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 …
This is my first brew, so I kinda look at it as a rite of passage, but I had 5 gallons of brown ale fermenting in a 6.5g carboy. The airlock was super active for the first 16-18 hours. Soon after that I came into the closet I was fermenting in to an explosion. Needless to say the carpets ruined in there with a gallon or so of wort and hops spread on my carpet, clothes, and walls. I moved …
I need help. First time brewing in my life and I made some mistakes as expected. This was a 1 gallon brew kit. First indication something was wrong was after pouring the wort into the 1 gallon fermenter I maybe had half a gallon of actually wort probably due to the boil temperature. I filled with water as necessary. I then attempted to created a blow off tube. I had troubles with the blow off end staying in the bowl …
I can update this later with my specific notes/ingredients, but for now, just the basics...5 gallon brew of an irish stout. The morning after I put it in the fermenting bucket, I woke up to a mess. Foam had come out through the airlock and there was liquid and foam all over the lid and down the side. The amount of pressure building inside made it seem like the lock would blow off at any second (in fact when I …
About to brew for the first time. Making an IPA and bought Nottingham yeast which I just discovered says to keep at between 5-10℃ on the package. It's unopened but been at between 20-32℃ (those are the outside temps in my city) for about 3 weeks now. I just put it in the freezer (0℃) for 6 hours and then just the fridge (5℃) when I discovered the temperature advisory on the packaging today. Has it gone bad and do …
I topped off at 4 gallons rather than 5. Am I wrong for thinking this is low despite not adding more water? I'm now a day after fermentation began. I plan to do a secondary fermentation. How much sugar should I add during the second fermentation for an 5-6% ABV beer? Thanks in advance!! First time homebrewing!
I'm planning to make my first batch within the next couple of days and was checking what all thing i should not OVERDO (like bleach sanitation). Should i be careful before i cap my bottle (i don't want it to explode) ?? i was guessing most of you ll have something from experience which i'll mostly not give much attention . Thanks in advance
I am trying my first beer kit after trying wine once before. I picked up a "Summit Avenue EPA" clone of Summit EPA from Midwest Supplies. On Monday I did the 60 minute boil, cooled everthing to about 75 degrees F and pitched the yeast. Took a hydrometer reading and got an adjusted SG of 1.031 which seemed a bit low. I moved the plastic bucket with the lid on and the fermentation lock on into the basement which is …
I brewed my first batch of kit beer that required a kind of "secondary fermentation". That is after it was done fermenting I transferred it to another carboy and added the bourbon barrel wood chips. After 4 weeks, bottled it with recommended priming sugar. This is my first failure in brewing beer. After over 3 weeks it has no/zero fizz. The beer is ok but without the co2 it is not good. Any ideas on: What went wrong? What killed …
I recently made my first home brew batch using an off the shelf starter kit (English brown ale). The beer is much sweeter than I was expecting and the alcohol content is ~3-3.5% (should be 4.5%). Am I right in thinking that this may be because the yeast hasn't worked to its full potential meaning that the sugar may not have been converted to alcohol? If this is the case could this be because the yeast is old? Is there …
Okay, so I got a homebrew starter kit for xmas about 5 years ago. it contained 23 litres of prepared wort, a primary pail, a secondary glass carboy and nearly all the tools needed. I still had to get the cleaning stuff though. Long story short, the kit sat in my parent's basement for the 5 years untouched. I was careful to put the airlock into the carboy to prevent dust from entering, as I wasn't sure when i would …
Brewed my very first batch today. It is a stout and is sitting in my basement as I type. I would call the day a success--a whole lot more work than I thought. Hopefully only two things went wrong: I had a little bit of a boil over when we were still trying to get a handle on how to control the turkey fryer heat. I broke my hydrometer. In your opinions, how serious are these issues? Anything I need …
Ok, so I'm a relatively new brewer. I've done probably 10 brews, however I've always done it out of a kit and have kegged it afterwards. Brewing from a kit is super easy, it's basically boil it, bucket it, put it in a keg. I have a few questions though, since I'm trying to brew without a kit this time. I went to the homebrew store, told them what I wanted to make, and they gave me the ingredients, but …
I bottled my first batch of beer 72 hours ago. I am under the impression that bottled beer should not immediately be placed in the refrigerator, as this would prevent the remaining yeast from carbonating the bottle with the priming sugar. From googling, I seem to be be receiving contradictory information about when the beer can be placed in the fridgerator: after 3 days and up to the full two week conditioning period. (P.S., is a bottle-bomb the result of …
In short After approximately 5.5 month my airlock full of vodka has lost 60% of its volume and now has trapped a couple dozen of fruit flies. Should I be concerned for my batch of Mead? What methods can I use to test the mead (taste and smell)? Is this common and preventable? In depth Last November 25th I started my first 5-gallon batch of Joes Ancient Orange Mead following the recipe here: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/ (multiplying most ingredients by five save …
Being brewing for years, but will be doing my first all grain batch this weekend. What is the one thing that is key for me to follow/watch/do to insure a good batch? Thanks.
I started culturing yeast from a La Fin Du Monde bottle about 3 days ago. I have since stepped it up to a 2L container about half full of wort. I have been very careful about sanitizing everything and the yeast are growing like crazy. Right now there is a fair amount of sediment at the bottom and always a bunch of krausen along the top of the wort. My question is about the smell. I have read that a …
I just started doing a trial run of my first batch and I had a question. I have a kettle that holds about 6 gallons. If my batch size is to be 5 gallons and we assume 1 gallon will boil off, then this needs to be filled up to the 6 gallon mark after all of the ingredients go in, right? So I may be only using 4 gallons of water, and the extra volume will be taken up …
I'm attempting my first brew using a kit with all the provided ingredients (it's a lager). My brew is still in the big tub and has been there for about 2 weeks now. Initial SG was 1.040 and it's now 1.010. The problem is that the airlock has never bubbled so I'm not sure if I should proceed to bottling yet or not. I've kept the brew at about 26°C during the day, down to about 22 at night so …
My first homebrew just reached the point where I can drink it about a week ago. I used a wheat extract (Edit: It was this Munton's Wheat) and it turned out drinkable, but not good. It tastes nothing like a wheat beer. It is watery and sweet, and I mostly taste the sweetness and alcohol when I drink it. There is not even a hint of wheat flavor that I can taste, and the sweet and alcohol flavors don't blend …