Got a great tip for your fellow brewers?

[stfrancois]

I got one..make sure you bottle the right beer! Nothing like realizing you bottled beer that isn't carbonated when it is to late.if you do don't try to dump it back in and recarb. Even with co2 in the tank it doesn't end well

[DavidS]

Check your valves

=Note to self=

Just because the valve fits 1 1/2" pipe, doesnt always mean that the valve opening is 1 1/2".

This can REAALLY slow down your fluid transfer rate

(Said 1" valve is now hidden)

[Sulfur]

count or weigh

From this very morning. My assistant laid out the day's malt to be mashed in (manual mashing in.) I counted the sacks and discovered one short. A similar thing happened to me a few years ago when I was doing a joint brew. I thought the other guy verified the number, and he thought I did, and walla - we ended up forgetting one sack. Made for a long boil and day. Anyway, the moral is, always verify your malt bill before mashing in!

[Rosie]

I find that the number of cockups is proportional to the number of people in the brewhouse.

Was doing a training brew a couple months back and half way through the sparge, holy shit we completely forgot the speciality malt. In the end good training in how to think on our feet. Only other major cock up of the previous year was when I was showing someone else around.

[beerking1]

From this very morning. My assistant laid out the day's malt to be mashed in (manual mashing in.) I counted the sacks and discovered one short. A similar thing happened to me a few years ago when I was doing a joint brew. I thought the other guy verified the number, and he thought I did, and walla - we ended up forgetting one sack. Made for a long boil and day. Anyway, the moral is, always verify your malt bill before mashing in!

I did that homebrewing once. Was brewing a Maibock. My mill (a Valleymill) holds ~5# in the hopper, so I usually add the base malt in 5# batches. Left one out, and brewed the best Vienna I have ever made!

[Jephro]

I find that the number of cockups is proportional to the number of people in the brewhouse.

Was doing a training brew a couple months back and half way through the sparge, holy shit we completely forgot the speciality malt. In the end good training in how to think on our feet. Only other major cock up of the previous year was when I was showing someone else around.

Funny, i find that to be true as well. I normally work alone in this cramped 7bbl brewery, seems every time i get an assistant in for some cross-training i totally wiff something.

My worst one, left the water on and overfilled my MT with "pre-heat" water for the next days brew and flooded the hopper that i had already milled into. Nothing like starting a brew @ 6PM after already working 10 hours, Loooong day, but i saved the brew!!
BTW- have you ever tried to send wet milled grain through an auger designed for dry malt, not fun.

[KevinECB]

the first two are mine,

Don't start a brewing story with when i was sixteen (or whatever age it is illegal to brew at in your state/Country), even if it was an innocent and Legal story, you just made yourself look bad.

Don’t use a new order of opening and closing valves (that might be potentially faster and more effective) until you have it all down pat in your head, and then rehearsed it six times. *9 out of 10 IS bad, especially if number ten is the drain valve on your whirlpool

Do start running water through your HX before you start your cast out, Don’t start running Glycal through several mins before you start to cast out, a frozen HX can make you shift run long

Always check ALL redundant valves leading from the HX to the HLT before casting out, CIPing the HLT in the middle of a 24hr a day brew week is time consuming

[David Hicks]

Don't start a brewing story with when i was sixteen, even if it was an innocent and Legal story, you just made yourself look bad.

I don't see how having a passion for beer in youth makes you look bad.

Im 19, age is a tender subject...

[David Hicks]

In SC you cant even be the employee of a brewer until you are 21.

The point is that brewing is a craft, passion for a craft from an early age is a good thing. Our country just has an annoying attitude about alcohol.

[Sulfur]

samples

Avoid disaster when labeling, make sure your labels are oriented the right way.

[bennybrew]

Avoid disaster when labeling, make sure your labels are oriented the right way.

make sure you have the right label: ie the 12oz vs 22oz.

turns out people notice this...

[BrewerMel]

Always remember to replace the plates in the mash tun before putting in 400 pounds of grain. It will save you having to dig out 400 pounds of wet grain, setting the plates and shoveling it all back in.

[mmussen]

A couple I've done...

When Sparging - make sure to open the valve into the kettle, otherwise the grant overflows very quickly.

Close the valve to drain the sight glass on your SV's when CIPing. Your pumps will thank you.

When dry hopping into a FV I recommend using a cut keg. You add hops to the keg, then let some beer from the FV into the keg - allow the hops to get wet, then shoot the whole mess into the FV using CO2. It works great and you don't have to climb a ladder every time you need to dry hop.

[ParishBrewingCo]

Wear boots. 210 deg liquid on your toes hurts like hell . I know they're uncomfortable. Believe me, its worth it.

[South County]

Wear boots. 210 deg liquid on your toes hurts like hell . I know they're uncomfortable. Believe me, its worth it.

With the right boots a 14 hr day is nothing w/ a mid-day sock change. Boots are paramount IMO.