joël's brewing tips
- Allow adequate time for yeast to activate prior to brewing if using liquid cultures.
- Don't forget that you left the water running in the ice-filled tub where you were attempting to tub-chill your wort.
- Rack primary fermenter into a vessel whose volume is close to the volume of fermenting wort (minimize head-space in secondary).
- Starting a siphon is much easier with a large capacity syringe than with a turkey baster.
- Use a larger vessel for primary fermentation than secondary. This can help minimize blow-off from the primary and reduce headspace in the secondary.
- Make sure you have bottling sugar or malt handy for bottling before you plan to bottle.
- Don't forget to prime prior to bottling.
- Don't panic while waiting for primary fermentation to take off. Malty brews and/or cold temperatures may delay the dance in the fermentation lock 48 hours or more.
- Learn to accept the concept of sanitizing mass quantities of kitchenware, glassware, and hardware. If you brew like I do, the kitchen itself may require more than a scrubbing behind the ears. Not to mention that boil-over in the garage.
- Boil-overs in the garage can be cleaned up quickly by keeping a garden hose handy.
- Rule of thumb... Hot wort is readily water soluble, caramelized malt is concrete, dried boil-overs embody the worst characteristics of both.Now take the load off and go mind your p's and q's why don't you!