"All you need is a BAG!" - best advise ever.

I did a lot of research to educate myself before my first brew. I skipped the extract brewing phase and went all grain. I also skipped bottling and went right into kegging. I also started out only using RO water. My beers were decent from the get go, but not as good as what I can brew now. The two things I had to learn the hard way was water chemistry and fermentation temperature stability. Imho, the importance of water chemistry is second only to fermentation temp. When it comes to fermentation temperature, well that is well documented and everyone should know. What was less known is that not only does yeast hate the wrong temp, the yeast also does not like temperature swings. The easiest fix I found was using one of those large totes from Home Depot. (the heavy duty black ones with the yellow lid) Fill it with water and stick up to two fermenter buckets in it and you're good to go. You can also use your bathtub if you're single(or want to be single;-) The water acts as thermal mass and conducts heat more efficiently than air. You can even control the temperature of that water by adding ice during high krausen or throwing in a couple of aquarium heaters when needed. Well done on a great video that is likely to help elevate the fun factor for the many stepping in to this great hobby/addiction.

mine was "you cant sanitize dirt". clean first then sanitize. some of the best advise i ever got. also volunteering at a brewery is another.

Beginners can’t go wrong with John Palmer’s book “How To Brew,” it’s set up so you can open it, brew a nice batch immediately, then get into the details. Brewing can be incredibly simple, or as complex as you want to get into..

My first brew was all grain, I watched a couple of videos and it made way more sense than extract.

Great advice man! I tell everyone that wants to start brewing to come over and do a brew day with me. That way they can see the process and have fun not worrying about what equipment to buy and what recipe to make.

I did a few extract batches to start, but..switching to all grain was so much fresher, more extensive flavors and mouthfeel. I feel like homebrewers still don’t understand that we are not constrained by commercial breweries’ mindset of huge quantities and having to save money. Our batches are so small in comparison that we can buy the finest floor malted malts, the best hops, use distilled or spring water, and we can make superior-to-commercial beers at home.

My basement is the perfect place to ferment beer

Love the section about extract vs all grain. I’m interested in trying all grain, but simply put, I have to squeeze in a brew day when I get the time. Life gets busy sometimes and we don’t always have time to have a 3-4 hour brew day. I love this list. Been brewing a bit over 2 years now and just recently learned how important temp control is. Put it into practice and the results were staggering.

Another excellent video with many good points raised. If I were to make a similar video, rather than just commenting on yours :), I would start with water. As the main ingredient in beer it is also the most overlooked. Even many small commercial brewers are guilty of this. Brewing is simple but the devil is in the details and managing those turns an ok beer into an excellent beer. The second would be yeast selection and care, which also ties to the first. Yeast is a living organism and as such it needs more than just oxygen and sugar for a healthy life cycle. The makeup of your water will impact yeast viability, performance and flavor outcomes in your beer. Water and yeast influenced regional brewing styles, historically speaking, more than any other factor. There are many home brewers and some small commercial brewers that completely ignore water, some to the point of allowing chlorine to make it to their hlt and ultimately their mash. Eliminating chlorine is just the beginning though and so brewers using ro water, like one of the commenters below, are starving their yeast of important nutrients. The type of water you have access to or can create through treatment should form your decision on what beers to attempt (e.g. you will never make a worthy replica of a Bohemian-style pilsener with water that is 400 tds). Other points to consider adding to list of basics: ingredient freshness (especially hops), grist characteristics from the milling, water temperatures including strike temp and sparge temp, and finally avoiding hot side mistakes and cool in mistakes. These are brewing basic that will affect the outcome of any style with any grain bill. Cheers and happy brewing! Cleaning and sanitation I don't mention because it's like telling someone the key to a good life is to breathe. :)

Fermentation control was the same for me. The Brajs over at hb4l are absolutely right you can make good beer with a bucket, and I learned a lot from them. But stepping up into pressure fermentation and temp control made huge leaps for my beers

I’m still learning about the different maltsters. It definitely is a big way to impact the flavor of your beer that can easily be overlooked. Excellent video Steve!

I've been brewing for about 10 years, I just started doing extract brewing. It's so convenient and simple. I made a 5 gallon batch worth of wort, heavy on the adjunct malts, and used some LME to turn it into a 15 gallon batch on my 5 gallon system. Same time, triple the beer

Uve hit the nail on the head with the points discussed here.......especially fermentation temperature........ur beer can go from being average to crushable.......cheers

You are spot on regarding malt. I purchased 2row from a local maltster and the diastatic properties of the malt were FU, I ended up getting a FG of 1.023 on a traditional Pale Ale which always came in at 1.08 0r 1.010. Anytime I purchase 2 row it's from Western Canada at CMC...ingredients make a huge difference.

Great info. Also good to know I'm making decent beer without temp control, an undersized kettle and all in plastic water bottle kept in a kitchen cupboard. When/if I get some decent gear it'll be even better. The best hobby

Fantastic straightforward explanation of all the subtle nuances most of us never thought about when we started. Great video!

I made a great fermentation chamber using a freezer, heat trace cable wrapped on the inside of the freezer and 2 plug in temp. controllers from Amazon. One controller runs the heat when the temperature is in the low range and the second runs the freezer when the temperature is in the high range. The heat trace is only 5 deg per foot so the low wattage is not an issue. It works great and made a big difference in the beer! Great video.

Chest freezer temp control hands down! Direct transfer hopped beers and honestly the Tilt hydrometer. It keeps me from opening and testing every couple days , ultimately introducing oxygen. I only use RO water with salts. Temp control during whirlpools. Using yeast nutrient towards end of boil.

Cool video and a honest person that accept mistakes

Heck you could even add kegging on this list. To save time and space kegging is the way to go. Great video! Each one you said was very true.

Yeah, I started with all grain. It's not difficult. I used the keep warm setting on the oven to bring it up to ~170 degrees (keep warm setting), then turned it off when I put the kettle in. With a lid on the kettle, I was able to maintain mash temp for the full hour (checking temps every 15 minutes).

A chest freezer/brew station was mentioned. What I found was a defective freezer that was in very good condition for FREE. That gives me the ability to control the temp inside by using heat pads. The compressor was defective. But being in cold weather, in the garage, it works.

Well done! I agree with everything you said! I’ve even stopped using my very shiny 3v and now mainly use it as a no sparse BIAB - wasted a lot of money over the years!

I wish BIAB was more popular when i got into brewing. I did it last weekend and it's so convenient

I absolutely love all your video you go into the perfect amount of detail. I'm from Ireland love that you have been adding some metric measurements into your videos it helps me alot sometimes. I'd love to see your take on a dunkle larger and the flavour profile you create with that.

built a fermentation chamber for a 5 gallon setup. you need some 1"x2" boards, a construction staple gun and staples (though finishing nails might work too), some foam board insulation and some construction adhesive to hold the insulation to the wood frame. Build a box frame with the 1"x2" boards, then cut and glue your foam board insulation to it. Put a heating pad on one side and hook it to a temperature controller where the probe is on the fermenter. Set it about 2 degrees below the temp you want fermentation at and walk away for a few days/weeks. It's ugly, and I'm going to modify it to have a door, (right now you lift it over the fermenter because the bottom of the chamber just sits on the desk/floor and isn't insulated) but it solves two problems. 1: it keeps things at the right temperature (I do my fermentation in a basement, where the *warmest* it gets is 63 degrees), and 2: it keeps light off the beer. A 3rd bonus is that it keeps me from fiddling with the fermenter. Probably cheaper than a freezer, unless you find one for really really cheap.

Holy crap if someone had told me that yeast makes heat when fermenting before I started I'd have started making good beer way sooner.

Thanks for giving/sharing for us newbies!

My first beer was a hefewiesen and it came out great, I loved it, I followed the directions to the T and thought I was a pro at brewing so I made my own recipe with some rahr barley I used for distilling, it was not drinkable. I threw it in the still with some other stuff I had. i had been distilling for a while but never tried my hand in brewing. man did I get a kick in the ass.

Thanks for another great video. I would say tip #6 would be to manage water chemistry. Your video on water chem was excellent and encouraged me to tackle this. The impact on the quality of my beer was astounding.

First 'upgrade' I made was to convert a mini-fridge and add a temp controller. I have since upgraded said fridge but may upgrade yet again so I have room for more than one fermenter.

I can't wait until I have room for a mini-fridge that I can dedicate for cool ferments/lagering. Until then I'm kveik 100%. The pilsner I bottled and then lagered in the back of our fridge was super solid.

Got a used minifridge with an inkbird and small heater that's been working pretty good for me for fermenting.🍻

Damn, thats a really useful video. Thanks for the tips. I am totally agree with you

Told my wife not too long ago that we didn't need a chest freezer to use it as a deep freeze...going to be real awkward when I get one for brewing hahaha. Great video and I'm 100% looking into temp control for my fermenting. Think that is the big hump to get my good brews so far to turn to great brews.

Great video man! Have just bottled my 2nd batch. Starting with extract but will move on to BIAB after yours and HB4L's vids!

Good tips. I started out doing all grain and upgraded to the bag and love it! Another tip is to do a bunch of research. I started off with a simple 1 gallon kit that was a gift a needless to say the directions book had some gaps and bad info.

I started out using pre-packaged kits …and I’m on my second one in a plain old plastic conical fermenter lol

Yeah, fermentation temperature was the biggest hurdle I had to overcome. EVERYTHING that I read at the the time I started brewing in 2010 said to ferment at room temperature! Nothing about yeast and fermentation creating heat or what the room temperature reference was! My house stays at 76 degrees in the summer and 74 in the winter! My first three beers were complete undrinkable! I now have a 6' x 7' x 7' room that I keep at 66 degrees all year around with a window AC and a small space heater controlled with a temperature controller. HUGE improvement in ALL of my ales. I do not brew lagers yet. That will be my next leap! I am an electric brewer on a single tier 3 vessel keggle system. ALL good tips!

Newbie here Thanks

Cheers!!!

A Bar "Fridge was the first piece of brewing equipment I purchased ;-)

great video, simple tips that really matter and will help those just starting

Extract is more convenient, but I promise if you start on all-grain you'll be a better brewer almost immediately. Extract brewing let's you skip a lot of important steps you'll have to learn anyway if you want to make better beer, all-grain is the best.

Most of those tips you get in every homebrewing book or are told in any kind of class or club, books are cheap and each will have at least some recipes with which you can build upon and make great beer. At around 8th batch is where I started building my own recipes, that is when I got myself a mill. And even after 80 batches, I don't go with extremely exotic ingredients, small incremental changes are the way to go to make amazing beer... The thing is that you use malt that you can get, if LHBS only carries one maltster that is probably malt you will go for, it will be fresher and cheaper than some that you order online. Temperature control is a must, but that comes as you acquire more equipment it all depends on budget and SO tolerance. As for extract vs all grain, every homebrewer goes through stages, I did 4 kits before BIAB. Stainless pot, bag and gas burner it the way to go. There is one more tip, ditch plastic as soon as possible. I went overboard with plastic, the first few BIAB batches were in a plastic bucket with an element, that DI(rt)Y system only lasted for a few batches.

Great video.. I remember building a 3 vessel propane system with an electric rims tube to control mash temp. I loved it for a few brews. But I spent more time cleaning and getting/putting my equipment from/to storage than brewing, I stopped at the end of one brewday and thought, "what in the hell am I don't?!?". I then put together an eBIAB system. I too wish someone told me to spend on fermentation equipment and temp control before anything else.. Spent a bunch on hot side equipment before a craigslist fridge and temp controller, which was the biggest game changer.

Secure the bag, thanks for the tips.

Easiest way to "temperature control" is to instead control pressure with a spunding valve and using a corny keg as the fermentation vessel. Controlling for pressure has similar effects on yeast activity as temperature, at least for cooling.

Good video! I like the list... I feel like the list could be 20-30 tips more.. as many of the homebrew talk forums lead people astray into dogmatic territory with no real empirical basis. Two big ones for me I wish I knew starting out: - Transfer to secondary is almost always unnecessary - Read "how to brew" front to back.

Same! Wish I had known these as well. Thanks for sharing AB. Cheers!

Around tip 5: I would love a video explaining how to balance out the bitterness of different varieties of the same hop. Sometimes I can't match the alpha acid % of the recipe I'm using and would love to know if there is a way to compensate for this.

Put ur fermenter in a large bucket of water , it will help with temp swings

Good video. I'm all about maltsters or origin of malt. French have a word for it: Terroir. What contributes to the local flavor. Same as a wine made from pinot from the hill sides in Burgundy will be extremely different from the pinot from California. Your malt flavor comes from a farm product, that derives it's flavor from the earth it's grown in, what the weather was that year and up to the tradition and know how of the Maltster making your ingredient. I'm currently exploring different Marris Otter maltster.... which makes me think I should do more 1 Gal batches. lol.

How to control fermenting temp with chest freezer? Can you set it at around 60°F? Or you add an inkbird? Could you give more example of integrated chiller you mentioned? Very nice channel, thanks for all your advices and brews.

Thanks for another great informative video. Going to look into temp controlling my fermentations now.

I recently learned that Samuel Adams was not a brewer he was a malter.

Great video, definitely agree with you on the temperature control front! Even just getting a heat belt to get the temperature at least slightly more stable was a huge change! I quite like these talking head explanatory videos!

Very enjoyable and informative

I do all grain. It is much cheaper and doesn't take much more effort. I still use extract when I don't hit my mash target gravity, for yeast starters and baking bread.

as always....great tips sir...thank you....

I was thinking about it since I've seen a lot of tip videos and what I wish I knew when I started videos. Do you think you have enough material for a "What I wish I wasn't told when I started" type video? Like misleading information for your setup / starting out that can be useful at a higher stage but held you back or made life harder by having the knowledge?

Haha that's funny because my second beer ever was a bourbon barrel aged stout, actually wasn't bad!

Excellent video!!!

"local homebrewshop" one should be so lucky haha

Thanks for this video. Question: How does pressure fermentation and Kveik fermentation impact the need for temp control? Thanks for all your super valuable info!!!!

Hey guys I get a questions for you, what's the difference between adding clean water after boiling the wort, or add it before boiling the whole thing (then it takes more gas and more time). Does it affect the taste of the beer somehow? Cheers

Would be really handy if I knew that all this relates to the USA and these companies are not in the UK, save me loadsa time.

Great Tips Steve ! Cheers 🍻🍻🤙🏼

Would have saved me probably four or five batches years ago if I had really understood the importance of temperature control! Cheers!

Then there will be variation every year based on climate and weather. Like for every agricultural product.

"Cannot be understated." Ha ha ha ha ha

I have been brewing all grain for 5 years, I wish I was told about the lager under pressure at ale temperature method, finally I have Lager on tap all the time, another thing is recipes, when I first started every pale ale or IPA recipe I saw had 7 or so malts in them, 100gm of torrified wheat and 200gm of crystal 80 and 75gm of aromatic malt and why are people in the US brewing in glass carboys for? Does this produce better quality beer? It must so I better buy one. As for starting out, when I started there were no 'all in one brewing systems' all we had were old KZfaq videos on how to build a mash tun, If I was starting I would feel more confident buying a Brewzilla, Claw Hammer system or a Speidel Braumeister, 12 months ago my brother wanted to get into brewing beer and asked me what's the best way to get into it, I told him to buy a plastic fermenter and a fresh wort kit, they are a box with a bladder inside, some are a plastic cube with fresh all grain wort in them this in my opinion is the best way to get into it, you learn about the final process of fermentation and these fresh wort kits are great, not sure if you have them in the US but let me tell you they are better than hopped extract tins, all they are is all grain wort in a container.

i have never heard of a molster I searched the web any nothing comes up so i can't get past the first minute and a half of your presentation

extra before all grain was a super old myth that was trendy when brewers just don't want to get into trouble by advising newbie

i have a question. so i m fermenting a stout in an one gallon carboy right now. the brew kit came with roasted wood chips for me to soak in bourbon to be added to the carboy for some bourbon barrel flavor. However the carboy seems to be pretty full with foams. I am afraid that If i add the wood chips in, they might just hang around on top of the foam. Should I put the chips + bourbon in AND shake the carboy?

Dude, you don't just need a bag to do all grain, you need a 10 gal pot and something that you can heat it on. Kitchen stove?? Maybe not.

Uhm, I find some of these 5 things are a bit more advanced stuff really. For beginners I'd say 1. Sanitize your equipment thoroughly with a no rinse sanitizer that won't affect the flavour. 2.Start with an easy dark ale (kit plus dextrose or such). Even if you get some off flavour from high temp it won't matter as much in dark ale 3. Get two fermenters, one for the primary fermentation, one to rack/clear out most of the yeast. 4. Don't just drop the package yeast into the brew. Start it with some boiled and cooled down water/sugar and make sure it's lively. Some yeast packets can be dead. 5. Don't waste time making unneeded work for yourself. When I first started out I filled my brew into 0.75l glass bottles and capped them. Means you have to clean/sterilize a lot of bottles and if one for some reason gets over pressure it can explode and put bit's of sticky glass everywhere. Now I use 2L pepsi bottles, means I only clean 12 bottles for my 30l fermenter, it's easy to get spares, the bottles weigh almost nothing and don't break when dropped, they fit under the bottle filler, I can feel the pressure on the bottle and can release some if needed. Any oxygen that might pass through the plastic will be eaten by the remaining yeast. I do agree though that many people don't pay enough attention to temperature control during brewing, it has a huge effect on the flavour.

small maltsters here in Mexico are not reliable, efficiency is all over the place with them, always to the low side, with bigger ones at least we have consistency :S

Looks like someone is using a soft box now. It look much better don’t you think?

I have a homebrew issue that I could really use some help on. My last two beers: a Marzen and an ESB have both come out tasting really watery. I've recently switched to kegging but cannot figure out why this might be happening. I've cleaned religiously so I don't think it is infection-related.

Ryan Sheckler is now brewing?!

My list: 1. All Grain isn't complicated, 2. Just buy quality gear instead of buying a lot of gradual steps of less quality gear, 3. Water Chemistry matters, 4. Buy in bulk, 5. 110v systems will make you hate your brew day.

I'm about to attempt to brew my very first batch of beer within the next few days. I'll probably make some kind of pale ale. If I could get some advise beforehand, I'd be very grateful.

How does sparging fit into the all in one systems?

I will turn down my fermenter temp now.

I know your not a fan of it, but do you have a DDH schedule with the fermzilla? Today marks day 4 of fermentation and have Galaxy/Mosaic on hand. Been having trouble retaining hop flavor even with closed transfer.

What’s the best maltster in the US pale ale variety? I usually go with breiss pale but the Montana is a bit cheaper. I buy 55lb sacks.

I remember my first brew I made was dogfish head 120 min IPA what a disaster hahaha I can’t remember what happened but I remember it was horrible 😂😂 👍🏻👍🏻🍺🍺

Does kviek yeast change your opinion on the importance of temp control?

Honestly..I dont agree that extract brewing is easier. Their is wayy more steps to follow. Not to mention, the chance of boil overs. Where all grain can be done like brewing a big ass bag of tea. I guess they both have their difficulties. This is my experience..that's all..😌

"... cannot be OVERstated."

All grain brewing cost more money for equipment.(Pro Tip -Stay out of your wife's baking cupboard)

maybe this advice is not for those just starting out. Ill come back once I know enough to understand what you are talking about.

Number one for me -> you're going to spend like $50k on this shit $200 at a time tho 😲

Cleaning and sanitizing is THE most important. Everything else is gobbledygoock. No single factor mentioned in this video will every result in measurable and noticeable differences in a 5 gallon batch. Where you get your malt from certainly doesn't matter if you don't know how to sanitize everything and introduce a bunch of bacteria while brewing. Staying clean and organized is far more important. The notion that the county of origin of the malt matters is also absurd, unless you're just attempting to clone actual mainstream beers. Like just buy that beer. Are you really gonna try and match water chemistry, pH, grain source, hop source, etc? Even if you do, no guarantees on 5 gallons because that's a rounding error to whatever brewery you are thinking about trying to clone. The REAL advice you should take is that homebrewing is mostly cleaning and sanitizing, getting your process down is important, you don't have to spend $K's in equipment, and rather than trying to clone a large-scale brewery, just brew whatever makes you feel good and what tastes good to you.

I’m going to trick my mind into believing I never watched this video.

Step 1 grow a beard!

Good stuff and thanks for the video! However, I think there is a glaring absence: water chemistry! This was the biggest thing for me in improving my beer. When I first started the "experts" I would talk to would just say if you're water tastes good it's fine and not to worry about the mineral content. Worst advice ever. Once I discovered that mineral additions were not complicated I gave it a try and realized how big of a deal it is, much bigger than very precise fermentation temps in my opinion. For the average brewer with limited equipment it is a huge pain and very frustrating to try to ferment at 65 instead of 68 (potentially with no perceptible difference). My water process is to buy RO water from Whole Foods ($0.39/gal) and use the Bru'n Water spreadsheet (google it if you don't have it) to calculate gypsum, calcium chloride, and/or lactic acid additions. Cheap, easy, and noticeable results. Cheers!

My first brew was all grain, I watched a couple of videos and it made way more sense than extract.