October 1998 Volume 21, Issue 10

The Brewers Notebook

Terse Tidbits to Tame the Tough Travails of the True Brewer

The Golden Rule of Extracts: NEVER follow the directions.

Corollary from the Can: If you're going to make beer, you need to boil it, the more of it, the better.

What goes up, must come down: If you cool it down, you can pitch the yeast, if you leave it wam, you pitched bacteria.

The three most important aspects of brewing a clean beer: Sanitation, Sanitation, and Sanitation.

Cleanliness is for cheapskates: Use ordinary unscented bleach (preferably Clorox), diluted in water (about 1 tsp per allon) for 30 minutes, as a sterilizing agent.

Pecking Order of Funk: Use unhopped extract and add your own hops, for the best control over the result.

Mostly Water: If you can drink it, you can brew with it.

Get Fresh: A beer is only as good as the ingredients, use the freshest you can find. Old hops, extracts, yeast, etc. are no bargain.

Bottle the Numbers: 5 gallons is 53 twelve ounce bottles

Warm Temperatures: Are good for brewing tropical fruits like bannanas.

Facts of Life: Yeast need oxygen to reporduce, aerate the wort when its cooled.

Yeast is a living organism. Its OK to talk to your yeast - as long as it doesn't talk back.

Steely Fact: Homebrewers use glass fermenters because they can;t afford Stainless steel; Watch for scratches in plastic fermenters, a great source of infection.

Bottle Back: Collecting bottles is a lot more fun than cleaning them.

Those nasty labels: Will come right off if soaked in a TSP solution overnight.

Prime Time: Use 3/4 cup or less of corn sugar to carbonate your beer at bottling time.

Brewing Cardboad: Never expose beer to air after it starts fermenting.

Straight from the Husk: Beer is made from malted barley, cerial grains are best at breakfast served with milk.

Spare the water, spoil the yeast: Rehydrate Dry Yeast in 8 ounces of 100 F water for 10 minutes prior to pitching in wort.

The Best Beer is the one YOU brew.