Importance of measuring accurately

[ShootsNRoots]

How important is it to measure accurately when brewing?

Can one be a couple oz off either way on grains and not notice a difference?

What about water, yeast, hops and water salts?

 

[hercher]

As with most questions, the answer is "depends." With grains, it depends on which grains. If you are adding a small amount of dark roasted malt for color, an ounce or two either way can make a big difference. An ounce or two of your base malt, not so much.

For yeast, you don't want to come up short. That will leave you, potentially, with under-attenuated beer and undesirable off-flavors. Better to err on the side of more rather than less.

With salts and minerals, if you are going to mess with them at all, I'd suggest that precision is the key. (My personal opinion is that the addition of these is rather over-rated.)

Speaking more philosophically, I think the answer really depends on you. Are you looking for consistency, or do you enter beers into competitions? If so, you really want to be precise in your measurements so that you can replicate prior successes, or make sure your beer really fits the right category. If, like me, you are brewing for a market of one, and consistently make really good beer, you can be a bit more lax.

However, most of us have, or should have, a goal of becoming a better brewer. Being careful with your measurements then becomes somewhat more important, because you want to be able to replicate your prior successes, and avoid prior pitfalls.

When I design a beer, I have a particular goal in mind -- usually a flavor profile, though sometimes I'm merely experimenting with a new ingredient, or want to hit a precise color. By measuring carefully, I'm more likely to hit the mark at which I am aiming, or am better able to taste the impact a new ingredient made. If you just throw stuff in willy-nilly (not that you are doing that), you run the risk of making beers that are wildly inconsistent in their quality. One beer will be good, the next one not.

That said, you do not need to measure most of your ingredients down to the milligram.

 

[wiggybrewer]

I'll probably get flamed here, but I just wing my water amounts. My grain and hop wieghts are always accurate. somehow my preboil and my amount after boil is spot on. Hmmm?


.

 

[gwapogorilla]

I am pretty new to the hobby too. I was spot on with everything for the first 3 batches....now I am getting more lax. It's a hobby man, enjoy yourself! The one thing I insist on is sanitize...the rest is gravy.

 

[duboman]

Replication and consistency is dependent upon accuracy, if that's not a big deal then neither is your accuracy from one batch to the next.

Water treatments OTOH need to be precise as very small amounts can be detrimental to a beer. To contradict the previous post, if you are brewing a specific style and your water is not conducive to that style then modifying your water can be huge in the improvement of the beer.

I have improved all of my beer since modifying my water proven by side by side tastings.

 

[pjj2ba]

As hercher said, it depends. Some times you need to be very careful and other times not. The trick is to decide which times. This is a bit of an art, and you will figure it out over time.

As already mentioned, this can vary depending on the ingredient. Base malts, probably not a big deal. Specialty malts, could be important. High alpha hops for bittering - important, low alpha hops, not as much. Lots of wiggle room in flavor and aroma additions. Then there is yeast amounts, salts, temperatures, etc.

I've worked in labs for many years and have seen quite a range in work styles in co-workers I've known (corresponding to brewing styles). I'm obviously in the camp of some times very careful, other times, not so much, depending on what I'm doing. I don't believe in making extra work for myself. If I have to do it for the results I want, I will do it (labwork can be VERY tedious at times). I've known folks who were very careful with everything. They'll take twice as long, and not get any better results (it is one thing if you are making something for yourself, as opposed to trying to get results within a certain time frame). There was one person (now gone yay!) who had it @$$backwards. Where he should have been careful he was sloppy (and impatient) and when he didn't need to be careful, he was super anal about it - oh, and convinced he was the best scientist ever, and his way was the only and best way (and NEVER made any mistakes)

 

[fixitoscar]

do you just want to make beer? or do you want to make a certain beer that tastes a certain way? consistency and a fair amount of precision will teach you how to make a certain beer. But there is a lot of fun in just winging it and seeing what you come up with.

 

[silentmike]

in my opinion on a home brew level, accuracy in terms of ounces probably doesnt matter....its when you want to produce the same exact beer is when accuracy matters. Its all in quantities too as hercher said...if you throw in 8 ounces of chocolate malt, and eyeball it to 5 ounces, that probably matters....but a 20 lb pale row, 21 lbs, 19 lbs, is 5% error which is probably fine...but for replication youd probably want much less error.

 

[mabrungard]

do you just want to make beer? or do you want to make a certain beer that tastes a certain way? consistency and a fair amount of precision will teach you how to make a certain beer. But there is a lot of fun in just winging it and seeing what you come up with.

Unfortunately, not really true. While its fun to wing it and not worry about it, if you did ever find that perfect combination, you wouldn't be able to duplicate it. My wife is that sort of cook and sometimes its great...sometimes not so much. But don't even think of asking her to make that dish again. Brewing is the same.

There are many things in brewing that should be measured quite precisely. This especially applies to those ingredients that are only added in small quantities in the first place. As mentioned above, base grain is a huge component in brewing, as is water. But things like mineral additions, hops, and accessory grains can produce large variation in the beer quality or character. Its great when it works out right, but can just as easily bite you in the a**.

As you batch size gets larger, the sensitivity of measurement does decrease. In a 5 gallon batch, you may want to measure down to the nearest gram. But in a 500 gallon batch, the nearest ounce or pound might be close enough.

I suggest that if you have the ability to measure, do it to the best of your capabilities and equipment...and record what you are doing so you can figure out what to do (or not do) the next time.

 

[GrogNerd]

as accurate as possible, as accurate as necessary for consistency or as accurate as you prefer

making beer has a wide margin of error/accuracy

making good beer has a narrow margin

making consistently good beer is even more narrow

 

[kh54s10]

I agree with a previous post. It depends on the ingredient being measured.
Add a pound of Peat Smoked Malt instead of an ounce and see what you get. If a water addition calls for a 1/4 teaspoon and you add a teaspoon it could possibly become dangerous to consume, depending on the chemical. Or throw in 4 ounces of a 14% AA hop for 60 minutes into something intended to be sweet and see what happens.

My suggestion: Learn what the effects of the proportions of each ingredient are and learn what would happen if you deviate.

 

[GrogNerd]

Add a pound of Peat Smoked Malt instead of an ounce and see what you get

this is outside of any margin of error. gotta be more accurate than this. +1500% is out of control

16½ oz instead of 16¾ oz (or vice versa) is not gonna ruin your beer. ±1.4% is OK