I'm trying to brew "non-alcoholic" (<0.5% abv) beer using the BIAB method by using a smaller amount of grain than is typical. I'm happy with the resulting beer except that I believe the final pH is too high and the bottled beer is potentially unsafe. I've tried using acidulated malt but the final pH is still too high, so I'm now planning to use lactic acid to reduce the pH. I've been unable to find answers to the following questions, …
I have made ginger beer from my own "ginger bug" but did not get much carbonation. I think I put it in the refrigerator too soon, so I took one bottle out, let it sit for 2 days and VIOLA, carbonation is perfect. Question: Will my ginger beer still be okay (safe) for drinking if I take the bottles out of the refrigerator, let them sit for a couple days and then put them back in the refrigerator?
Last Saturday I bottled a batch while developing symptoms that by now seem like covid. Assuming the test comes back positive, should I throw the batch or is it safe for consumption? And generally, is there any part of the brewing process where the beer can "catch" the virus and help spread it through consumption?
I have some dried malt extract that’s been sitting in the basement for mumble years. It’s turned into a brick. Is it safe to use this in brewing a new batch of beer? I realize that it may have picked up flavors from the basement, but is it otherwise safe to use? Elsewhere I’ve seen references to DME having a shelf life of a year. Why is that? DME is nearly all sugar, isn’t it? Elsewhere I read that DME …
There is a history of people using oak barrels to age and mature beer. These days people often use bourbon soaked oak chips to flavour beer in the secondary. Also, I have seen people asking about using maple, spruce and pine on the site? Regarding, spruce/pine they have been looking for a pine/spruce flavour that you would get from the needles. What experience have people had using these and are there any woods you should avoid due to health/food safety …
The dominant color of my scoby is, for lack of a better color vocabulary, light plum. But there are some whiteish bits which concern me a bit. I would say it smells fairly fresh (and sour) and tastes pretty good. Any thoughts?
I bought this plastic mash paddle for stirring my boiling wort, but now that I'm actually about to use it...I'm wondering if these types of paddles are only safe for things like steeping temperatures. My bort maintains a rolling boil north of 212°F...can I use this paddle to stir it?
I've got a small bag of whole barley malt. After doing a bit of reading I'm getting conflicting information. Some say the outer hull in not edible, while others say it is fine and a good source of fiber. Take this yahoo answer for example, which indicates that unhulled wheat is the same as whole wheat. I don't think that's true, as I'm under the impression that the outer hull or chaff is not the same thing as the bran …
I'm just starting out with homebrewing. I've ordered a starter set and am digging into some books. My primary concern right now is safety -- I don't want to accidentally make my friends and family sick. Are there any ways to test for health safety, or any dead giveaways that something is wrong?
We are making a home made batch of huckleberry wine for halloween. We filled a Cleaned milk jug 3 quarters of the way with water, then we drained the juice, put it in the milk jug, and added a small package of yeast, and 1 cup of sugar. The Milk jug is 3 quarters of the way full still. It's been sitting for almost 4 weeks. We now have this weird film over the top layer of liquid. I don't …
A friend gave us a bottle of homemade red wine a year ago. (They're Italian and they make wine every year). It's been sitting in our dining room, stored on its side. We started to notice that the cork was starting to push itself out. We uncorked it, poured a few glasses and tasted it. It still tastes fine, but the wine has a little fizz to it. I drank a small glass 30 minutes ago and I still seem …
I have a digital thermometer with a probe. The probe is stainless steel but the cable and probe housing are apparently made of PVC. In my last brew I just submerged the whole probe in the boiler before the grain steep and left it there until I had cooled the wort. It was a 75m boil. It's occurred to me now that this was a really stupid idea. The thermometer still seems to be working ok but I'm worried that …
Very bad potatoes seems to have some sort of acid and other poisonous items formed. A suggestion in Cooking.SO, here, proposes distilling vodka with old potatoes, having a link that overlooks the issue for example with distillation "[n]ot that difficult really" while I think the reality is a bit different: fatal accidents here and here. My question is now not distillation but homebrewing with poor old materials. I am unsure whether I can draw an analogy between distilled products and …