Posted: 2/8/2012 7:21:30 PM EDT
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So far I realise I've made the following mistakes as a new brewer: 1) If you bottle, weigh out your priming sugar. Depending on how you pour the corn sugar you may end up 40% off you intended target. 2) If you use buckets or plastic, don't use them to clean the gear. You'll end up with scratches and nicks. 3) Even if you think you screwed up a brew, don't throw it out right away. It may turn out great, even if it isn't what you intended. What were your first mistakes when you started brewing? |
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1) Not paying attention to fermentation temperatures. 2) Not giving the beer enough time to meld together before trying to drink it. 3) Not treating a bag of liquid malt extract with enough respect that it could tip over and spill all over the picnic table forcing me to have to try to sop it up and use it with the dirt and all. Then also adding a bag of DME to account for the LME lost only to find out I did a better job of sopping up the LME and was a lot closer to my target OG after all. By the way it turned out to be a good beer.  |
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1) Not stirring the mash enough.
2) Not realizing I can't submerge my thermometer probe without ruining my thermometer. 3) Not waiting long enough to drink my beer. 4) Not RDWHAHB-ing earlier on. One thing that I'm really glad of, that I've been doing continually, is saving a few bottles of every batch for the long term. It's really interesting to see how your beer changes over the period of a year or so. I have a chocolate stout in particular that went from so-so to really good in about 8 months. |
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Quoted:
I gave a few friends a couple bottles...and then they shared those with a few people. Now I've got 20 some people begging for more LOL, Im about to give out my first few beers of this batch (amber ale). A good friend is about to have his first kid any day so he is getting a 6 pack. I am dreading the beggars. |