Advanced brewing mistakes - not so obvious

[timsch]

I've been brewing for about 15 years now, and while many have mastered to a higher level the craft than I have in shorter time, still I struggle to keep from making mistakes. Some I should be aware of, but others maybe not so much. The fault lies mainly with myself, being a "Jack of all, Master of none" type, and not helping the situation by poor record keeping.

I kegged a Pilsener today and came up short on the FG, only to be reminded that a diacetyl rest is recommended for these types of beers. Hand to forehead, but then I've only lagered once before, IIRC, so can't kick myself too hard. The frustrating part is that I consulted two well respected books before brewing the Pils and neither mentioned this rest, so I wasn't completely slacking when approaching a new style for me.

Looking briefly for "brewing mistakes" on this forum and on the web, I find many of the beginner brewing mistakes listed. I can say I don't have to worry about those since I'm at least that good, but a list of mistakes of one bordering on advanced brewing would be nice.

Any recommendations where I might find one, or more? I'd like to nip some of these issues in the bud.

Edit: I'm not saying that missing the diacetyl rest was the reason for the high FG, just that it came up in discussion.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Maybe we could list some here, last weekend I was brewing an ayinger celebrator clonish kinda beer, in which I used munich as the base grain, only to remember after the fact that munich has low diastatic power and I should have used Vienna as the base and Munich as a smaller percentage, therefore my OG was low, I boiled and extra hour to help offset that so it helped but still lower then I was shooting for.

 

[Jim R]

The fault lies mainly with myself, being a "Jack of all, Master of none" type, and not helping the situation by poor record keeping.

For me record keeping is the key. I have a computerized check list that I force myself to update with each new beer before every brew day. I then systematically go through it during each step of the process. Almost all of my mistakes are from relying on my memory and then forgetting a step usually from rushing to save time.

On the other hand, the most interesting part of brewing is the continual learning process. It would lose its appeal if there was no further challenges.

 

[seatazzz]

For me it's sitting down to enjoy a pint after a successful brewday, only to see the shot glass with yeast nutrient/whirlfloc tab sitting next to the brewstand. Done that a few times now, despite having it in my notes that I measured it out.

 

[timsch]

I also have computerized checklists. I use them for a while and then get complacent. Still, that's not necessarily enough when you venture outside your normal brewday. It'd be nice to have a pool of checklists for various styles that could be tapped into for when stepping outside your comfort zone.

 

[Sam_92]

For advanced mistakes and pitfalls you can check out the "Don't do that" and "Mishaps you're embarrassed to admit but can because we're all friends here" threads. Also the Basic Brewing disaster shows are full of beginner and more advanced mistakes to avoid.

 

[timsch]

Much appreciated. That Mishaps thread has my eyes watering.

 

[Stormcrow]

I

For advanced mistakes and pitfalls you can check out the "Don't do that" and "Mishaps you're embarrassed to admit but can because we're all friends here" threads. Also the Basic Brewing disaster shows are full of beginner and more advanced mistakes to avoid.

I had a story make the cut for the "brewing disaster" show this year. My wife's arm got burned badly when the hose clamp failed on our immersion chiller. She's fine now, but a pretty bad scar did develop after I sent in the story.

 

[jerrylotto]

For me it's sitting down to enjoy a pint after a successful brewday, only to see the shot glass with yeast nutrient/whirlfloc tab sitting next to the brewstand. Done that a few times now, despite having it in my notes that I measured it out.

One good way to solve that problem is to combine it with your last kettle hop addition if the timing is right. I often have one at -15 min to boil which is what I would add the whirlfloc anyhoo.

 

[Bramling Cross]

One good way to solve that problem is to combine it with your last kettle hop addition if the timing is right. I often have one at -15 min to boil which is what I would add the whirlfloc anyhoo.

Along similar lines, I purchased a set of a dozen lab beakers. On brew day I measure out my hops charges, fininings, and trifecta charges in the beakers and then line them up and work left to right until I'm done. Here's a picture that shows the process. I've added a sheet of paper explaining what's in the beakers. I don't normally do that, though.

As for my most common mistake... I just love remembering that I need to fire up my HLT as I'm preparing to sparge.

 

[jerrylotto]

Along similar lines, I purchased a set of a dozen lab beakers. On brew day I measure out my hops charges, fininings, and trifecta charges in the beakers and then line them up and work left to right until I'm done. Here's a picture that shows the process. I've added a sheet of paper explaining what's in the beakers. I don't normally do that, though.

As for my most common mistake... I just love remembering that I need to fire up my HLT as I'm preparing to sparge.

I measure mine into covered Tupperware containers and store them in the freezer with masking tape labels. I stack them in reverse order so the top one is always the next one to be added. Finally, I set up an countdown alarm schedule on my phone so I can do something else while waiting for each next step.

 

[TyYoda]

Using brewing sotware (Beersmith 3 for me) and printing out the brew day sheets and then following them is what helps keep me on track with process. The sheets also help me to remember to take all the quality control measurements along the way.

 

[timsch]

One pretty major mistake I made on this last batch as well was noticed when I was cleaning my fermentation chamber. I run a blowoff tube into a quart container of water, and found the container completely dry. I've not had that happen before. I've also never lagered and dropped fermentation temp by 10+ degrees.

One of 2 things happened:

1. Colder/dryer temps evaporated the water
2. temperature drop created a vacuum to suck water into the fermenter (1/4 sanke keg converted)

I sure hope it wasn't the 2nd. The ID on my hose is ~1/2" and the length is 4-5 feet.

 

[BarryBrews]

One pretty major mistake I made on this last batch as well was noticed when I was cleaning my fermentation chamber. I run a blowoff tube into a quart container of water, and found the container completely dry. I've not had that happen before. I've also never lagered and dropped fermentation temp by 10+ degrees.

One of 2 things happened:

1. Colder/dryer temps evaporated the water
2. temperature drop created a vacuum to suck water into the fermenter (1/4 sanke keg converted)

I sure hope it wasn't the 2nd. The ID on my hose is ~1/2" and the length is 4-5 feet.

I think I know what happened. And it is a number 2! Seal and pressurize your keg fermenter before cooling.

I've used numerous fermentation chambers over the years without a problem and then five years ago purchased a Chronical Brewmaster 1/2 barrel fermenter, very nice equipment btw. The problem I encountered was every time the cooling kicked on the headspace air cooled too, causing the fermenter to suck air back through the air lock adding oxygen to my fermenting beer. I know there are many fixes including fermenting at the designed volume, but none suited my circumstances. This was my first experience with breathing fermenters.

So, three years ago I when back to a fermentation chamber using two 7 gallon SS Brewtech Brew Buckets and got it in my head to attach and insulate the Inkbird temperature probe directly to the side of the fermenter. Big mistake. I made two undrinkable beers before seeing the exact same problem occurring with the fermenter breathing in and out every time the heating or cooling came on!

Today I control the "air" temperature inside the fermentation chamber to within one degree, like I used to, with great success. BTW, I also use a blowoff tube in a bucket of StarSan. And larger ID blowoff tubing would require a higher vacuum to left the sanitizing solution up into the fermenter.

 

[beren]

So, three years ago I when back to a fermentation chamber using two 7 gallon SS Brewtech Brew Buckets and got it in my head to attach and insulate the Inkbird temperature probe directly to the side of the fermenter. Big mistake. I made two undrinkable beers before seeing the exact same problem occurring with the fermenter breathing in and out every time the heating or cooling came on!

Today I control the "air" temperature inside the fermentation chamber to within one degree, like I used to, with great success. BTW, I also use a blowoff tube in a bucket of StarSan. And larger ID blowoff tubing would require a higher vacuum to left the sanitizing solution up into the fermenter.

what’s wrong with monitoring the carboy temp? My first beer had no temp control. Belgian white. Basement was 67°, thought that would be fine. Took a temp 2 days later and the internal was 74. 7° over ambient. I now use a probe insulated against the fermenter. And just got Brewmaster #6.5 Stopper Thermowell | MoreBeer for even more accurate readings. Btw the carboy was 1.3° cooler as read by the inkbird than the internal temp with my thermoworks probe.

 

[Deadalus]

If you use RO water and put your water additions in the BK ahead of time prior to sparging, make sure to stir the bottom well. I ended up with a black sludge pile at the bottom of my keggle a few brews back. I get a vigorous boil from my electric heating element and use a hop spider. I'm often focused on stirring the hops as the main part of the kettles is pretty active. Drained the wort into the carboy and I was like "What is that at the bottom?!"

 

[Brooothru]

One good way to solve that problem is to combine it with your last kettle hop addition if the timing is right. I often have one at -15 min to boil which is what I would add the whirlfloc anyhoo.

As I 'mature' in age (7+ decades, and counting) I find that lists are my new best friend. On brew day I have a :15 minute countdown list jotted in the margin of my brew sheet. Since the time just before flame out usually gets compressed, it keeps me from stupid omissions. Usually, forgetfulness at other points in the brewing process can be more easily corrected or compensated for.

Checklists saved my bacon more than once in aviation. Now they help avoid 'embarrassing' moments of decidedly lesser consequence.

 

[BarryBrews]

what’s wrong with monitoring the carboy temp? My first beer had no temp control.

It's not a problem if you aren't trying to control the temperature with active cooling or heating.

 

[MaxStout]

One recent screwup for me: Using a hop spider with a mesh bag and not considering the fact that 8 oz of pellet hops would fill that bag. A couple ounces of bittering hops and a whole bunch of flavor/aroma hops quickly add up when they get waterlogged. Since I didn't want free-range hops in the wort, I scooped half the wet hops from the spider's bag into a second bag, tied off the end and suspended it in the wort.

Beer turned out fine.

+1 on all the above posters lining up their ingredients ahead of time. I have a bunch of plastic snap-lid containers for water salts, yeast nutrient, hops, etc.

And having a printed checklist. I recently got around to making a template in Word for brew day. Print one out, and I have a checklist with lines to write in temps, volumes, etc.

 

[Homebrew Harry]

....And larger ID blowoff tubing would require a higher vacuum to lift the sanitizing solution up into the fermenter.

^^This is so true

 

[Nate R]

And just got Brewmaster #6.5 Stopper Thermowell | MoreBeer

Oh, i sure hope you picked it up on their 'deal of the day' special a few days ago!

 

[BarryBrews]

And having a printed checklist. I recently got around to making a template in Word for brew day. Print one out, and I have a checklist with lines to write in temps, volumes, etc.

I use BeerSmith to document literally everything. The note fields have a whole history of equipment upgrades, recipes and brewing results. I use two templates, one for brew day, and the other is a summary which I printout for quick reference at the kegerator.

I guess the file types used by BS are not allowed on HBT? So I zipped the .rtf and .html files I use.

 

[doug293cz]

One pretty major mistake I made on this last batch as well was noticed when I was cleaning my fermentation chamber. I run a blowoff tube into a quart container of water, and found the container completely dry. I've not had that happen before. I've also never lagered and dropped fermentation temp by 10+ degrees.

One of 2 things happened:

1. Colder/dryer temps evaporated the water
2. temperature drop created a vacuum to suck water into the fermenter (1/4 sanke keg converted)

I sure hope it wasn't the 2nd. The ID on my hose is ~1/2" and the length is 4-5 feet.

The gas in the headspace drops in pressure when cooled (PV=nRT) since the volume of the fermenter headspace remains constant. If there is an airlock or blow-off arrangement, gas gets sucked (actually pushed by the higher pressure outside) into the headspace. This can also cause liquid suck-back if there is liquid blocking gas from backfilling the headspace, as you have with a simple blow-off tube and jar arrangement. Also, as the beer cools, it reabsorbs CO2 from the headspace, dropping the pressure even more, leading to more suck-back. Thus #2 is the culprit. You can prevent liquid and air suck-back by using an arrangement like below:

In use, you start with the right jar almost filled with liquid. The jars need to be big enough to supply all of the volume needed to keep the headspace at atmospheric pressure. There is an analysis here.

Brew on

 

[timsch]

Damn...number 2 - that's shi**y.

 

[rallenhall]

Like Brooothru, at 7+ decades one would think that wisdom wins. Nope, double-batched a temperature step mash in the keggle last week & obviously ran the recirculating pump too hard. Thought I had a stuck sparge but instead had pancaked the false bottom which now has all of dips and swirls of a debutante's hat at the Derby. I'd read all of cautions about this but, of course, "it can't happen here."

 

[jdauria]

One of the mistakes I have made multiple times, which lead me to create a checklist so that I stop doing it, is on the packaging side. I do closed transfers to my kegs and since my CO2 is inside my stand up freezer converted to kegerator, I bump up the temp on temp controller so that the unit does not run while the door is open during transfers. You probably see where this is going...come a day or two later when I go down to get a nice cold beer, instead I have a 60 degree beer because I never reset the temp controller after the closed transfer.

One other packaging side mistake that only happened once, was also closed transfer related. So my closed transfer equipment is stainless steel racking can, carboy cap, and tubing that connects to a liquid QD. You put the cane through carboy cab, connect gas line to carboy cap and then basically hook the beer line up to the keg. Well one time, I turned the gas on to start pushing beer to the keg...but I had not put the QD onto the end of the line! So instead, I had beer shooting out across my basement! It took my mind like 10 seconds to catch up with what I was seeing and shut the gas and pull the racking cane up and out of the beer.

I blame these dumb brain farts on being hit by a car 3 years ago and fracturing my skull and having a brain bleed....hey it gives me an excuse when the wife is yelling at me!

 

[Miraculix]

For me it's sitting down to enjoy a pint after a successful brewday, only to see the shot glass with yeast nutrient/whirlfloc tab sitting next to the brewstand. Done that a few times now, despite having it in my notes that I measured it out.

Sounds familiar .

 

[marc1]

I think I know what happened. And it is a number 2! Seal and pressurize your keg fermenter before cooling.

I've used numerous fermentation chambers over the years without a problem and then five years ago purchased a Chronical Brewmaster 1/2 barrel fermenter, very nice equipment btw. The problem I encountered was every time the cooling kicked on the headspace air cooled too, causing the fermenter to suck air back through the air lock adding oxygen to my fermenting beer. I know there are many fixes including fermenting at the designed volume, but none suited my circumstances. This was my first experience with breathing fermenters.

So, three years ago I when back to a fermentation chamber using two 7 gallon SS Brewtech Brew Buckets and got it in my head to attach and insulate the Inkbird temperature probe directly to the side of the fermenter. Big mistake. I made two undrinkable beers before seeing the exact same problem occurring with the fermenter breathing in and out every time the heating or cooling came on!

Today I control the "air" temperature inside the fermentation chamber to within one degree, like I used to, with great success. BTW, I also use a blowoff tube in a bucket of StarSan. And larger ID blowoff tubing would require a higher vacuum to left the sanitizing solution up into the fermenter.

I'm glad you figured out something that worked for you!

I control the fermenting beer temperature with the probe attached and insulated to the side of the fermenter, and active heating and cooling works great. I don't use an airlock, though.

What I did notice, though, was that even with some headspace, antifoam, and a little pressure, there could be a little liquid that makes it up into the gas post of the fermenter and into QD that I used to jump the fermentation CO2 to my serving kegs, so that needs to be cleaned so I don't accidentally get stuff growing in there. I went quite a few batches without doing that and I'm lucky it didn't get infected with something that decided to colonize the QD.

 

[rock_n_herm]

Using Brewer’s Friend, I print out the full list of steps corresponding with my recipe. On that list, I note times, temperatures and make notes. Along with that checklist, I also have a notebook in which I record much of the same information, but I make more detailed notes. As others do, I put salts and hops and finings in lidded plastic containers, labeling them with their addition times, and stacking them in the correct order. Finally, I track efficiencies, attenuation and packaging as a Brew Log on Brewer’s Friend.
Later this morning, I’ll be putting all of this record keeping to work as I brew an American wheat beer.