Brewing workshop
Practical notes for the brew day and fermentation.
Mash
| Control | What to record | Practical action |
|---|---|---|
| Strike water temperature | Calculated and measured strike temperature | Use the strike water calculator before heating. |
| Mash temperature | Reading at the start and end of each rest | Stir and re-check after any addition. |
| Water chemistry | Source water and any salt additions | Keep additions consistent between batches of the same style. |
Fermentation
| Control | What to record | Practical action |
|---|---|---|
| Pitch rate and temperature | Yeast amount, wort temperature at pitching | Cool wort to the yeast range before pitching. |
| Gravity readings | Original and periodic gravity with date | Stable gravity over three days usually means fermentation is done. |
| Diacetyl rest | Temperature raise and duration for lagers | Let a lager warm for a few days before cold conditioning. |
Sanitation
- Clean equipment with a cleaner suited to the material before sanitizing.
- Rinse when the sanitizer instruction requires it.
- Sanitize everything that touches wort after the boil, and let it dry or drain.
- Record the product, concentration, date and any deviation in the journal.
Keep cleaning and sanitizing as separate recorded steps.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Next action |
|---|---|
| Cooked corn or creamed corn | 90 minutes uncovered on pale lager malt, then chill as fast as the chiller allows. DMS does not age out. |
| Butter or butterscotch | Leave ale on the yeast two extra days after FG looks done; give a lager a diacetyl rest before crashing. |
| Green apple or raw pumpkin | Give it time; a young beer has not taken the acetaldehyde back yet. Warm a stuck ale a couple of degrees. |
| Band-aid or plastic, not the wanted clove | Treat the water for chlorine or chloramine before the mash, and check the fermenter and yeast source are clean. |
| Tea-like, husky, dry pucker | Sparge at 75-77 °C, stop when the runnings taste sweet, and use a coarser crush. |
| Cardboard, sherry, dull hop aroma | Minimize splashing and bottle headspace; drink hoppy beer young. Cardboard does not reverse. |
| Pellicle, unexpected sourness, ropiness | Sanitize the cold side; scratched plastic and a dirty tap are common sources. Dump ropey beer. |
| Gushers or bottle bombs | Confirm a stable final gravity two or three days apart before bottling, then prime with the calculator. |
| Mash will not run off | Add rice hulls, stir, underlet a little hot water and vorlauf gently. Do not force a pump through a stuck bed. |
| No visible activity 24-36 hours after pitching | Check the airlock is not just leaking from a loose lid. If gravity has not moved, warm a few degrees and pitch a fresh healthy pack. |
This guide helps organise observations; it does not make an automatic safety diagnosis.
Yeast
Pitch rate
A home rule of thumb, not a lab count: one fresh 11 g dry pack for about 20 L of ale around 1.050. Lager, or ale well above 1.060, wants more — a second pack or a starter. Underpitching shows up as esters and diacetyl, not extra character.
Dry versus liquid
Dry yeast rehydrates; many recipe sheets just sprinkle it in. Liquid packs are often undercounted for a 20 L batch unless very fresh — make a starter.
Temperature is the strain
The same strain at 17 °C and at 23 °C makes two different beers. Read the sheet’s fermentation temperature first; a saison that stalls at 20 °C needs warming, not more sugar.
Water
Chlorine and chloramine
City water often has chloramine, and boiling does not reliably remove it. Treat the strike water with a Campden tablet or a carbon filter rated for chloramine before the mash.
Sulfate and chloride
Sulfate (gypsum) makes hop bitterness sharper — pale ale and IPA. Chloride (calcium chloride) rounds out the malt — porter, stout, amber. Measure before adding salts.
Mash pH, not a guess
Target 5.2-5.6 at room temperature. Dark malt lowers pH on its own; pale lager malt often needs acid or acid malt. A pale ale on reasonably soft tap water still works without measuring.
Packaging and carbonation
| Method | What to record | Practical note |
|---|---|---|
| Bottle with priming sugar | Sugar amount and target CO2 volumes | Use the priming sugar calculator for the beer style and volume. |
| Force carbonation in a keg | Pressure, temperature and days | Chill fully before applying pressure. |
| Carbonation check | Tasting result and any adjustment | Compare against the recipe carbonation target. |