Search results

I'll give S04 a shot. This stuff is really easy to make. It's easier to make a batch than do a bunch of reading and research. Grape must doesn't have the complex sugars and nutrients familiar to beer wort, so I'm not sure what Ale yeast will do. Wine yeasts are more suitable for low nutritional...

I made a batch of Federweißer using Welch's White Grape Juice (Niagara grapes) and Lalvin yeast EC-1118. Going for the true southern German style, I let it ferment a few days, rapidly chilled to halt/slow yeast activity, and consumed within a week or so. The Federweißer style calls for: -...

Hops: I only used 2 oz of hops in a mesh hop basket. Only a tiny portion of the overall hop mass made it into the fermenter. Besides, I've done 9 oz hop brews, tossing them straight into the kettle (before I bought the mesh basket), and it was more compact than this. Proteins: I used 1.5 lbs...

I had a huge sediment on one of my brews: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=580992. I only got 3.5 gallons out of this batch, even after two days of cold crashing at 30°F. Still haven't figured out why it happened. Making another Hefeweizen as soon as my LHBS gets their Imperial...

I have a 4 oz bottle of Zatarain's Root Beer concentrate. I have been looking at recipes for fermented root beer. Most of them have beer-like ingredients (malt, hops, yeast). I don't like the current crop of commercial "hard soda" offerings at the grocery store, so I'm looking for a more...

Unless you're preparing starters in a barn with livestock, I'd use it. I switched to open fermentation altogether and never had a sour beer yet. Your starter is in a container with a 1" opening and it's actively out-gassing (pushing outwards). In addition, the Krausen itself provides a physical...

During the first week of fermentation, Wyeast Weinstephaner Hefeweizen fumigates my entire basement. It smells like dog farts. This can be normal for some Weinstephaner strains. After several trips to Germany and visiting breweries, I've switched to open fermentation when making Hefeweizens. The...

I'm interested.

I have a long (28") plastic spoon. Sometimes my conical gets clogged with highly flocculating yeasts. So I sanitize the spoon and give it a good stir. I've also used this method to rouse Hefeweizen yeast to get the cloudy suspension. I also have an old refrigerator box with a 100 watt light...

Pretty much why I read these forums.

Mostly because of poor sanitation, presumably, allowed souring bacteria contamination:

You can probably expect some good beer. Ramping the temperature near the end of fermentation is a good thing. I usually ramp my brews to 85°F for the last few days. This gives the yeast the opportunity to consume undesirable fermentation byproducts that they ignore at lower temperatures. This...

Remember that beer has been brewed for millennia. You can consider Martin Luther (1483 AD) a "modern" beer brewer compared to the Sumerians (3900 BC). None of these people had temperature controllers and carboys. They brewed open-fermentation in whatever conditions they could manage. There...

There's plenty of beer down there. Usually by the end of week 2, the trub is a compacted cake at the bottom an inch or two thick. In contrast, this trub is a delicate floating cloud in suspension. Compacted, it may only be an inch or two. During normal fermenting process, what mechanisms...

I have a brew fridge presently at bout 36°F. I'll toss the carboy in the chamber for a cold-crash. I'm not optimistic. I stirred the trub a bit again, and it's settling down exactly the same. What type of filter do you use? A steel mesh? Or something more sophisticated?

My Hefeweizen has a huge trub. Photo attached. Process: 1.5 lbs grain 30 minutes slowly drifting temperature from 155°F to 160°F. 6 lbs of Briess DME. 2oz Hallertau in steel mesh hop basket. Good hot break during boil and cold break afterwards to 70°F using immersion coil with ~55°F cooling...

I've long since gone to semi-open fermentation, at least for the first week or two. I leave top of my carboy open, or the lid only loosely sitting on the top of my conical fermenter. This lets the early out-gassing escape, instead of be re-absorbed into the beer. What early out-gassing...

I had a stalled Hefeweizen and dumped in some top-harvested krausen from a Imperial Yeast B64 (similar to Wyeast 3711) ale I had going. The B64 kick-started the weizen and made a wonderful brown ale. The 154F mash probably left a lot of unfermentable sugars for the wlp550. The 3711 or B64 will...

3711 will have white puffy clouds with light brown flakes of yeast flocks riding on top of the foam. The foam looks a little "crispy". 3711 krausen is very recognizable. Take a look at it. If you see crispy looking white puffy foam with little light brown flakes riding on top, it's the 3711...

According to the reference guide Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation, the yeast is still in the aerobic phase @ 10 hours. The author goes so far to recommend a second oxygen addition at 12 hours for high-gravity beers (i.e. 1.080). The yeast have mostly multiplied at 12 hours, so the...