Common Homebrewing Mistakes

Beer lovers take note.  If you're reading this blog, you already know that you can make your own beer at home--and that it doesn't involve any rocket science. The process is much simpler than what many think, and this is the main reason why home brewers are on the rise in the United States and in many other countries.

There new innovations in home brewing equipment being developed almost daily, and there is a growing body of materials available online ready to be downloaded. It's easy to concoct your own brew. But just a little reminder--don't let your over-eagerness get the best out of you. Exercise some restraint as well when trying home brewing for the first time. You don't want to go the way of many first-timers who become frustrated simply because they failed to know some of the more common home brewing mistakes.

To learn from others' mistakes, you must first be aware of them. Listed below are some of the most common ones made by first-timers in the field of beer making at home.

Sanitation.  This one is huge.  Many upstart home brewers don't realize the importance of sanitation.  A single cell of just the wrong wild yeast or bacteria strain can ruin a whole batch of beer.  It should be remembered that the unfermented beer (wort) is packed with malt sugar, and bacteria and wild yeast love this. If a brewer is not concerned with cleanliness in the work space, this will often come through in the flavor of the final product, and nobody likes drinking dirty or infected beer!  So what needs to be done in order to address this concern?

The best thing to do is to ensure the cleanliness of equipment every time. All the equipment used in home brewing should be sanitized. This doesn't mean that you have to invest in pricey sanitizing products. There are many products available to the home brewer, but I use a simple bleach solution--an ounce of Clorox in a gallon of water--when cleaning anything that will touch the wort in the brewing process. Rinse with hot water.

Another common mistake is not using the right temperature to ferment the beer. As a home brewer, it is important that you know the balance between too hot and too cold a temperature. There is a right temperature for use in home brewing and this is dependent on the kind of yeast strain selected for the brew--ale yeasts typically ferment between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and lager yeasts work in the 40's.  Fermenting at a temperature outside these ranges can result in undesirable flavors in your beer.

Perhaps the most common mistake is impatience on the part of the brewer.  Novice brewers, for example, will often bottle the brew too early.  Remember, good things take time!  If you bottle the beer before the fermentation is complete, all you will end up with is a fridge full of bottle grenades.

Bottom line, the best thing you can do is read everything about brewing that you can get your hands on.  And be patient.  Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is good beer!