TEN MORE HOMEBREWING HACKS: Tips and Tricks for Beginner Brewers

In about a decade of homebrewing, I've learned a lot. Usually by trying and failing. And sometimes by looking for shortcuts that don't impact the quality of the end product. For beginner homebrewers, there can be a lot of questions at the beginning. So we made this second video to help pass along some (relatively common sense) tips, tricks, and hacks for brewing beer, wine, mead, and cider at home.

What are your tips and tricks? Let us know in the comments!

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[redbeardthepink]

I have an addendum to that dishwasher hack.

I have a relatively small house that doesn't have a lot of storage/counter space, and recently when I was de-labeling bottles I realized that I could dry and even store them by throwing them on the bottom rack in my dishwasher. I mostly wash dishes by hand, so I don't really use the dishwasher that much to begin with, but this was a super handy tip that I think other people might find useful.

[SSmith-enwq]

Excited to see what you have for us this time.... My brain says feed me with your master mead making skills 💯👍🏼

[johnhubbard]

OMG, I had a client who never failed to clog his dishwasher drain/strainer with the most horrible gooey stuff 2 or 3 times a year. I talked to him and found he was an avid wine/beer maker and this mess was caused by old labels from cleaning his bottles.

[jonmoore]

I particularly like the tincture and dishwasher tips. Super cool

[conradwheeler]

I have a bunch of the little 5 gallon yellow/black totes, I segregate all my supplies into them. 1 with stabilizers, 1 with clarifiers, 1 with yeast and nutrients, etc makes finding my supplies easier

[micheals]

I got a 12 litre food grade bucket (with a lid) from work for free originally used to hold oil. I cleaned out the bulk of the oil by hand and then threw it in the dishwasher

[scottmiller]

The dish washer tip is brilliant. I'm also really excited to try the oxiclean trick.

[mdspider]

I put my bottles with labels in my leftover starsan in my sanitize bucket. One last use before I pour it down the drain. Does the job quickly.

[scottcampbell]

Great tips! That’s the first I’ve heard about polycarbonate hydrometers. I have yet to break one, but now that I’ve said that...

[JordanBridgman]

Bonus tip for the polycarbonate hydrometer - check the calibration on it. The first one I got was a whole 17 points off.

The brew shop I ordered it from said they checked a couple of the others in stock and they all read the same way so they thought "that's just how the polycarbonate ones are". The subreddit discord disagreed, so I figured that shop had a bad batch, and ordered another polycarbonate hydrometer from a different shop. Polycarbonate hydrometer #2 was properly calibrated and it's been smooth-sailing since

ALSO - I could not find a remotely reasonably priced polycarbonate hydrometer on Amazon to save my life. Had to order from actual homebrew shops

[Biretno]

2:40 WHOOOA WHO'S DRIVING THIS THING?!

[gtken]

I can't wait ! Kiss from France. ^^

[dakotah]

Good video. Flocculation is an underrated yeast characteristic if you ask me. It makes clearing so much easier. Compare an EC1118 batch to a K1V and you'll see what I mean. Shudder.

[bizarrenoir]

Do you have a link to your favorite Hydrometer?

Really enjoying your videos! Just starting out.

[micheals]

If it's not pure juice in the UK it's usually called "juice drink" and not just "juice"... Like blueberry juice or blueberry juice drink (which is a blend or watered down juice, sometimes with added flavourings and preservatives)

[kimcheedanful]

One thing to also be aware of regarding 100% juice. Even though it says 100% juice you should not assume that it is the same as "100% juice". Confused? :) What I mean is that it is a common ploy to label it as 100% juice and list the juice as being from concentrate. Why? Because it is reconstituted at a higher water level/lower sugar. For example. 4 gallons of apple juice is concentrated and reconstituted to 5 gallons for retail sale. Now we have 5 gallons of juice to sell instead of 4 and the consumer is the chump. It is still 100% juice but it will throw off your recipe if your not measuring SG and expecting the same sugar content as a non reconstituted juice.

[navtinder]

Just take that greatest hit collection..

[terrycuyler]

#7 Jam for fruiting try apple butter omg it's amazing

[redbeardthepink]

I would be careful about that second one. I picked up a cherry juice just to look at it today because I was curious, and it turned out to be mostly apple and grape juice when I looked at the ingredients. If you're trying to make a brew with a specific juice in it, you may not want other random fruits banging around in there.

[treyb]

I'm planning to make four melomels in the near future, 3 are juice based, one is jam based. No preservatives and all pasturized. Do you recommend adding yeast nutrient since pasturized juice and jam doesn't have as many nutrients as fruit does?