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I've had this happen to two beers in the past year- one NEIPA and one dry-hopped Belgian Tripple. In my case, the color and flavor change only happened after the beer was a couple months old and I had already drank most of it, so while it was still annoying it wasn't a huge deal. I'm pretty sure...

With everything going on in 2020 and now what feels like an unusually cold fall here in the Midwest, I really want to brew a big, dark, sweet, smooth, luscious beer to help keep me sane as winter approaches. I found this recipe for a high-ish gravity oatmeal milk stout from The Growler...

An update for anyone else who wants to try this: I decided to do just one gallon in part because of my concerns and in part because I didn't want to waste too much beer if it failed. I opted for the stovetop instead of the oven, both because that seemed like less of a fire hazard and because I...

Appreciate all the thoughts so far! My concern with flammability was mostly with the oven- evaporating ethanol into a small enclosed space with a heating element seems much riskier than just letting it disperse into the apartment. I also did a test with just water and found that my oven...

I've got a stout that's about ready to bottle, and I want to try to remove the alcohol from a portion of it. The plan is to try to heat it up to 175-180 F for ~30 minutes as outlined here. Yes, I know I may degrade the flavor and will definitely degrade my own experience, but I'm still going to...

I like this strategy because it's easy, worry-free, and frees up the carboy. But, is it as effective as lagering in a dedicated secondary fermenter? I suppose the size of the vessel shouldn't matter, but if I bottle, carb, and then lager that means the lagering phase gets bumped back several...

Conventional wisdom these days seems to be that racking beer to a secondary fermenter isn't necessary because modern yeast aren't at risk of autolysis for a very long time and so oxidation is the bigger concern. For most of my beers, I leave them in the primary vessel for 3ish weeks, cold crash...

As I understand it, cool fermentation is only necessary during the beginning of fermentation- most off flavors that you're trying to avoid, including diacetyl, are produced by the yeast during their lag and growth phases. You want to start the diacetyl rest during the stationary phase to help...

I've started rinsing yeast on a couple of recent beers and had good success. So far I've only done it for big beers and lagers, where a very high pitch rate is necessary, and my strategy has been to pitch as much as I'm able to harvest. Now I'm brewing a more average beer that I plan to ferment...

I've got an "altoberfest" brewing now with K-97 (German Ale yeast often used for Kolsch/Alt, similar to 1007). It's been in primary for 12 days between 60-65 F, fermentation now appears complete. The plan is to stick in the fridge tomorrow and let it lager at ~40 F for three weeks while I'm away...

I once did this several times in a row, brewing 4-5 beers each with the trub of the last. I didn't even bother discarding the leftover beer. I always had good fermentation, though the very last beer in this series wound up surprisingly dry and ester-y. I suspect that the yeast had become more...

Good to know. Head retention is one thing I'm curious about- I've heard that even minuscule amounts of dish soap left on a glass can kill head, possibly a similar effect here? But I suppose it's too late to do anything but wait and see. I've got vigorous bubbling and a good Krausen now, so no...

Tartness can be caused by infection. If your beer actually rises to the level of being sour, this is your most likely culprit. Fruity flavors are often caused by esters in the beer, which are produced during fermentation. If fermentation gets too warm or if you don't pitch enough live yeast you...

Hello, I've been brewing for a few years in a very laid back fashion, mostly making simple beers to enjoy with dinner. I've got about the most rudimentary all-grain setup imaginable, and have enjoyed making porters and pale ales every once in a while without worrying too much about the details...

I'm not a new brewer- just new to this site- but this section seems most appropriate for "help I messed up" type posts. I believe I have added a very small quantity of oxiclean to the saison I just brewed. After transferring the wort from my kettle to my carboy I went to take a sample as...