Lately I've been doing some very large boils -- 7 gallons in a 7.5 gallon kettle. To prevent boilovers, I've been using Fermcap-s. It's great, and I've had no boilover problems, but I have no idea how Fermcap works or what's in it. What is this stuff? Other than preventing boilover and excessive kreusen, does it have any effect on my beer?
Been brewing for some years now and never had a batch go bad. But after I bottled my last brew there was a black layer on the side of the brew bucket(see picture). This layer was below the surface line of the brew when it was fermenting. It seems like there is some at the bottom of the brew bucket to. We didn't see anything while bottling, only an hour after when we had time to clean did we notice …
I've just gone to rack & bottle a witbier that has been in primary for about 5 weeks and noticed this white gunk floating on top of the beer. It doesn't look too healthy, what is it? Is it safe? I'm hoping it's just some undisolved dry wheat extract or dry krausen. EDIT: After bottling / kegging the brew tasted & smelt fine - great in fact.
The only other topic I found on this was here: Using pine in beer - it was asked nearly 10 years ago and didn't have the answers. Does anyone have experience with using pine in their brewing and if so, What was your method and how much (even roughly) would you say is an ideal ratio of beer/pine? Anything else you can say based on your experience with using pine with brewing? I'm keen to experiment but want to make …
I've just bottled my first batch and all bottles seemed fine, little bit cloudy but seemed okay. Last few bottles are extremely cloudy and almost look just like yeast. Is this still safe to use or do I discard it? Thanks in advance
This is my first time posting to this forum, so if I make some edict mistakes I apologize in advance. I have brewed this recipe, https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/beer-recipe-of-the-week-crabapple-lambicky-ale/, for the second time and this time there are white splotches coming up on top. I am fairly certain this is contamination but I am not sure what I should do. My instinct is to bottle it now and see what it tastes like when it is carbonated. This is only my second contamination …
Hi! Okay, so around month ago I made a saison with some mixed frozen strawberries (1 week in the freezer) added to the primary fermentation (fermented with S.Cerevisiae strain). After three weeks I've transferred the beer for the secondary fermentation. After a week the beer got covered by white coating with weird white "dots" arriving in groups of few (as seen on 1st picture). I'd say it looks a bit like Pediococcus, but I have not seen those dots in …
I would like to run a few brews back-to-back to build up a stock of beer. However, I would not be able to store all of the bottles in my house and would be forced to place them in the garage. My garage does not have any electricity and therefore no heating. Do I need to protect my beer from freezing if the temperature gets to about -10°C (14°F)? And if so, what is the way to do this? Preferably …
If any brewers here have made inquiries into historical styles of brewing, I have, for no particular reason, this question: In the American West of the late-ish 1800s, when a just-paid cow poke went into a bar and asked for "a beer" just what was he given? Did most beer come by train from back east or was there some amount of local brewing going on between St. Louis and San Fransisco? What was the style of beer likely served …
Everyone learns during their first brewing experience that you have to carefully sanitize anything that touches your wort after the boil to avoid infection. What happens when wort gets contaminated? How do you identify a contamination, and what can be done about it? Can you discover it before you bottle? Does contamination mean losing the batch, or can you recover from it? If you can recover, how is the flavour of the beer affected? Is contamination a strong possibility if …
To me, there's a really distinctive flavor in Warsteiner Premium Verum. I get a ton of it in Warsteiner, a fair bit in Beck's, and a bit in Pilsner Urquell. I'm quite sure the thing I'm tasting is malt-related, not hop-related. The BJCP description of 2A German Pilsner makes me think that "graham cracker" is perhaps the thing I'm smelling/tasting, but I'm really not sure. Perhaps it's just a malty sweetness. I've hoped for the same flavor to show up …
Since the yeast will burn sugar away generating alcohol & CO2 for as long as it can (until the % by volume makes the brew toxic, killing the yeast off), just adding more sugar doesn't seem to the answer. Although this technically results in a sweeter (sugar remaining after yeast is no longer viable) result, carbonation drops won't work to carbonate in bottles. How do you get a sweeter result? For example mead or ginger ale are typically quite sweet; …
This term pops up from time to time and it often cited as a reason to go to all grain. But maybe its because I don't really know what it tastes like. Do you believe in extract twang? How do you get rid of it, aside from all-grain brewing? Can you get rid of it?
I've just been reading an FAQ on different sugars used in brewing. Most kits specify usage of 1KG of brewing sugar. The first time I made a batch of home brew I used table sugar, but this seemed to make the beer overly cloudy (even after adding beer finings), very alcoholic, and it tasted a little odd. The second time I made a batch I used brewing sugar which improved the condition of the beer somewhat, and it was far …
tl;dr: Almost half of my pale beers have trouble carbonating in the bottle, being almost uncarbonated after 2 weeks I don't think I have ever had this issue with a dark ale or porter. Details I've been brewing for the better part of a year now, doing a weekly small batch brew. I've been brewing a mix of pale and darker ales/ porters. All of my beers use some protafloc for clarity All of my beers use some Clarity Ferm …
How much of an impact do yeasts strains have on their [beer] products? Is this a significant game changer? I want to craft delicious fermented foods. Beer, bread and pizza are a few of my motives. I have various (German) beers I absolutely love that I would like to propagate a culture of yeast from to make these foods and beverages. With the impression that these tasty beer's yeast cultures could be a factor that would reflect in the tastiness …
I did a brew last night and after pouring the wort into the fermenter i realised I'd forgotten to empty out the sanitizer i'd put in it. It was about 300 ml of Chemsan (described as "A blend of phosphoric acid, benzenesulfonic acid and isopropanol.") (that is, 300 ml of the diluted sanitizer, which, since it has a 2ml to 1 litre dilution ratio, about 0.6 ml of the undiluted sanitizer). So, this ended up mixed in with about 30 …
Cheers! I know there are a few good ones out there but I'm not sure if temperature is going to play a weighted part here. I'm from India and the temperature at the place i live in ranges between 25C and 32C. What would be the right recipe in terms of grain bill (for OG 1.050), hops and especially the yeast?
What's the maximum amount of time for primary fermentation, assuming the beer is going straight to bottles next? Will it over ferment and then fail to carbonate, if left too long in a carboy?
I've just tried the first bottle from a batch of APA I brewed and it has a very distinct (and unpleasant) earthy / peaty flavour. Reminiscent of healthy soil. The beer also finishes with a very sharp acidic bitterness (also unpleasant). What could have caused this? Is it a process error somewhere? Infection / mishandling? Just a poor recipe? Is it likely to disappear with age or should I flush the lot? Fermentables: 3kg Light malt extract (syrup) 0.5kg Dextrose …