No Chill

[JonB]

Hi BigEars,

It doesn't sound like you've had the best start to this hobby. I suspect half the problem is the information you have isn't great (hence the query about books).

In my experience, Youtube can be a fantastic resource if you know what you are looking for. Unfortunately for every decent bit of content there is at least three bits of utter garbage that are misleading or just outright wrong, and that unfortunately makes it a minefield for a novice brewer. I would never advocate learning a new skill from scratch using Youtube...

With a dump rate of ~80% I would seriously consider going back to Square 1 and read one or both of the below (I'm sure others will chip in with their recommendations):

John Palmer -How to Brew
a classic, I believe there is a new edition coming out soon but the current one should be more than good enough to get you going

Greg Hughes -Home Brew Beer revised edition
the instructions are not as detailed, but they are clear. It does however contain a load of very good recipes for most styles to get you going. The 1st edition is the book I cut my teeth on 10 years ago, brewing the recipes as shown and I really liked the results. I still use this as a reference when designing new recipes for unfamilar styles.


My suggestion would be to read through these, and brew at least a handful of recipes as shown. Once you fully understand the processes then you should be able to tweak them to your preferences and get drinkable beer, as you'll also have a good idea of what "works." Youtube can build on this with things like "no chill" and other fun tweaks/techniques/recipes but without a decent foundation knowledge (which the above will give you once you've made a few brews) then you'll struggle to work out what is useful and what is garbage.

[IPA]

A very simple question. What books have you got,or read, on home brewing ?
Got no books and only read on forums and watched on youtube

The solution to your problem is this. Buy a decent book on home brewing. I suggest the last book by the late Graham Wheeler. Read it cover to cover several times and then brew a beer following closely the instructions. You will not find in it any advice on how to brew cloudy hop soup which seem to be your preferred styles but the recipe section provides lots of tried and tested recipes for traditional English beer. Once you have mastered that you can experiment with beers in your style of choice.
I hope this is of some help.
Ian

[MashBag]

Ian,

I could not have put it better.
Ditto Grahams book.

[BigEars]

Thank You MashBag and also JonB and everyone else that have contributed to my thread ,i will say advice taken and now searching for a couple of Books to read upon Brewing BEER.
THANK YOU ALL
Regards Tony

[drjim]

Where are you located BigEars, maybe you copuld observe someone else doing it in real world to work it out as well.

[MarkA]

BigEars, could it be that your expectations are far too high? I've made beers in the past that have turned out nothing like what I set out to brew, but they have always been drinkable. Some have even been a bit boring and lacking in something, but they still got finished, and the recipe got tweaked on subsequent brews to get it closer to where it should be.

As has been said, all the 'faults' you mention (too bitter, too frothy, flat etc) can be easily rectified and none of those are any reason to ditch a beer. Are you drinking it young? If so, too bitter and too flat would be sorted if you leave it longer. Too frothy? Chill the beer and chill out (and use less priming sugar/gas next time). If the fault is down to an infection, clean more thoroughly, be more careful, and/or change your process/cleaning products.

I agree, buy Graham's book and have a go at a couple of the tried and tested recipes. Making beer is easy, good beer comes with a bit of practice and patience. Good luck!