Did I just luck out with this beer?!

[jord4231]

Hi all this is my first post.
I recently built a 5 tap keezer.

Any way I recently thought after not brewing beer for around 5 years to give it a shot.

I have NEVER sterilized my fermenter but washed it out well never sterilized my paint mixer i use to stir it all together with never had a wash fail EVER not even left in the cold shed.

This brings me to the beer brought a coopers draft kit and plain old boring sugar put it all togeather as the kit said and forgot about it for 3 weeks
I should mention i did clean this fermenter with a week bleach solution first then rinsed it then I accidentally dropped the air lock in the beer and had to fish it out with my hand! so already probably not such a good start.
Any way 3 weeks later I keged it it was very clear and a little carbonated put it in my keezer cooled it for 3 days with a little pressure on it at first to seal it up and get the air out. then 3 days later took it out shook it at 30 psi and set it to 12psi for serving waited 30 mins pulled the first taste and its the best beer I've ever made Did I just luck out with this because I was talking to a guy today who said the temps are very important and that I should use a old fridge temp controller and a heat belt among other things.

SO I guess my question is if i like the beer and do it the same next time will it be ok or did I just seriously luck out ?

 

[Matt456]

I always use bleach to sanitize my equipment, that is how I started and it hasn't let me down yet. I don't have a means to strickly control my temperature during fermentation. I live in a cooler climate so the furnace kicks in 8 months of the year so my beer and wine fluctuate a bit but generally stay around room temperature. Typically you sanitize your equipment, your using a strong yeast strand in a sugary environment they'll do their thing.

If you look historically brewers didn't always have the best equipment or facilities compared to modern standards but they were still making wine, beer and spirits. All depends on how picky you want to be, if you and your company are happy with the end results keep doing what you are doing. There are probably a 101 different ways to up grade and change what your doing, then again I'm a fan of the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality.

 

[jord4231]

I always use bleach to sanitize my equipment, that is how I started and it hasn't let me down yet. I don't have a means to strickly control my temperature during fermentation. I live in a cooler climate so the furnace kicks in 8 months of the year so my beer and wine fluctuate a bit but generally stay around room temperature. Typically you sanitize your equipment, your using a strong yeast strand in a sugary environment they'll do their thing.

If you look historically brewers didn't always have the best equipment or facilities compared to modern standards but they were still making wine, beer and spirits. All depends on how picky you want to be, if you and your company are happy with the end results keep doing what you are doing. There are probably a 101 different ways to up grade and change what your doing, then again I'm a fan of the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality.

Thanks for the reply I like your logic I agree!

 

[Matt456]

Glad to hear it was useful.

 

[aiptasia]

To the original poster, please do us a favor and edit out any references to non-brewing alcohol production. This is technically illegal and is frowned upon by the ATF, and not within the scope of this forum.

 

[jord4231]

My apologies sorry

 

[motleybrew]

I always use bleach to sanitize my equipment, that is how I started and it hasn't let me down yet. I don't have a means to strickly control my temperature during fermentation. I live in a cooler climate so the furnace kicks in 8 months of the year so my beer and wine fluctuate a bit but generally stay around room temperature. Typically you sanitize your equipment, your using a strong yeast strand in a sugary environment they'll do their thing.

If you look historically brewers didn't always have the best equipment or facilities compared to modern standards but they were still making wine, beer and spirits. All depends on how picky you want to be, if you and your company are happy with the end results keep doing what you are doing. There are probably a 101 different ways to up grade and change what your doing, then again I'm a fan of the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality.

Second on everything said here. I just use diluted bleach in a spray bottle. Also, I have the same situation with fermentation temps. Kinda annoying, but still makes drinkable beer.

 

[jro238]

I also started out using bleach to sanitize my equipment but quickly moved to starsan and have never looked back. Both will sanitize just fine, but not having to rinse is so much more convenient.

I would definitely make sure to sanitize everything that touches the wort after the boil--you have probably gotten a little lucky so far in terms of not picking up contaminating yeast/bacteria.

As for the rest, you will probably be able to make better (or at least more consistent) beer if you start concerning yourself with fermentation temps, but if you're happy with your beer now and don't want to worry about it then I say happy brewing