Few Common Questions

Hi, I am a novice in home brewing and wanted to clear few doubts before starting any thing, please help me:

- What are campden alternatives? (sod. or pot. metabisulfite or any other)
- What will happen if we do not add hops to the wort?
- What if we use bakers yeast in wine & beer instead of specific yeasts?
- What ABV in beer we can achieve through bakers yeast?
- Can we use "bleaching power" or "fabric bleach" as sanitizer?
- What will happen if beer is fermented at 25 - 30 deg celcius?

Hopfully these question can help other peoples starting for home brewing, so please provide your valuable inputs.

I suggest to copy qustions and answer below them, when replying.

Thanks in advance!

I'm guessing you're doing cider? if not, campden tablets are really not needed.

if you do not add hops to wort you won't have beer. you'll have some fermented malt that will be very very sweet and unbalanced

no idea about any of the bakers yeast question

as far as beer fermented that high, it will have some very very interesting tastes. lots of off flavors are produced in temperature that high (assuming the yeast don't die)

- What are campden alternatives? (sod. or pot. metabisulfite or any other)

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You don't need campden in beer unless you are trying to get rid of chloramine. I don't make wine, so I'm not sure of the specifics of different kinds.

- What will happen if we do not add hops to the wort?

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Even before the common use of hops in beer, people used different spices and plants to bitter beer. Beer just doesn't turn out right without something to balance the malty sweetness.

- What if we use bakers yeast in wine & beer instead of specific yeasts?

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You won't make a good product. Brewers yeast is made to make beer, wine what have you. Bakers yeast will poop out early and have trouble clearing.

- What ABV in beer we can achieve through bakers yeast?

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I've never experimented, but I've heard it poops out around 5% max.

- Can we use "bleaching power" or "fabric bleach" as sanitizer?

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absolutely not. If you cannot get a no rinse sanitizer like StarSan, or iodine, properly dilute bleach. Fabric bleach and powdered wash bleaches contain a lot of other chemicals. They will not actually sanitize.

- What will happen if beer is fermented at 25 - 30 deg celcius?

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Fermenting beer at this high of a temperature will create all kinds of problems. Mainly off flavors and high alcohols. Try to get your fermentation temps around 20*C

thatsme said:

Hi, I am a novice in home brewing and wanted to clear few doubts before starting any thing, please help me:

- What are campden alternatives? (sod. or pot. metabisulfite or any other)
- What will happen if we do not add hops to the wort.
- What if we use bakers yeast in wine & beer instead of specific yeasts?
- What ABV in beer we can achieve through bakers yeast?
- Can we use "bleaching power" or "fabric bleach" as sanitizer?
- What will happen if beer is fermented at 25 - 30 deg celcius?

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

- Campden is not needed for normal beer brewing.
- No hops will give you "Malt Liquere" and not beer. Your "beer" will spoil faster, taste sweet
- Bakers yeast will work. Yeast strains contribute about 1/3 the taste of beer. I have not used baker's yeast, but I hear it can be pretty nasty tasting beer.
- ABV of bakers yeast: no Idea.
- Fabric bleach usually contains fragrances that may be harmful and add weird tastes/aromas to your beer.
- warm fermentations will yield more esthers, fruit flavors, and some bad hangovers.

These are very common questions, try using the search feature of this website.

Thanks all for answers .... one more problem with me is I am from India where Hops and Brewing Yeast are not available (because no home brewing culture here - rest can be arranged) ... if any of you know any idea about where to get these in India just let me know.

Or any brewing store in nearby countries that ships to International locations?

(Ebay US has products but shipping is very costly)

Contact a few American homebrew sites like Northern Brewer or MoreBeer and ask them if they'll ship to India. Shipping will be pricey, but likely worth it. Otherwise...

For yeast, I would try to get some real yeast strains, then learn to harvest yeast. With a little work, you can buy yeast once then keep growing more.

For hops, you *could* try growing hop plants, but I don't even want to speculate what laws you'll violate by bringing new plants into the country. You'll do well to research hop alternatives -- before hops were used in beer, lots of various plants were used for the same effect. Most people agree hops taste better, but you can make some pretty unique beers without it using classical ingredients.

There are some MAJOR breweries in India. THey must be getting their hops someplace. Most likely they're grown in the country.... just like I can order Tea direcetly from an Indian tea farm, I'm sure you can order hops. You just need to do some detective work.

Few more doubts -

I have a santizer solution supplied with my RO water filter, it says add 5 drops to the tank and wait for 10 mins - your RO tank is free from germs. Its a non smelly liquid. Can I use that for sanitizing all brewing goods?

Also does any one ever come across recipe of Indian brand KINGFISHER beer?

Due to some problems Im not able to arrange Sorbate and meta-bisulfite but here I have a product called "Instant Stabilizer" which contains Stabilizer E401-Sodium Alginate & E412 - Guar Gum.

Also I have Sondium Benzoate

Can these be used as stabilizer to stabilize wine? Any Idea?