OnTap Magazine

It might seem too obvious to mention, but a first step to controlling quality is to actually evaluate the quality of your beer. Create a spreadsheet to record the batch date, ingredients, and other vital statistics of the brew such as gravity readings for pre-boil, post-boil and during the course of fermentation. Then rate your beer using a system like the BJCP style guidelines. Or just use a simple five-point rating scale for colour, clarity, aroma, and flavour. Note any off-flavors that may be present. Stress-test the beer by having it warm up to room temperature and then analyse it for off-flavours or aromas. Cold temperatures can often hide flaws, so this is a useful quality control procedure. Another pro tip: don’t just rely on your own palate when evaluating your homebrew. Because you are familiar with the beer (and have probably tasted it multiple times), youmay by now be blind to its flaws. Pro brewers set up sensory panels of trained analysts to detect issues. You can use friends who are BJCP or Siebel accredited or if you don’t know anyone like that, join a local homebrew society and take your beer along to meetings for some commentary. Don’t underestimate everyday, non- beer experts either. In my experience, non- beer drinkers can sometimes be unerringly accurate in spotting off-flavors because they don’t have reasons to sweep them under the rug (i.e. “Yeah, but that hop is supposed to taste like an old drain”). The key here is not having the single most complex analytical process ever constructed. It’s using what you have in a consistent way. The more data you collect, the more likely it is that you’ll spot patterns in quality issues. For instance, you may notice that beers brewed during hot months have more off-flavours than cold-month brews. Or perhaps the inclusion of a particular ingredient, say a local hop varietal, creates issues. Until you start becoming disciplined at doing post-brew analyses, you won’t be able to spot trends like this and if you don’t spot them, you can’t put them right. It’s tempting to share your all your homebrew with friends and loved ones. And of course to drink a whole bunch yourself. But do yourself a favour and keep a few bottles of each batch aside. Cellar them at room temperatures, don’t refrigerate. Ideally, you want to be able to taste the batch at monthly increments, for at least 6-8 months post-brew, noting how the beer’s characteristics and taste profile change over time. What you’re investigating is: The flavour stability of the beer. Is the beer great to drink after a week or two and then sharply declines after month one? If so, it could point to mistakes made in the brewing process (e.g. hot-side aeration, wort chilling too slowly). The aging potential of the beer. Does it improve with age? If so, how does the flavour profile change? What does that teach you about the particular beer style? Your packaging quality. If there’s something wrong in your bottling or kegging processes (e.g. cap sealing issues), time will definitely reveal such problems. Cross-batch consistency. Sure, you might not be brewing the same beer repeatedly (although as I’ve argued in previous articles, you really should), but comparing the same beer across batches can teach you a whole heck of a lot about brewing good beer. If you make detailed brewing notes on the day, you can check these to see what was different between batches to determine possible causes of inconsistencies. For instance, you may realise that when you use a particular grain supplier as a substitute, your batch doesn’t taste as expected. That’s valuable brewing intel! Because professional brewers have to run efficient breweries that are active almost all the time, they put their equipment under lots of strain. Consequently, they need to make sure that vital gear like pumps, chillers, and so on are monitored for possible failure. Homebrewers don’t do the same volume of brewing, but you can learn from the pros in doing periodic audits of both gear and ingredients. By checking the seals on kegs, the structural integrity of grain bags, and the levels of gas you have on- hand, you can save yourself an awful lot of frustration come brew day. More than once have I educated my next-door neighbours in the fine art of Irish expletives when I’ve realised that I’ve run out of LPG gas for my burner on brew day. Perhaps more important than checking gear is to periodically review the freshness and quality of your ingredients. Sad but true: hops, grain, and yeast do not last forever. Test the freshness of your grains by tasting them or steeping them to make a simple tea. If that tastes stale or off, it’s time to get rid. You can check hops and extracts for mould (a common problem) and you probably don’t want to be using yeast that’s on or near expiry date if you can help it. Most homebrewing software packages feature inventory tools you can use to catalogue and track your ingredients. Check for them – it will save you time and frustration later. Be disciplined and don’t forget that your notebook is your most important piece of brewing kit. Your homebrew taste tester will thank you for it…Now go brew. N U M B E R 01 N U M B E R 02 KEEP SOME BEER FOR LATER N U M B E R 03 DO INGREDIENT AND EQUIPMENT AUDITS DO SENSORY ANALYSES ŸAND RECORD THEM¡ A B C D ontapmag.co.za | Winter 2019 | 51