Just read this Beer and Brewing article on iso-alpha acids in hops and am trying to understand something. The 3rd paragraph in that article states: "Iso-alpha acids are formed typically during wort boiling, when hops are added, and alpha acids are extracted from the hops’ lupulin glands (or from the hop resin in hop extracts). Isomerization is the result of the effect of heat on the alpha acids. The process is both time and temperature dependent. The longer the alpha …
This is a two week old Ginger bug developed from organic store-bought ginger (not a SCOBY). I've kept it in a warm cabinet, not my fridge while it got established. I'm new to fermentation and brewing, this is the first thing I've ever tried to do. Since my bug was nice and bubbly I started a primary ferment yesterday, but it's the bug itself that smells like move theater popcorn. I've read that that could be diacetyl (sp?) but could …
I've made a new ginger bug from some pretty old ginger. The ginger has been sitting on my counter long enough for some of it to actually sprout new shoots, but it smells fine and doesn't show any signs of having gone bad. I got great fermenation, plenty of bubbles, etc. However, I'm told that a ginger bug should smell like "fresh ginger" which this one decidedly doesn't. It smells slightly medicinal and very alcoholic. Not sure if it is …
Brewed beer in 5 gallon bucket in my nyc apt then had to leave town bc of covid. Been sitting there 2 months. Will it be smelling up my apt or building? the water on airlock has surely evaporated. What to expect for smell ? Wont be able to go there to ditch it for 1 more month. Should i worry?
I'm just a beginner brewer, I have done just 5 batches of all-grain beer, some Hefe-Weizens, APA and an Irish Red Ale. For my next all-grain beer I would like to make an IPA recipe. But the two best IPAs I have ever tasted is the Fuller's IPA and Brooklyn East IPA, I think this two beers are pretty close in taste, being Brooklyn's slightly strongest in hop taste. I would like to know what kind of hop I have …
I recently brewed a second batch of Christmas ale, which was spiced with cinnamon, ginger, clove and nutmeg. I put a bottle in the fridge last night and tried it, but only a small amount of spice came through in smell/taste. Then I decided to open a bottle that hadn't been chilled, and the spice character was much more present, especially the cinnamon and clove. Why does chilling reduce the perceptibility of the spice? It is something chemically related to …
As Title sayes, Pretty new to the whole home brewing scene and I haven't really progressed past the kits yet. I've followed the instructions perfectly and I know I've been above careful when it comes to sanitizing, Thing is my bottled cider just has this eggy smell. I keep getting told this will go away but its been in the bottle now for about 5 months and it doesn't seem like its getting any better. (FYI its a Mixed Berry's …
I'm on my first try at a hop-forward beer. I tasted my gravity sample last night after about 7 days in primary, expecting a nose full of juicy Cascade, and just got flat bitterness. Should I expect carbonation to bring out the hop aroma compounds more than what I'm tasting, or should I plan on dry hopping? This is what I did, for a no-boil pale ale: 1.5 gallons (ferm vessel is a 3-gal carboy) 2 lbs light DME 1 …
I'm fermenting a NEIPA at the moment. It's 5 days in. At first the fermenter snelled great, the usual sweet and hoppy smell but now it smells weird like a cheap lager that's been left out all night. Is this normal? I'm planning on dry hopping it tomorrow. I do 12l batches and they usual finish up in 5 days and I let them sit and dry hop fir another 4
So far during all my brewing experience I've used (more or less) the correct hop variety, but with varying alpha acid content than required in the recipe. As far as bittering is concerned, I'm pretty sure that I'm doing the right thing by adding ((recipe acid %)/(actual acid %))*(recipe quantity). However I'm wondering if this is also the right thing to do for aroma additions. I.e. does the chemical component responsible for aroma (presumably some kind of VOC) always vary …
I have this problem with my beer and I couldn't find any answer from my friends, experts, or web pages. Following primary fermentation (1 week) I move the green beer to a food grade plastic container inside a refrigerator (25 F). Following a few days of maturation a strange smell (less in flavor) like wet cloth or dirty cloth comes up. I have found this smell in the Brooklyn's Summer Ale, in fact my beer is a summer ale (blond …
I haven’t started doing a lot of brewing just yet but I’ve had some ideas for beers I want to attempt to make. One is a stout with some cherry. I’ve tasted a stout with cherry but I ended up not much liking the overall flavor it brought but i loved the aromas I got from the cherry they added. What would be the best process to get more aroma from a cherry added to a beer without getting a …
Me and my brewing buddy have been brewing beers for some years now, we are pretty satisfied with our end products. Hardly any of that yeasty taste that can be quite prominent with home brews. We normally use dry hopping to try to achieve that hoppy nose known from many professional IPAs, this does however fall flat most of the time. We are looking for that aroma you can get with some beers that is reminiscent of the ones you …
So I tried my first barleywine last night, and went with one that was recommended several places: Blithering Idiot. Although not obvious at first, after a few minutes this beer started smelling more and more like Twizzlers. To the point where I'm pretty sure whatever they make Twizzlers out of is present in this beer in a significant amount. So my question is sort of 3-fold: what exactly is causing this aroma, is it an intentional quality (if anyone happens …
Why does everyone insist on smelling a beer before tasting it? To me, I don't want any preconceived notions about what it may or may not taste. You ever see a trailer for a movie and you think it's going to be awesome. Then you go see it and realize it's only so-so? The aroma is a big factor, don't get me wrong, and adds to the total experience of a new beer. But I don't drink beer for the …
Let's start by saying that I've done a bit of research about this already, so please understand that I am struggling to find a specific answer to my question. I'm using a Mixed Berry Cider kit from "Makeyourowndrinks", details can be found at makeyourowndrinks.co.uk and this is the first kit I've attempted so I'm learning a lot. I sterilized as instructed and measured as instructed and have attempted to keep the batch around 20c (fluctuates between 18c-22c at most). Around …
I made my first batch of ginger beer and it was delicious—but with prominent sewer gas undertones. This was a simple recipe and a quick ferment: ginger, water, sugar, lemon juice, and yeast fermented on the counter out of direct sunlight for 2 days until fizzy, then into the fridge. I'm using Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast. Based on blog posts and forums discussions, this appears to be a common problem with ginger brews. Unfortunately the discussions I've found are long …
On an impulse last week I picked up some German Merkur and Herkules hops from the LHBS to use as flavoring and aroma hops in a pilsner, because I thought they might be an interesting twist. But now I'm not sure if they will really fit the style, or even the style of a "light lager", since they're described as primarily bittering with some dual-use on the hop reference sites I've found for merkur and a conference poster comparing them. …
I'm getting to be a fairly experienced brewer now but this is my first experiment with sours. I read about using lactobacillus from yoghurt so I thought I'd give it a bash. The process so far... Simple all-grain mash, OG around 1.047. Sparged, raised to 80oC to pasteurise, then chilled to 30oC. Placed in a sanitised demijohn leaving the smallest possible air gap at the top. Just shy of 5 litres in total. Popped a bubble trap on then wrapped …