First off I am not going to just re-hash all the hard work others have put into writing books and such, besides they have done a much better job than I could ever do. I highly recommend checking out John Palmers site; How To Brew to get a good idea on how to get started. This is the same as his first edition book and it is free online. Or better yet you can go out and buy the 3rd edition. Anyway, on this page I will give a few tips from things I have learned while brewing. Some other great brewing books to add to your collection are Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels, Brewing Classic Styles by John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff, and Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher.
*Adding Chocolate Flavor to a beer. I have found that Cacao Nibs are the best choice. First off all, they are the roasted cacao bean. The base off chocolate. The problem with using bakers chocolate is that to bind the chocolate together they need to use some sort of fat. Mostly coco butter. The nibs don’t add any of the head retention killing fat. Plus with age any oils or fat will go rancid. This will not happen with the nibs. For best results just soak anywhere from 3 to 8 ounces in just enough vodka to cover the nibs. Then let them sit overnight. Add them to secondary, vodka and all. It even works better yet if you crush the nibs up even more than they already are.
* Adding Honey to a beer. Boiling honey or even adding honey to the primary will scrub out a lot of the flavor and aroma components that you are seeking by adding honey in the first place. What I have read works best (And this is how I do my honey lager) is to make 1 gallon less of beer than you plan to finish out with. Then when the primary fermentation is done, you boil then cool 1 gallon of water to 174 degrees. Then add your honey and let it sit in that hot water for 15 minutes to kill any nasties. Then cool that gallon in an ice bath. Add it to the secondary, then rack your 4 gallons (or full batch minus 1 gallon) onto that 1 gallon of honey water. You will get a second (less vigorous) fermentation, but it will retain a lot more of the honeys qualities.
* Full Wort Boil – This is the single best improvement you can make to your brewery. Even if you are an extract brewer, going to a full wort boil will make your beer much much better. All grain it is mandatory. You will get a better hop utilization, less burned wort (dark caramelization/unfermentable wort) just to name a few things. Buying an old dented keg and cutting the top off is the cheapest way to go full boil, plus then you can upgrade to 10 gallon batches if you wish. Those kegs are 15.5 gallons.
* Aeration- Not a must for starting out but if you are looking for some small tweak to bring your beer over the top, this is one of those things. The yeast will much more healthy and will ferment stronger and faster then without the oxygen rich wort. Just remember, oxygen before fermentation is good, oxygen added after fermentation begins or worse yet has completed is very very bad.
* Dry yeast – Many homebrewing “snobs” or homebrewers who have been brewing for many many years (from back when dry yeast was sub standard) will tell you liquid yeast is the only way to go. This is not true at all by a long shot. The technology has come very very far and there is excellent quality dry yeast on the market now. Fermentis is top notch and has the basic strains you could want to make about 90% off all the beer styles out there. I rarely use liquid yeast (only for heffe’s or a sour ale or other very specialized yeast flavor profile) and almost exclusively use one of 4 strains of dry yeast. I have been using Nottingham,But lately I have been using a lot of the Fermentis dry yeasts and LOVE THEM! For example you can use Fermentis US-05 (Same as Wyeast 1056 or White Labs WLP001)for any ale you want a clean yeast profile for. I also use Fermentis Safbrew S-33, and I use Fermentis Saflager S-23. If you want to do an English Ale you can use Safale S-04 or use Safbrew T-58 for Belgian style ales. There are even a Belgian wheat specific dry strain out there from Brewferm but I have not used it. One thing you don’t want to use is those blank dry yeast packets that come with some of the kits. Just be safe and pick up at least some Nottingham or Windsor yeast. Dry yeast is cheap, high quality, and does not require a starter. If you want to do a high gravity beer, just pitch 2 packets. It’s still way cheaper than any of the liquid yeast. This is one case where the saying “you get what you pay for” is not true.
* Water – Many people want to jump right into adjusting their water’s mineral content or PH. Truth is, this should be the last part of your brewing technique you start to tweak. You need to really know your content of minerals and the PH of your water before you start adding acids, salts, or other minerals. From my experience, the best all purpose water I have found is just a generic brand spring water. It is free from chlorine, and chlorimines, and will have an average mineral content. The water I get is $3 for 6 gallons at my local Wal Mart. There are 2 other things you can do, that don’t really count as adjusting your water. One is to filter (if your not using bottled water), this is something to seriously consider doing if your using tap water. Another option is to use campden tablets to remove chloramines. I have done this in a pinch and it works well. You still need to let the water sit overnight. If you do want to build your own water, use distilled water. This water has no minerals or anything in it and you can easily build the water you want. DO NOT use distilled water for brewing without adding minerals.
* Roasting your own grains – Roasting your own grains is an awesome way to add another personal touch to your homebrew. I love roasting my own malts and even made my own crystal malt. It is so easy, and all you need is an oven and some time. You can click HERE to get a list of temperatures and times for different common roasts. Roasting your malts is fun and easy and doesn’t take more than 45 minutes at the most, excpet for crystal malt. Be aware that I have found from my experience that roasting your own malt seems to reduce the amount of sugars you get, maybe it’s just me. But it also adds some awesome malt flavor so I am happy with the trade, just use a touch more base malt.
