I have an ordinary bitter on tap right now that when I brewed it the wort was way darker than I expected from a grist of 45% English pale, 28% pale, 14% biscuit, and 13% white wheat malt.

Having asked a pro-brewer to try it and give me his thoughts, we are pretty sure I used Munich instead of English pale.

Anyway, it's a lovely, lovely beer that mighy kist become my preferred recipe for ordinary bitter.

What mistake have you made that turned out great?

Apparently starsan doesn't ship to europe anymore (Browland was the only importer and didnt find an agreement with Fivestar).

Since I dont want to take a plane to grab a bottle, what would be some good alternatives that work pretty much like it?

I really like the no rinsing and non toxic aspect since Im a bit clumsy.

A friend suggested enoidrosan but I havent seen many people using it

So I got some Wyeast because the stuff I usually use was out of stock. I followed the directions and did the smack thing. A bunch of times. Harder and harder. It felt like the little package was squirting out and then I thought it was done. I poured the yeast into my fermenter and then found the little packet and it had some brown liquid inside.

So at this point I guess I screwed it up. So now do I: a) pour that little pack into the fermenter as well? b) hope it starts working anyway?

If it doesn't do anything can I just go get other yeast and give it a shot or is the beer ruined?

Welcome to the Daily Q&A!

Are you a new Brewer? Please check out one of the following articles before posting your question:

• How do I check my gravity?
• I don't see any bubbles in the airlock OR the bubbling in the airlock has slowed. What does that mean?
• Does this look normal / is my batch infected?

Or if any of those answers don't help you please consider visiting the /r/Homebrewing Wiki for answers to a lot of your questions! Another option is searching the subreddit, someone may have asked the same question before!

However no question is too "noob" for this thread. No picture is too tomato to be evaluated for infection! Even though the Wiki exists, you can still post any question you want an answer to.

Also, be sure to vote on answers in this thread. Upvote a reply that you know works from experience and don't feel the need to throw out "thanks for answering!" upvotes. That will help distinguish community trusted advice from hearsay... at least somewhat!

Welcome to our weekly flaunt your rig thread, if you want to show off your brewing setups this is the place to do it!

Hello, this is my first time brewing/fermting. I made some cider, finished fermenting, backsweetened the shit out of it and bottled it. I used the Pepsi bottle trick of filling a plastic bottle with alcohol and waiting for it to be as firm as an unopened bottle of soda to know the other bottles have built up enough pressure. I've had them sitting on my counter, and 24hrs later, the bottle is as firm than normal soda bottle. Is it possible that the conditioning is done that fast? Should I pasteurize my bottles ASAP?

Hi all, I’ve been wanting to make umeshu with ume plums and saw a very similar-looking fruit today in the Asian market labeled as “June plums,” which I thought would be ume plums as they are picked in June. Apparently they are an entirely different fruit (Spondias dulcis vs Prunus mume). Thinking of still doing an umeshu-type infused liquor with them because why not give it a try since I already bought them, but was curious if anyone has used them for anything! Thanks!

I lucked into being given a 4 gallon Anvil Bucket Fermenter a little while ago, and was pumped to start brewing some smaller BIAB batches. Did my first batch two weeks ago, but when it was time to get the wort into the fermenter, I could not figure out the racking arm whatsoever. No big deal, I figured, so I just left it off and used the spigot as-is.

But now that the bucket is empty again (brew turned out great!) I’ve been playing around with the arm piece and just can’t get it to screw on at all. The threaded male piece attached to the spigot that goes through to the inside of the fermenter seems to be 2” wide, and the washer piece fits it perfectly to securely tighten it to the bucket. However, the racking arm’s female threaded part seems to be a smaller diameter and I can only turn it maybe 1/4 turn before it won’t let me turn any further. The bent arm piece then seems kind of loose and I’m not sure that it would turn with the spigot when trying to get away from it towards the yeast cake while racking. I’ve tried putting the racking arm’s washer in a few different positions (closest to the spigot, closest to the bent part of the arm), but the arm still seems suspiciously loose.

Maybe I was given the wrong part? But it looks exactly like every picture of an Anvil bucket that I’ve seen.

So… for those of you using the Anvil bucket, is there something I’m missing? Or maybe this is the design?

Help?

I'm down a bit of a rabbit hole and I could use some help. I like sexy readouts and capturing data I can't meaningfully interpret so I want to improve the automation of my fermentation. I run a comical and glycol chiller on an ink bird. I would prefer to run a dedicated hardware component to capture tilt data and drive heating coil/ glycol chiller as appropriate. Web Access, fermentation protocol automation, etc. Is all ideal. I got into brewblox tonight but frankly it's all pretty overwhelming. Is there a Cadillac setup for fermentation control? If it's RPI based, anyone got insight or learning tools?

Hey guys got a weird situation, might of screwed this beer up. So brewed a mildly hopped IPA, OG was 1.054 and fermenting in a conical SS fermenter with temp regulators. Using a tilt to monitor fermentation.

I'm on Day 4 including brew day. Fermentation dropped to 1.008 These conical fermenters go fast!!

I'm trying a new technique kind of like baking a cake. I wanted to catch the fermentation at 1.012 and stop it there and cold crash. Well I missed it and started cold crashing at the 1.008. Now 4 hours later my gravity is at 1.20. That has never happened before but I also have never tried to do this technique before.

Any ideas?

I was talking to the brewer at the local brewery about their ginger beer. They take it out of ferment early in order to retain some sweetness. He did mention that they need to keep it refrigerated..

I prefer a very dry ginger beer so that part didn't interest me much but it got me thinking. What if I kegged early and put those kegs in the pantry? Then I'd only be using CO2 to push the beer out of the keg.

Is their any collected wisdom on the number of gravity points required to carbonate a corny keg to a set volume?

Anyone else significantly stocking up on their grains and hops ahead of 2025? Let's face it, if a lot of these planned policy changes come into effect, there will be major disruptions in agriculture and expect costs of grains and hops to skyrocket. And that's only domestic. If you need hops from outside the US, they'll likely be even higher. I'm stocking up now to get me through the next couple years. I want to be wrong, but all the signs are there

A buddy and I decided to brew a 11 gallon batch and split it between us to see some differences. We did 18lb 2 row 1 lb caramel (crystal 10) 1 lb crystal 20 1 Oz centennial @60 1oz centennial @30 2 Oz cascade @5 2 Oz cascade at flame out We then split it into two 5 gallon buckets. He pitched Nottingham and is fermenting in his basement (which has been maintaining a pretty constant temp in the low 60s.) I pitched OYL 405 and have it in my homemade ferm chamber. Besides a couple hiccups with my heater for the chamber (which caused it to stay cooler for longer than I wished, about 62F) I now have it fermenting at 72F. This is my first time using this yeast. Anyone have experience with it? Does it do better at the lower end of its temp range or the upper? It says 64F to 74F. Any advice for where I should target? Should be interesting to see what happens.

Brewing some apple cider and accidentally left my blended apples out for a few days too long exposed after adding camden tablets. I added more camden tablets just now but will they kill the mold so it's safe to brew with? Photo attached. https://i.imgur.com/PTTrvAW.jpeg

Edit: dumped - thanks for the advice

I know this item is long out of fashion, but I have a 'new' never used Beer Party Pig that I received as a gift.. Probably 15 years ago

I also have 6-10 cases of plastic bottles available.

Trying to declutter and would be happy to pass these on if anyone wants them - I'm in the Buffalo/Western NY area

So tell me if I done messed up? Brewed up a stout last night and the target was 1.065 and I ended up short at 1.050. So to increase it a bit I added some DME I had laying around dry. After reading it looks like the consensus is to make a mini slurry/wort first. This was an extract kit with a few pounds of specialty grain.

Did I just end up contaminating it all? 24 hours in and it looks like every other beer I have done.

Moderators, please remove if this is not allowed.

But I am currently in the UK, and can't find this 2010 show anywhere. Not on Amazon.co.uk, Discovery (UK). It used to be on YouTube, but was taken down.

Does anyone have any links?

Thanks in advance!

I have two 5 gallon batches of hard cider brewing. It's all unpasteurized, fresh from the orchard. I added a little campden as well as 4 cups of sugar per batch. They should be around 9-11% alcohol. It pushes towards a wine or champagne some say.

I'm running an experiment that I accidentally thought of late last season while trying to save a batch that had too many preservatives in it to start fermenting (store bought, local cider with glycolipids): I have one 5 gallon batch that is just pure cider, and the other 5 gallon batch is the same cider with about 6 apples worth of mash that was placed on top during fermentation. Cored and skinned.

You can see the current difference here: https://imgur.com/a/IAN98hb . As expected, the one with mash is cloudier and yellow, even though I added pectic acid in fermentation.

From last year's experiment, the one with mash will take a solid 3 months to finally clarify, even with pectic acid. I was super worried it would never look satisfying, but it did come around out of nowhere one weekend. The pure one will clarify within the next week (two weeks total, or so).

But what about the taste? The one with apple mash last year had a much rounder, up front apple-y flavor than the pure one. That apple-y flavor also stays even the entire time, whereas the pure one's light flavor rolls off pretty quickly. The pure one is very crisp and completely dry. It leaves you with a smack. FYI I don't back sweeten my ciders.

ALSO, the one with mash never was fully able to remove all of the sugars. Even after 9 months. I'm not sure what the science is behind this, but there's something interfering with it. Alas... it actually tasted amazing because of this. I thought it was slightly sweet because I'm used to dry ciders, but everyone I know who drinks regular ciders said it was very dry. That's literally the perfect mix in my opinion. A dry, round apple taste that so many dry ciders seem to lack, with just a small amount of sugar to not enhance the diabetes. Drinking a slightly dry local cider felt 3x as sweet.

Has anyone ever heard of this happening so far? It was such a pleasant surprise for someone who hates back sweetening.

Howdy!
I've got ~6.6 gallon (25L) kettle with a false bottom, because i use tubular electric heater to heat my water. False bottom covers my pot at ~2.1 gallon mark (8L), so there's 4.5 gallon available for direct malt/water interaction. I'll brew with a bag (BIAB), because i've got only my kettle, no other vessels, so there will be some sparging for sure. What batch volumes can i do?

Hi everyone, so I got some kegs from a scrap yard and I've been looking into caring for them. I haven't cleaned or passivated them yet, since i've just been researching what chemicals ill need. I have a cleaner and I'll use citric acid, but is there anyway I can test for any minor presence of rust after passivation?

I've read up on potassium ferricyanide and phenolphthalein used in feroxyl tests, but also see it is not recommended when the steel is used for food processing.

Can't I just rinse thoroughly or should I rather be using the water immersion test?

Or, is a minor presence of rust highly unlikely if the surface looks clean? Thanks!

My first beer I've written myself with repeatable and consistent results. Very simple but perfect for dialing in your system. Originally brewed for my friends and family who aren't so IPA/stout inclined. But turned out so drinkable that it keeps getting brewed again. Also an relaxing, cheap and easy brew day.

Cream Ale ABV: 4.6% OG: 1.044 FG: 1.010 IBU: 17.9

Spring water base Chloride: 60.4 PPM Sulphate: 75.6 PPM Sodium: 4.9PPM Calcium: 51.1PPM

60min mash 82% US pale malt 15% flaked corn 3% biscuit malt

Mash PH without any adjustments seems to come out around 5.4 (must be the corn IDK)

60min boil Saaz @60mins 4.3 IBU's Saaz @30mins 6.7IBU's Northern brewer @15min 6.9 IBU's

Whirlfloc @15min

Chilled down to 22c and let fridge cool the rest of the way down too 17°c. About 5 hours.

Pitched Novalager.

Fermention schedule: 5 days @17°c 2 days @18°c 2 days @19°c 3 days @20°c

Cold crash and closed transfer to a keg

So I bought some stuff of Facebook marketplace including the 6.5 (I think) plastic big mouth bubbler because the guy was offering it for dirt cheap as an add on, but once I got home, I realized there's no gasket inside to properly seal it.

Anyone know where I can get one that would fit?

I went to make beer today and water was leaking from the tap. I tried tightening it etc but it seems to be leaking from a joint on the tap itself. Also there is a visible piece of white plastic when looking through the end that I'm sure wasn't there before partially blocking the flow, suggesting something has moved inside . Anyone know if these things can be dismantled and fixed or am I buying a new one ?

I came across the video by The Malt Miller youtube channel, about the smallest kegerator build. I'm looking to build something similar, using the same 2 4L Kegland Oxebar kegs that they use. Anyone have success fitting the two 4Ls into a standard 1.7 cubic foot mini fridge? The one they use has no compressor hump, but I'm having trouble finding something similar where I live.

TIA!

Welcome to the Daily Q&A!

Are you a new Brewer? Please check out one of the following articles before posting your question:

• How do I check my gravity?
• I don't see any bubbles in the airlock OR the bubbling in the airlock has slowed. What does that mean?
• Does this look normal / is my batch infected?

Or if any of those answers don't help you please consider visiting the /r/Homebrewing Wiki for answers to a lot of your questions! Another option is searching the subreddit, someone may have asked the same question before!

However no question is too "noob" for this thread. No picture is too tomato to be evaluated for infection! Even though the Wiki exists, you can still post any question you want an answer to.

Also, be sure to vote on answers in this thread. Upvote a reply that you know works from experience and don't feel the need to throw out "thanks for answering!" upvotes. That will help distinguish community trusted advice from hearsay... at least somewhat!

This sounds like a dumb question , usually the concern is the flip side. However: I did a tripel over the weekend, pitched the yeast Sunday, yesterday she started bubbling, all was good. This morning I get up, and the hose had clogged, blown the plug out of the lid of my conical, and yeast was everywhere. It's happened before, not great, but I'll deal with some oxygenation.

Well, this entire day it's been an issue. Berm has been filling the tube, getting clogged, and I need to clean it out. I've done it probably every 45 minutes, thank god I work from home and didn't have anything to do today.

Well, it's now 11:15, it's clogged again, I'd like to sleep at some point tonight, any advice?

Also, just so everyone knows the equipment, I'm fermenting in a catalyst, I only have 5 gallons of beer in there.

EDIT in case anyone runs into this: I ended up closing the butterfly valve on the bottom and taking the lid off for about an hour and the krausen went down. I (sanitized everything first) put the lid back on and set up the blowoff tube again and went to bed with fingers crossed.

When I got up there was a normal amount of blowoff in the bucket, so I opened the butterfly valve again and it released a decent amount of pressure, but seems to have worked mostly. I'll buy some fermcap for next time based on other comments lol

Hi everyone,

I've been trying to do a closed-transfer, and would like to understand how to optimize it.

I ferment my beer under pressure, and may have left my fermenter (10 gal) around 5psi (with probably around... 2-3 gal of CO2). I elevate my fermenter as well, to try to use gravity as well.

Below, I put my receiving 5Gal keg. It's been purged, and probably started with 10psi.

My goal is to make a closed circuit, connecting liquid to liquid and gas to gas posts. So that the purged keg's pressure pushed the beer down in the keg.

Now I understand there should be a slight differential for the beer to flow properly, but I would like to find the best (efficient and fast). I think the pressure in the fermenting keg should be slightly higher than the receiving keg.

I've fooled around with relieving pressure here and there, trying to make things flow... and wasn't sure things were moving well. That being said, after a while, I noticed the receiving keg was indeed getting heavier... but it was very slow!

• is there a "best" order in which to connect, to have an optimal flow?
• What's the best way to make the flow the fastest possible?
• is it possible to have a fully closed-circuit, so has to seldom relieve pressure and keep it in the kegs as possible?

Thank you !

Hey guys,

I'm a beginner at home brewing (if I can say so), because at the moment I live in an apartment, so I buy beer wort and ferment it. Eventually, I'd like to do the whole process, but with the space I've got, for the moment that's what I can afford to do, and it makes me practice the fermentation process for now.

So anyway, I need some advice because I think I'm getting in the way of making a blunder.

Right now, I have a fermenting stout wort to which I've added butterscotch. I've been researching how much butterscotch to add, how and when to incorporate it into the beer, but what I've missed is that I've just realized that there's already a lot of sugar in it (I added 300ml of butterscotch to a 23L wort. Butterscotch has 20g of sugar per 30ml, so a total of 200g of sugar already in the beer).

I'm bottling this beer in the next few days, and normally add dextrose before bottling.

With a good amount of sugar already, I'd like to have your advice for the next step because I haven't found a concrete answer on what I should do? I imagine I won't have to add as much priming sugar as if I hadn't added the butterscotch, but how much do you think I should add to get a good carbonation?

Normally, the company where I buy the wort mentions adding 230g of dextrose diluted in 2 cups of hot water. Maybe I'm worrying too much and the answer is simply to add the remaining 30g, but what bothers me is that I imagine the sugar in butterscotch doesn't create the same level of carbonation as a priming sugar.

I brewed a stout (7.5%), added carb drops at bottling (2 week primary), it sat a room temp for 1 month or so in the bottles, then I fridged for 2 weeks. Just popped one, and it’s barely carbonated. What the heck happened?