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by Jamie Martin, Brewmaster, Dells Brewing Co.
Bubbles: If you ever have just one tank that won’t cool down first thing to check is if there are air bubbles in the glycol line. I used to always forget about this and I would spend all day troubleshooting the wrong thing.
Check valves: Insure all carbonation stones and couplers have working check valves; you do not want to end up with beer in your regulators or gas lines.
by Jamie Martin, Brewmaster, Dells Brewing Co.
Adding flavor on the cold side can be fun and adds a whole new dynamic to your beer. Warning though, since this isn’t part of the natural brewing process these processes open the door to contamination. Great care must be taken in sanitation and preparation to ensure product quality is maintained.
Adding Fruit: There are about four ways to add fruit to your beer.
Fresh fruit; first clean it thoroughly, then freeze it and grind it up (Freezing helps lower the microbial count and breaks down the cell walls).
by Jamie Martin, Brewmaster, Dells Brewing Co.
Dry yeast backup: If something happens to your yeast it can take days to get a fresh pitch.
Back up oxygen: Not just an extra tank, but one you never use unless it’s an emergency.
by Jamie Martin, Brewmaster, Dells Brewing Co.
Aerating yeast – I stumbled upon this by process accident one day when I was short on oxygen. First I transfer my yeast into the fermenter along with two to three gallons of whatever beer the yeast came from. The result is a yeast slurry that is very loose and wet. Next I bubble oxygen in from the bottom of the tank at 5PSI for 15 minutes. The yeast gets all the oxygen it needs and I am not adding oxygen to my wort that could cause stalling. The key to this process is the addition of the beer/wort to the yeast so it is loose.
Using yeast as yeast nutrient – Happy healthy yeast already has all the nutrients it needs, so on a brew day instead of using a commercial yeast nutrient you can pull some yeast (I use 100ml/BBL), and add it to the boil. The cell walls will break down and the nutrients will be added to your wort.
by Jamie Martin, Brewmaster, Dells Brewing Co.
What do you do if fermentation doesn’t start?
If this happens to you, here are a few places to look first:
by Jamie Martin, Brewmaster, Dells Brewing Co.
Whether you’re a new brewer, or an experienced one working with a new brewing system, the best calculations in the world can fail from time to time. Don’t worry there are back up plans.
Going lighter – You’ve mashed in or got to the boil stage and the color of your beer is too dark. Maybe your red looks brown or your blond is a little orange; dilution with water can bring your beer back to the color you want to achieve (remember you either haven’t boiled or are not done boiling it). The dilution will lower your gravity and affect your flavor profile but just slightly and that can be fixed with concentrated brewer’s wort or sugars during the boil. If you get all the way to the cold side and the color is just a little too dark adding a BBL of a lighter beer can be just the thing to bring the color down from brown to red.
by Jamie Martin, Brewmaster, Dells Brewing Co.
Controlled Experiments – As a brewer you should always be learning and trying to improve your beer. Running a controlled experiment from time to time can give you situational knowledge specific to your equipment that you can’t get from a textbook or article. First and foremost make sure you have the basics of brewing down before you start to change things; you can only learn from experimentation if you understand the process and what normally happens. A few guidelines: Only change one thing per brew. This could be anything like using 2-Row Copeland instead of 2-Row Metcalfe barley, mashing a degree or two higher or lower than normal, or adding your hop addition 10 minutes sooner or later then normal. These incremental changes are small and subtle, usually only you will notice in the final product. If someone has a pint at your brewery and then comes back two months later, they shouldn’t be able to detect a change in the beer, but if they come back a year later, they should find your beer has improved 100%. Those subtle changes may not change the flavor profile much, but our goal should always be improving the overall quality of the entire beer.
Write everything down – Everything that happens in the brewery should be written down; the good the bad and the ugly! First of all it’s the law. We produce alcohol and need to have detailed account of the process and the materials involved in producing our beer. Second, if something goes wrong you’ll need to be able to research that particular batches process and material bill to locate where the problem occurred and correct it. Recording each step also creates a great reference library for you. If you document mistakes and your troubleshooting process, then later, if a similar problem arises, you’ll have a record of the steps and missteps you took previously and you can avoid wasted time and frustration. Your record can also be used as an invaluable training tool for your support staff.
by Jamie Martin, Brewmaster, Dells Brewing Co.
Receiving and Storing Malt:
Malt Analysis:
by Jamie Martin, Brewmaster, Dells Brewing Co.
The cleaning process and chemicals a brewer chooses vary widely from brewer to brewer and worksite to worksite; many factors contribute to the costs involved in this very important and essential aspect of brewery operation.
Chemical and equipment requirements are determined by the personal preference/training of the brewer as well as; mandated health/workplace code requirements, type of surface, contaminate (soil), and brewery environment.
by Jamie Martin, Brewmaster, Dells Brewing Co.
– Cleaning and sanitation
– Brewhouse operations
– Some words of wisdom
– Implementing adjustments during the brewing process
– Fermentation & cellaring tips
– Odd, but cool, yeast practices
– Fermentation troubleshooting survival kit
– Cold side manipulation
– Things that will ruin your day!
– Stupid Stuff Q&A
