fermentation

Hi!! I am experimenting with fermenting directly in keg. The 2 first fermentations where done under pressure. The first one was a stout and good. The second one was a dobble Bock and was ... weird. FG was quite higher than expected. I put it under the pressurize fermentation fault. The taste...

Good morning guys, Before bed last night I checked on my brew that I just brewed that same day, well Im glad I checked because I saw that the blue plastic cover was popping off so I decided to duck tape it down overnight. The next morning came and I checked on it and found that the blue cover...

First time brewer here. I'm making a raspberry mead. I mixed my musk and let it sit for 24 hours. Then I added my yeast. Only afterwards did I realize I also added my potassium sorbate right off the bat also. Is my musk completely ruined or is there any way to salvage this? I've been advised to...

Hi Guys. When does Mead start bubbling and airlock starts to bubble? Roughly? My ciders start on day one. Mead didn't move yet on day 2 at all. I know it's more dense and honey is more antibiotic. I just want to get rough idea so it doesn't go bad due to lots of sugar and fruit in there. If...

Hi everyone, I had a batch that started to look like it had a bit of pellicle on the surface. I bottled it and most were fine but I had a couple of gushers. I put that down to the pellicle. I scrapped those bottles but opened all of them to check and 95% were fine. I immediately recapped to...

TLDR - Made an altbier, and my FG is too high. Is this a mash or fermenting problem, or something else? I made an altbier a few weeks back, and am now 2 weeks into fermentation. The OG was 1.050, and my FG readings (4 days apart) is at 1.019...giving attenuation at 62%, but I was expecting...

I majored in Microbiology in college and, like many I'm sure, I did not use the knowledge of my degree for much of my current profession. I do, however, still find the topic very interesting! I'm looking for a few books and other media types that go into the very scientific processes involving...

Hi All- I have finally decided to pull the trigger on automating my brewhouse. Starting with the cold side as I am a few months out from ordering my LODO Stout kettles. Cold side seems like an easier place to shake off the rust from my (light) comp sci/electrical eng university studies...

Hey all.... it’s been quite a while and due to my basement becoming a hoarders dream, I haven’t been brewing for almost a year. My basement is my fermentation and conditioning area.... and it sux I’ve been so lazy to clean it out. Anyway, before my laziness, I brewed a gallon of cranberry apple...

So my latest batch of stout, a recipe I have been using for three years, tastes like band-aid and it does not seem to be going away through lagering. What changed? I have a new cooling system for my stainless fermenter and the brew was kept at 67F for a week-long ferment. I let it rise to...

Hello everyone, I bought a kit for making beer some years ago and I have made beer now and then. I don’t have a hydrometer. What I always do is that I let my beer in my 1 gallon fermenter for 2 weeks, and after the 2 weeks I bottle. Now, for second time in a row something strange has happened...

Hello everyone, I bought a kit for making beer some years ago and I have made beer now and then. I don’t have a hydrometer. What I always do is that I let my beer in my 1 gallon fermenter for 2 weeks, and after the 2 weeks I bottle. Now, for second time in a row something strange has happened...

Hey all, I'm new to the forum and wine making and hoping someone out there might be able to help me. I have started a Vintners red wine kit and added the yeast as per instructions, so far on day three I haven't heard any activity from the airlock. Keeping an eye on it i believe it might be...

Hi! I'm not that experienced in brewing beer. But i have a keg. I just found out it's better to let the beer ferment another week after it has stopped bubbeling, and then bottle the beer. I heard doing this will improve the taste of the beer. Also this is to prevent the bottles from popping...

Generally it’s nice to brew with predictable ingredients in controlled conditions. You purchase your ingredients, follow your process, pitch your yeast, and leave your beer in a temperature stable environment. After some time the yeast consumes all the sugars and leaves behind its own flavor...

One thing that most brewers know is that your fermentation plays a big role in how your final beer tastes. If you didn’t know that before, now you do, you just read it. In this article, we look for flavor contributions beyond the grain bill & hop additions, and see how we can bend fermentation...

I think it is way more frustrating to not know what ruined your batch of beer, than actually losing the beer itself. It always makes your next batch feels like a gamble. Am I going to waste $40 and 8 hours of work again? How do I avoid making the same mistake when I don’t know what went wrong in...

A few years ago in the last golden days of a late English summer I brewed up a clone of the Dark Star Brewery's lovely Festival Ale. Everything went well on the day and I collected a good amount of beautiful wort. Unfortunately, after fermentation in the midst of a searing (and unusual) heat...

I have been using my BrewsBySmith Fermentation Kit for about nine months now and it has undoubtedly become an integral part of my brewing process. I've grown so attached to the way I can set it to accurately control the temperature of my fermenting beer that I won't ferment another batch of...

Nobody disputes the importance of temperature control in brewing. Are you acing all aspects of temperature control, from the brew day to the pour? Check out these tips from some of San Diego County's top brewers to see how your best practices measure up, or to get ideas for your next homebrew...