now & Enjoy for the First Day of Spring
So, I know it’s early, but brewing is all about preparation. You brew now to enjoy the fruits of your labor later. You might not be thinking of spring now, well, I take that back. After these last few months of winter, I think everyone is ready for warmer weather! We wanted to offer you a little brewing schedule of what you can brew now to enjoy for the first day of spring which is March 20th. It will be here before you know it! Time just flies by when your brewing and drinking beer. These recipes were carefully selected by Zach. He broke down when you need to order the recipe by when you need to brew it, when you need to bottle it and when it will be ready to drink. Due to different fermentation times, we broke it down into two buckets. The first bucket is for recipes that you need to purchase by January 31st and then you need to brew them on February 7th. Obviously, you can purchase and brew earlier, this is just the absolute last day you brew these to have them be ready for the first day of spring. You will notice a theme to these beers the majority of them are IPA’s and wheat beers. As we exit winter and the big stouts and porters something refreshing with a little bit of hop bite is just what you need to welcome you into spring. Let’s dive into the list! API IPA Centennial Explosion Hazy Double IPA (The Perfect Hop Bomb) Phil-Hop-Sophy IPA Surly Dog IPA Tangerously Hoppy IPA The Best Haze of Our Lives Hazy IPA Thunder Bay IPA Again, those are the recipes that you need to brew by February 7th. Now for the next batch of recipes, you will want to order by February 7th and then brew on February 14th for ultimate enjoyment on March 20th. These recipes are. 3 Zombies IPA Belgian Blanc Witbier Bindlestick Hoppy Wheat (A Must Brew Recipe) Dry River Rye IPA Horse’s Ass Ale Howling Irish Red Ale Rose’s Rambling Irish Red Santa Rita Pale Ale The Bee’s Knees Blonde Ale Whispering Wheat Hefeweizen Wild American Wheat Alright, that’s it! Make sure to plan your brewing ahead of time and think about what you might want to enjoy a few weeks from now. As always with all our recipes, make sure that you are following the directions and holding the proper fermentation temps. Cheers and Happy Brewing! Robert
Read moreTips for Increasing the ABV in your Homebrew
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="WlgK7zXqySQ" video_title1="Tips for Increasing the ABV in your Homebrew" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} Everyone always wants to know ways to kick the ABV in their beer and create something that will leave you stumbling or at least moving slow. There are several ways that you can do this, and we will review what they are. Most of them are common items that you can find around your house or in the grocery store. There are a few things that we should point out before we get started. We always recommend brewing our refills or recipes as is, especially if you are a new brewer! You want to make sure to follow the directions and get the processes down. If you don’t have the brewing process down, then when you start wanting to experiment you might overlook some steps or make a mistake or two and get a bad brew. No one wants that. It is also important to note that you should always chase flavor not ABV. Adding different adjuncts and fermentable’s will change the flavor of the beer you are brewing. So, if you decide to dump a bag of sugar into your beer, most likely it won’t turn out that well. Okay, enough of all that lets dive into what you can use to increase the ABV in your beer. The first one is obvious and tends to be what we recommend. Malt Extract Adding more malt extract either hopped, liquid or dry will increase the ABV of your beer and improve the flavor as well. This is the best option to add more ABV to your beer. We offer deluxe refills on the website which pairs a standard refill with two LME’s to help boost up the flavor and ABV. We also offer LME, DME and HME’s as single items that you can buy to add to anything you are brewing or to create your own recipe. The next few items that you can add are ones that can be found in your house. We would recommend adding 1 cup or 2 cups max of these to your beer. Depending on what you are using it will add about 1%-1.5% ABV per cup to the final ABV. First, we will start will Sugar. You can add table sugar, corn sugar, or brown sugar. You want to be careful with the amount of sugar you're adding as we mentioned earlier that can create some odd flavors. When adding these you would add them to your 4 cups of water that you are bringing to a boil and mix it up until the sugar is dissolved. Also, it is a good idea to pair the type of sugar you are using to the type of beer your brewing. Brown sugar would go great with a stout or an amber beer, where corn sugar would be good for a light ale or lager. One thing to note about sugar you cannot use sugar substitutes, they will not ferment. So things like Stevia or Splenda won't work. Okay now let’s get into syrups and other liquids. You can add things like Honey, Maple Syrup, Agave Nectar, and Corn Syrup. Again, these will add about 1%-1.5% ABV per cup to your beer. When adding these you would add them to your 4 cups of water that you are bringing to a boil and mix it up until the sugar is dissolved. Also, it is a good idea to pair the type of sugar you are using to the type of beer your brewing. If you ever have any questions or are unsure what to add just shoot as email and we can get back to you and give you some advice on what we would recommend and what would go with what you're brewing.
Read moreHow to Use a Hydrometer
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="bcv-7KXaFW0" video_title1="How to Use A Hydrometer " video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} This is a question we get quite often. The hydrometer can be a tricky tool to use especially if you do not understand how to use it or how it works. The instructions that come with it are not super great so we thought it would be helpful to break it down for you. A little about your hydrometer. The hydrometer is a simple instrument that measures the weight (or gravity) of a liquid in relation to the weight of water. Because the relation of gravity to water is specified (1.000), the resulting measure is called specific gravity. A hydrometer will float higher in a heavy liquid, such as one with a quantity of sugar dissolved in it, and lower in a light liquid, such as water or alcohol. The average homebrewer has a very keen interest in the amount of sugar dissolved in their wort because yeast converts sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol. By knowing how much sugar one started with and ended with, one can easily calculate the resulting alcohol content. There are many variants of the hydrometer. Some have only one scale, some two, and some three. The typical hydrometer measures three things: specific gravity (S.G.), potential alcohol (P.A.), and sugar. How To Use Your Hydrometer is pretty simple. Sanitize the hydrometer, test jar, and any tools that may come into contact with your wort/beer. Draw a sample from your fermenter into the test tube making sure there is no trub or anything in there as that will affect the reading. You want it to be a clean sample. You will want the sample tube to be about 80% full. Place the tube on a flat surface. Gently lower the hydrometer into the test jar; spin the hydrometer as you release it, so no bubbles stick to the bottom of the hydrometer (this can also affect readings). Making sure the hydrometer isn't touching the sides of the test jar and is floating freely, take a reading across the bottom of the meniscus (see image below). Meniscus is a fancy word for the curved surface of the liquid. Make sure to record your reading. Then you can either drink your sample or toss it. That's it! Pretty simple, huh? There are a couple of other things you need to know to get an accurate measurement. Most hydrometers are calibrated to give correct readings at 59-60 degrees Fahrenheit. Higher temperatures thin the liquid slightly and result in lower readings than you'd get at the correct temperature. At 70 degrees F., the reading will be 0.001 low. To correct it, add 0.001 to the reading. At 77 degrees F., add 0.002. At 84 degrees F., add 0.003. At 95 degrees F., add 0.005. At temperatures above 95 degrees F., you risk killing your yeast and losing your beer. If you can't remember all that just print out the chart below. If your readings are off by a point or a few points it's okay. There a few factors that can lead to that. Temperature like we just discussed, the amount of malt extract you got out of the can and also how well the malt is mixed with the water. To get more malt out of the can you can always add hot water into and scrape the sides to get all that out. Then make sure you are mixing everything up very well before you take your sample and pitch your yeast. Always take your sample before you pitch your yeast. Also, try not to worry about it, regardless you are going to make some awesome beer, so if you are off by a few points it’s not going to make that big of a difference in your beer and the final flavor of your beer. If you have any questions just contact us and we can help you out! Cheers!
Read moreHow to Properly Take a Sample from your LBK
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="_2ofA208sKM" video_title1="How to Properly Take a Sample from your LBK" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} The taste test lets you know when your brew is done fermenting. We discuss the proper way to take your sample and make sure you keep your batch free from infections. So after the holidays we always get a lot of new brewers and some of the questions we get quite often is about tasting your beer to see if it is done and ready to bottle. So we wanted to give some tips and best practices for how to do this. In our instructions, we talk about the taste test. Take a sample from your fermenter and if it tastes like flat beer then your good to bottle. There are probably a few things we should note about how to take that sample and then how to sanitize after. So make sure you are using a small clean cup or even a shot glass. You will want to pull a small amount out of the spigot at first. Then you will want to discard that amount as it will contain a large about of trub which will not taste well. Then pour a little more into your glass to taste. Remember you will want this to taste like beer just flat. If you have a flat beer then you are good to bottle. If your beer tastes a little sweet then let it go for longer. Always go by the instructions that are on the website that corresponds with your brew. Refills test at 10 days if sweet then let it go to 14 days. Recipes are either tested at 14 or 21 days then if sweet you let them go another 3 days. The part we don’t talk about a lot is if your beer is not ready what you should do now. You must sanitize your spigot. If you do your taste test and your beer is not ready to bottle you should sanitize your spigot. There are a few different ways you can do this. If you have some extra No-Rinse cleanser or Start San you can use that. You can mix some up and either use a spray bottle to spray it into the opening of the spigot or mix it in a cup and kind up-dip it up into the spigot. You can also use a cue tip and dip it into the solution and then run that few the inside of the spigot a few times. If you don’t have either of those things you can use Vodka or peroxide using the same method. An upside if you use vodka you can take a shot afterward! Besides the taste test, you can also use a Hydrometer. When checking for end of fermentation if you get the same reading 24hrs apart then your beer is done, and you are good to bottle. Again, you will want to sanitize your spigot afterward. You can also use things like a refractor meter and a tilt. We will have to do a sperate episode on detecting end of fermentation in your beer and how to use the tools. A pro tip I got from Ashley was that she recommends putting something under the front of your fermenter to prop it up a little bit. This will help all the trub settle to the back to prevent it from collecting around your spigot.
Read moreEssential Tips for New Brewers
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="4vUeDPGtA8A" video_title1="Essential Tips for New Brewers" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} If your a beginner brewer or have been brewing for years, these tips are always important and will help with your brewing success!
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