HomeBrewer Vs Commercial Brewer THE DIFFERENCES

[@alanman5328]

Super interesting and informative as always. Love the style of this video too, very cool.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Great to hear Alan, thanks 🍻

[@timheffernan3577]

Would love a followup on this topic. Particularly interested in brewing a commercial recipe at home and the differences that result

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Tim, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻 Good idea.

[@andvil01]

A commercial recipe isn't that different from a homebrew recipe. But it is the way we brew that differ. Mash: Your efficiency are much lower than a commersial brewery. More malt! Put in som salts and check pH. Use lactic acid to adjust. Mostly step mash or decoction. Bigger volumes take more time. Mash out is important to stop enzyme activity. Lautering takes about 2 h in a modern lautering tun. Then the mash should be "dead". Boil: Pumping time, warming time, whirlpool time are longer, so your isomerisation of the hops continues for longer. A large vessel use the hops more efficient. You need more hops/liter at home. Maybe 50% more. You have to try how much. Fermentation: You really have to have temperature control if you want anything near commercial result. No under pitch. Make sure you get all the stages in a good fermentation program. Do not stress this stage. Let it take its time. From now on oxygen is your enemy. To get a pro result you need a good process not let oxygen in the beer. Clearing: You need cold crash and time for clrearing. Maybe also clearing agents. Bottling: If you want a pro result you need to forget bottle fermentation (exept for some belgian beers). Pressure in a keg and fill with a counter pressure filler. Cap on foam. Good luck!

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers 🍻🍻🍻

[@HOMEBREW4LIFE]

Congrats on 50 subs Braj. Well deserved! 🍻

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers CH, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻 Long road but really its about fun and sharing than numbers for me 🍻🍻🍻

[@kraghhansen]

Great video as always, and congrats on the 50.000 subscribers. I know that quantity means less compared to quality and becoming a great KZbin star has never been a goal but this amount of followers shows the quality of your content. More than books, friends, podcasts, homebrew shops and blogs I learnt how to brew from you. Thanks and congratulations

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Thomas, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻 I am very glad that my content has been of help, that is totally what matters to me rather than numbers.

[@treesmith79]

A part 2 would be amazing. Cheers mate.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers, many thanks 🍻🍻🍻

[@dannyarcher6163]

Yes, please make a follow up! Pressure fermentation vs bucket for example, temperature control and water saving methods when cooling.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Thanks Danny 🍻🍻🍻

[@TheWinkingPigBarBQ]

David, this was a great video. As somebody who is 61 yrs. old and both a commercial and homebrewer, in a second episode, you might mention the difference in the physicality of the work being done such as the amount of climbing, switching hoses and pumps, handling both full and empty kegs, whole bags of grain, etc. I brew on a 3.5 bbl. system, and there is a tremendous difference in how much physical work there is, because I do everything from receiving/storing deliveries to filling kegs and storing them in the cooler as a one man show doing most all the process between as well.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Yes, it is certainly a physically demanding job.

[@garriedorman9083]

Great video David. Looking forward to a part 2 hopefully

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Garrie, great to hear 🍻🍻🍻

[@paskrell]

Me too

[@PartyTimeBrewing]

Great vid! Congrats on 50k and would love to hear more on this topic. Cheers!

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@timroberts4948]

Great video. Thanks David.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Thank you, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@fleshboundtobone]

Quality video. Part 2 please! Water source & treatments would be interesting, and ferm temp control

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@rmg222]

My main curiosity about commercial is fermentation and packaging, sometimes I feel that the fermentation is somewhat rushed, and bottling or canning in home is something that I dont wanna do. Great video! thx!!!

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Thank you. This varies but yes it has become more popular to can beer commercially. It is very good for space effeciency for shipping and within stores.

[@Kveiksmithdaryl]

Great video! Congratulations on the well deserved 50K subs!

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Daryl, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@daviegraham4483]

Great video David, thanks again

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Davie, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@forlifeyoda]

I brew a ton of the same beers throughout the year. This weekend while brewing an American light lager, I thought about shortening the mash. I was going to start taking refractometer readings before and after sparge, this way I can find out if it is converted. I didn't even think of just doing an iodine test, I even have that in my supply drawer for home brewing.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Go for it 🍻

[@duncanbayne3078]

Thank you David. But it's all about volume and mass as well as 3 phase. Can they raise their mash tun from a dough in at 50 to next rest of 62 in 10 minutes or does it take half an our. Those kinetics effect the enzyme action as you know.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Sure it is but it is impossible to generalise as set ups vary wildly on power and volume. Some are fast and some are painfully slow. The slow ones tend to spend most of the mash rising temps.

[@andrevangijsel957]

Yes part two indeed. My only remark is most commercial equipment apply indirect heating so no elements in the vessels directly in contact with the wort for good reasons though.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻 Equipment varies wildly really.

[@martinremmel4535]

im looking foward to see part two i like to see a comparison to all the additions home brewers put in her beer Thank you

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Martin much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻 Thanks for the suggestion.

[@paulrobertson9439]

Fantastic as usual thank you Look forward to part 2 Cheers

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Paul, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@allanbrand]

Yes please, a part 2 would be greatly appreciated.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Allan, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@BroswithBeerandPants]

As a note, using Amylase Enzyme can help conversion for heavy duty beers. Imperials for example. But can also be used to help shorten the mash time on most beers if used correctly. I will be using it on any beer that should be over 9% ABV just to ensure conversion is done properly, that being said I can see it being very helpful with shorter mashes.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Yes, true that, many thanks.

[@tomoverton2138]

At a home brew level, Amylase is a very cost-effective way of ensuring mash conversion. I wonder if that carries over when commercial volumes are involved? Also, I've noted a tendency in my own brewing to rely on enzymes as a magic bullet to mash (and fermentation) efficiency, which may be detrimental in the long run to my brewing process and/or product. Best brewing practices will trump magic bullets every time.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

I never feel the need for it personally.

[@ragas0415]

Great video! Cheers! Yes please, part 2. A quick question, what was the footage used to show commercial brewing side? Is there any video that you know or could recommend that would let one dive in to deeper end of commercial brewing? Cheers

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Thanks Marius. I am not aware of videos that go much into commercial brewing of any real note.

[@wuyiwolf2660]

As someone who's done both .....in commercial brewing you can't just sub in a different malt or hop if you are low on what you need , the homebrewer can .

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Yes, repeatability is everything in commercial.

[@jonmccombs1711]

Fantastic job

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Jon , much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@shkraus]

Loved the video and I would very very interested in a part 2. I'm sure a fair amount of home brewers think about upscaling their operation one day to open their own brewery.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Great to hear. Yes, they sure do. Quite a big difference for sure.

[@JP..]

Another fascinating presentation DH, thank you. Part II would be welcome. Of interest to me would be the differences with large volume and small volume so methods for temperature for mash and fermentation and yeast choice for flavour or clarity etc. and also packaging, large scale that serve pubs and also the take home market and what differences this requires of the process to achieve consistency. I’m sore we have all experienced big differences between served product and take home…. And again, thank you for all you do for the brewing community.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers J P. Thanks for your suggestions, sounds good 🍻

[@tomoverton2138]

Great video, David, and congratulations on the new milestone! If you do a part-2 on this topic, I would love to see some attention to the art and science of scaling home recipes to commercial volumes. I understand that some ingredients may scale proportionally between different volumes, where others require a little more finesse to produce the same flavours in the resulting brews. In particular, I've heard that hop extraction is not exactly linear between hobby and commercial volumes, but I have no idea what exactly that entails. The Brewers Friend recipe editor carries the warning "Do not use this tool to scale up to production recipes without expert input" when you attempt to scale a recipe. Thanks again, and I look forward to more videos in this series.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Many thanks Tom, I missed this earlier but found it just now. Many thanks for your feedback. Yes, scaling for larger beer volumes is a different set of equations after a certain point for sure.

[@andvil01]

As a pro brewer also doing homebrew, the largest difference is the purpose of the brewing. Homebrewing is for me pure play. It is my experimental shop. I have the chance to make new recipe, try new ingrediences, try enzymes, hoparomas and other stuff available for homebrewers and some only for the industry. At work it is all about constant quality and money. To provide a product with the same standard every time and let the brewery have a profit. Yes, sometimes I can make a new beer at work, but it is often a mix of two base beers and/or puting a twist on a beer allready brewed and fermented. Dry hop, hop aroma, iso hop, malt extract, sugar colour, dextrines. There are many ways for a professional brewer to use part of a brew and make someting different. In that way you can use the full capacity of a fermenting tank (1000 hl) and still make small product (300 hl) in a pretty large brewery. An other difference is the documentation. As a homebrewer you make your recipe, brew it, evaluate it. Making some notes. In a professional brewery you need much more documentation. Safety sheet, none GMO certificate (EU), Primary pacaging food graded, according to the law, specification, evaluation of surplyer quality and safety. And to that active work against accidents, safe handling och chemicals, documentation and remedy of deviations, tracing batches throughout the whole process. It is a totally different ball game. So if you are a homebrewer thinking about go pro, have you really though this through? You have to do this every day, on a pro level, the same beers most of the time, make a living of it, following alot of laws both accountance and food production. If your goal is to make people taste your different brew, keep it to home brew. Make an informal bar just for your friends, and let them voluntary help you buy ingrediences to your brewing. If you really want to be a producer to the public, by all means go pro. But you have been warned!

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

All great points. Cheers 🍻🍻🍻

[@bulldog9708]

Love the animation David

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Thank you 🍻

[@FermentationAdventures]

Interesting thoughts and approach to the video. With the craft brewing boom in the US, I have seen various commercial breweries that are not that dissimilar from home brewers.. i.e. a farm commercial brewery close to me has a 1 barrel BIAB brewhouse, and ferments in conicals from Spike and SS Brewtech. Others have built brewhouses from repurposed milk equipment which are basically large single infusion, cooler-style mash/lauter tuns. But other differences.. commercial brewers are influenced by laws and regulations that of no concern to homebrewers. If I want a bourbon character to my beer, I can just pour it in, while pro brewers likely can't. Also there is still a wide range of pro equipment that is not available to the home brewer and likely not needed, like separate vessels to whirlpool or lauter, mash mixers, mash filter presses, yeast brink, grants, etc. But the biggest difference, is that I think home brewing is far more fun!

[@mrow7598]

One of my local breweries, Allagash started with repurposed milk equipment in 1995. It now has fermentors that are two/three stories tall

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing guys 🍻🍻🍻

[@wollewolfram]

Very interesting👍

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@davidsales5855]

Thanks! As always plenty info, precise, short and straightforward. I do enjoy as well recipe writing, based on % and IBU you suggest in your different beer style videos. Yes! Go for a part 2! I managed to get almost perfect an APA, NEIPA and Lutra lager. Once i am 100% happy recipes will be shared!! Still some adjustments to be a perfect beer Thanks

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers David, great to hear. 🍻🍻🍻

[@kevinchester4926]

Is it correct that fermentation temperature is more difficult to keep low on commercial batches due to the natural heat produced by larger batches ?

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

It really depends on the set up.

[@raydioz]

Hi. What software was used to give the rotoscope/cartoon effect? Thanks.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Hi, I used Final cut pro with a plug in for the effect called cartoon.

[@theculturebrewingchannel5619]

Definitely interested in part 2. Recipe scaling perhaps - I read that hop amounts don't scale to large batch exactly and you have to reduce by 30%? Also on yeast, a lot of homebrwers just buy new yeast each time.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Yes, scaling is not simple math but it goes into a more economic direction thankfully. Reculturing yeast is popular with some, I have guide videos but yes some are happy to keep buying yeast.

[@marcussoininen2084]

I'm in the interesting inbetween position of being the "head brewer" and host to a collectively owned B80 and F80 setup shared by a few friends. I've been writing my own recipes from the get go in Beersmith and knowledge gleanedfrom forums, books and of course this channel too. 6 years since I first brewed a biab wheat beer using sourdough for yeast to currently pressure fermenting lager and kegging and I'm still learning more every time I brew, this hobby is certainly a challenging but enjoyable one.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

You never stop learning with brewing, it keeps it interesting 🍻

[@FloppyJedi]

Great video as always David.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Thank you, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@duncanbayne3078]

I'd love to know how long it takes a commercial brewer to change from one temperature to another if step mashing, ie from 62 to 67 degrees.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

It really depends on the set up but usually they have 3 phase power, which helps.

[@araladventures]

Really very interesting! Hope to see part 2 😉

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Thank you, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@oibal60]

Thanks for this.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers 🍻🍻🍻

[@SeekDaSky]

This is a great video, very interesting insights !

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Thank you, great to hear 🍻🍻🍻

[@WulfPAK100]

Big congradulations on 50K subscribers David. I have followed and learnt a great deal from your channel for a long time. I have made many of your recipes and appreciate the amount of effort you put into each one. (Xmas stout is next 🤭). Cheers from Australia.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Craig, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻 Great to hear that my content has helped, that is the goal here rather than numbers. I really enjoy the recipe side and its great to share 🍻🍻🍻

[@WulfPAK100]

Knowledge is power, but sharing knowledge is much better 🙂 . Have a great day David 🍺🍺

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Craig 🍻🍻🍻

[@davidjbryant]

Yes, please do a part 2

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers David , much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@johncspine2787]

In regards to iodine, I think a more accurate statement is “iodine test only shows if conversion hasn’t completed, not when it has fully finished.” Tests show that there are still sugars being produced long after the iodine test shows finished. Yes, it may only be small amounts, but still, as homebrewers we can afford to get that extra 5% of flavor as an extra 30-45 minutes for mashing, or boiling, or weeks in secondary, or bottle/keg conditioning, it simply means ..having another beer or two while your brew day goes on..

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

I guess you could call it both ways really.

[@davec4955]

Another great video and part 2 would be great. I'd also like to see you testing out some keg king products 🍻

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Dave, much appreciated 🍻🍻 Sadly KK do not make that possible because I also cover KL products.

[@davec4955]

@@DavidHeathHomebrew with so many brewtubers covering kegland products, all they are doing is limiting their own exposure. Maybe they don't think their own products are up to being compared with the competition. Kegland seem to improve their products as a result of constructive criticism !! Keep up the great work.🍻

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

I totally agree. Trust me I have tried but no cigar.

[@AstroHAM]

Great video, like the animations

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Ferry, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@crashtke]

I love thinking about the next brew.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Me too 🍻🍻🍻

[@A2an]

It is funny, I have ben seeing old German brewing house the last few days, respect however some new equipment needed. Yes please to a second video.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Allan, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻

[@6581punk]

Probably should be noted that this sort of video applies to ales mostly. From what I've read about commercial lager production it seems as if shortcuts are taken. For instance, Fosters produce the wort and then add hop oils after for flavouring, not boiling them up the wort. I joked with some work colleagues that given most of the lagers are brewed at the same place in Burton (Molson Coors) that they're all the same basic wort with different hop oil flavourings added and with the weaker beers having some water added. I'd love to be proven wrong :) Even if the worts do need to be different, surely there's nothing stopping them brewing up lots of different types and blending. We all know shortcuts are taken.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

I can only talk of my own experiences, I have never had a hand in such speed method brewing personally.

[@kenfowler1980]

good video mate! i will note that in my experience there are even major differences between brewery’s within the same company - depending which market they are aiming for & the same recipe once it becomes more mainstream tends to be “cheapened” somehow - commercial realities i guess :)

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Ken, much appreciated 🍻🍻🍻 Yes, that is very true. Everyone has their way.

[@ninkasihomebrewer8226]

Thanks

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers 🍻🍻🍻

[@johncspine2787]

As a homebrewer, my goal is flavor. I can afford to use the finest grains, yeasts and hops available since I’m only doing a five gallon batch rather than worry about repeatability or cost effectiveness that pros have to concern themselves with. It’s fun to have really great ingredients lying around, and just strike out with “I think I’ll make an X today” which again isn’t possible as a pro. I think it must be a horrific disappointment to become a pro and realize the incredible amount of hurdles and constraints that are running against you. Look at how many inexperienced home brewers sank a ton of money into a microbrewery only to discover they couldn’t make a go of it. And yes, the equipment available for homebrewers is simply stunning..

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers John. Yes totally. I think many homebrewers glorify commercial brewing but frankly its a come down from homebrewing if you are serious usually.

[@chrisphilpot2324]

I'd love to see a typical brew day using the BrewZilla 200L

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Cheers Chris, this is not something I can do, not enough space for such a system sadly.

[@GodfreyTempleton]

Having watched and listened to this video I am of the conclusion that the homebrewer (me) with modern equipment and ingredients is capable of producing grog that is equal if not better than the commercial brewers. And it's all done on site. Like cooking at home with fresh quality stuff, why bother going to a Mcdoonald snot hole and paying through the nose when can do so much better at home?

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Very true, in my opinion 🍻🍻

[@sergeanthorvath]

Please ditch the comic book effects.

[@DavidHeathHomebrew]

Thanks for the feedback. It was just for this video