Tag Archives: homebrewing

Technique

My Record-Keeping in Homebrewing

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I think Boak & Bailey’s most recent approach to blogging of posting little and often is great. It’s what I used to do more often, and then at some point all my blog posts turned into 1000+ word articles with lots of research.

My instead, I’ll be posting about a question that recently came up on Reddit’s /r/homebrewing subreddit, namely what logs and records do people keep about their homebrewing. I left a comment there, but in addition, I also wanted to post about it here, also to explain my thoughts behind it all.

I started homebrewing in late 2012. Back then, I kept some very basic records, but I quickly noticed that these weren’t quite enough to reliably reproduce recipes. Not that I actually rebrewed many beers, but having the ability to reproduce one recipe right even when the underlying conditions change (raw materials are always variable, timing can be very different when you just wing your brew day, etc.) is something very valuable, for myself, for others to reproduce, and eventually for brewing historians. Not that I ever expect beer historians to disseminate any of my records, but you never know. Even if it’s just “leading by example” by posting this article for others to pick up similar habits. I think it was Ron Pattinson who wrote that beer history will lose a lot of knowledge simply because how bad the record-keeping in many craft breweries is, but I can’t find a source for it. But I digress…

So this is what a log of a typical brew day looks like:

I write down the date and the beer style that I intend to brew, followed by the grist. The grist is all the malts, their technical name, if known also the producer, and their weight. This would e.g. be:

  • 3.3 kg Mild malt
  • 0.2 kg Simpsons CaraMalt

This is then followed by a log of all the steps that briefly describe what I did, usually starting with dough-in (mash-in). All log entries are timestamped with a minute resolution. For example:

  • 10:45 dough-in with 11 l water at 71°C -> 65°C; rest 60 min

That says that at 10:45 I doughed in the malt with a certain amount of water at a specific temperature, resulting in a mash temperature of 65°C, followed by resting the mash for 60 minutes. Rest lengths (“60 min”) describe intention, while the timestamps describe the actual times when an action happened. This may seem like a very technical distinction, but reflects that brew days are sometimes a bit chaotic, things go slightly wrong, you miss an alarm and only get to do something 5-10 minutes later than planned.

If there is step mashing involved, it’s usually indicated like this:

  • 11:45 heat to 72°C
  • 11:53 reached 72.6°C; rest 10 min

For decoction mashes, it’s more something like this:

  • 10:26 draw off 8 l thick mash for decoction
  • 10:32 bring decoction to boil
  • 11:14 boil decoction for 5 min
  • 11:20 mix back decoction
  • 11:24 -> 72°C; rest 10 min

For lautering, I document the transfer to the lauter tun, when I start lautering (which is usually preceded by recirculation), and the strength of the first runnings in °Brix which I measure using a refractometer.

I also document the °Brix of the last runnings when I’ve collected enough wort. The wort boil is documented in when it starts and and when it finishes. The hop additions are all documented in their timing in minutes before the end of the boil (e.g. 60 min, 0 min, or during whirlpool at 95°C), the hop variety (e.g. Saaz, EKG, …) and the alpha acid content.

After the end of the boil, I measure the post-boil gravity using the refractometer first before I chill down the wort. Once the wort is chilled, I then measure the OG using a saccharometer in °P, e.g. 12.5°P. I document the final temperature reached when chilling, and what yeast I pitched when. Once fermentation is finished, I document the FG, also in °P, followed by the calculated %ABV. I of course also record the volume in the fermenter.

The OG actually used to be relevant in Germany until 2024, when the German government loosened the taxation requirements for homebrewers by increasing the tax-free maximum annual amount of homebrewed beer per household from 200 litres to 500 litres, and by lifting the requirement of having to report every single batch by sending an email where and when it was supposed to be brewed, and what the OG was going to be. This requirement had already been relaxed by many customs offices, but only fully became law in 2024.

So that’s how I document all my batches of beer that I brew. It may seem like overkill, but it’s been useful in the past to understand extract efficiency, to analyze issues during the brew day, and to reliably reproduce certain beers like the annual Czech Dark Lager I brew for Christmas together with my friend Ben.

Events

Berlin Homebrewing Competiton 2015: Results

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Last Thursday, the results of this year’s Berlin homebrewing competition were announced. You can find the winners on the competition website. Congratulations to all the category winners, and especially so to the overall winner, Jörg Schloemer, whose beer “Vienna Calling” will be brewed by Heidenpeters later this year!

Many thanks also go out to Rory, who organized the whole competition to make homebrewing more visible and promote it in Berlin.

I did not win, but of my three submissions, one was particularly well-received by the judges, one showed flaws in the fermentation process of that particular batch, and one… well, judging from the comments, I think half of the judges didn’t fully grasp the beer style. I hold no grudges, though, as this was nevertheless some very valuable feedback.

The beer that got a relatively good score was my English Brown Ale. What I nevertheless found interesting was how differently it was perceived. One judge commented about it as “fizzy”, another one “could be more carbonated”, the third one “CO2 is right”. The average score was 80 of 100 points (note to American readers: this competition was not judged to BJCP standards), and this also reflects in the drinkability score, where it reached a consistent 24 of 30 points by all judges. One judge noticed a very light cardboard flavour, hinting at some minor oxidation issue. This is definitely something where I need to take a closer look at how I bottle my beer.

My second best beer was my Bohemian Pilsner. The scores for that by the four judges were all over the board, with two judges giving it 74 resp. 80 points, while one only gave it 34 points, and one 54 points. One major criticism was lack of head retention and lack of carbonation, which I pretty much expected upfront. We had kegged the beer, and when we bottled the beer, we noticed that we actually didn’t have quite enough beer to fill 4 500ml bottles to submit the beer! So we had to improvise, and I got 4 330ml bottles from the corner shop, poured out the beer, and filled in our beer instead. And even to fill these bottles, we had to underfill them a bit. So of course, if you’re dealing with pouring beer around and through funnels and what not, it will lose quite a bit of fizz.

Diacetyl, a very common (but not absolutely necessary) element of Bohemian Pilsners, was the most controversial part in the judging of this beer: one judge commended on the “nice diacetyl note”, one noted “light diacetyl”, and one noticed diacetyl as an off-flavour. I disagree with the last one, because, as I mentioned, it’s a common element of Bohemian Pilsners. The prototypical Pilsner, Pilsner Urquell, is a shining example for exactly that, especially so when served in a tank bar, or unfiltered and unpasteurized from cask. Besides that, one judge thought they’d get a flavour of cinnamon, which I absolutely don’t get, and also “far too slick mouthfeel”. Maybe from the diacetyl? Nevermind.

Finally, my American Pale Ale. This was really more of an afterthought, I put together the recipe on a relatively short notice, and also used that as an opportunity to use up hop scraps from previous brews. One theme that shows through most of the five judgings was that (1) the beer was too bitter, and a harsh bitterness, even, and (2) chlorophenolic notes. This was later explained to me by one of judges as most likely coming from the Berlin water being treated with chloramine and a fermentation that was slightly too hot. It’s definitely worth noting, and makes me think that I should probably do a better temperature control even with top-fermented beers. It’s also kind of sad that the Berlin water has to be treated like that, but we need to work with what we’re given. I definitely won’t start buying distilled water and then create water profiles by adding different salts.

All in all, it was a fun event, I enjoyed developing recipes for it and then brewing them, and we got some very valuable feedback. I’ll post the recipe of my English Brown Ale soon, and explain more about it.

Recipes

My First IPA

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About two years ago, a friend of mine got married. I was a relatively inexperienced homebrewer then, but my previous few beers turned out quite alright, so though I’d be bold and try to… *gasp* design my own IPA recipe as a wedding present!

I looked at existing recipes, how they were put together, and then I checked what was available from the homebrewing online store of my choice, and chose a few things that sounded good to me. I emphasize “sounded” because I had really only read about different hop and malt varieties, and recommended yeast strains for IPAs, but that was it.

Grist:

  • 85 % Pale Ale Malt
  • 10 % Vienna Malt
  • 5 % CaraHell

Hops:

  • 1.5 g/l Summit (15% AA) @ 60 min
  • 1.5 g/l Cascade (5.8% AA) @ 10 min
  • 1.5g/l East Kent Goldings (4.8% AA) @ 14 days dry-hopping
  • 1.5g/l Cascade (5.8% AA) @ 14 days dry-hopping
  • 1g/l Summit (15% AA) @ 14 days dry-hopping

90 minute mash at 68 °C, then 60 minutes of boiling. US-05 yeast. OG was 16.5 °P, FG was 4°P.

Fortunately, the result was a big success. I haven’t brewed it since then, but I’m still astonished how well this beer turned out to be. A bit of a lucky shot, but whatever. Just don’t ask me why I put it together like that. If I designed an American IPA recipe nowadays, I wouldn’t do things too differently, though.

Events

Berlin Homebrewing Competition 2015

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For the first time, there will be a homebrewing competition this year, for homebrewers from Berlin and Brandenburg. This competition is organized by Rory Lawton. More information about the competition can be found here.

Rory is currently looking for some judges, so if you’re experienced in beer tasting and haven’t registered yet, please do so here, because you need to register by the end of March. So hurry up!

Talking about the homebrewing competition, I will be submitting beers to three out of four categories, so I’m not eligible as judge for all but one category in the first place. In addition to that, I’ll be in Northern Ireland and Yorkshire for a total of two weeks in May, when the judging takes place.

Also, I will publish recipes for my beers (an English Brown Ale, an American Pale Ale, and a Czech Pilsner) here at some point after the submission deadline, that’s the 18th of April. To be frank, I’m already quite excited about the judging results that (hopefully) will be published at some point in May. Homebrewing competitions in Germany are… rare, to say the least, so getting absolutely honest and unbiased feedback from an anonymized tasting is something to look forward to.