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I think PBW is more effective but I don't need it for cleaning bottles. I use oxyclean. The trick is to rinse the bottles immediately after use so there is no gunk and mold buildup in the first place.

My guess is it just needed a few more days to ferment. 3 days is really short. Even if you maintained a high temp (100 f) for the whole period I am not sure that would be long enough. What was your final gravity? Kveik Voss can ferment very quickly but I still let it go 9-10 days.

Hmmm.. the beer should be fine since the airlock looks to be doing its job. I think the krausen is just falling. If so, those mats floating on the surface should get smaller over the next few days. If they grow than it may indeed be an infection. I would bleach all the surfaces. When...

Patience is the hardest brewing skill to master. 48 hours is a little long for a lager fermentation to show activity but certainly not unheard of. I dont think any intervention was needed. If your gravity is now dropping you will likely see airlock activity soon. I would give another 36...

That stinks. Sorry to hear that. I have fermented 4.5 gallons of a 5% abv blond ale in a 5g keg with Voss. I did loose some out the blowoff tube but it was less than 8oz. The beer turned out great. I have fermented quite a few other 4.5g batches in kegs with other yeasts and not lost...

Good info above. I also use RO water for most of my brews. To keep things simple, just worry about adding Ca, Cl, and sulfate to this brew. The mg that comes from the grain is generally enough and bicarbonate is only needed for beers using a lot of dark roasted malts (IMO). I always make...

Ended up brewing the Blond Ale. The fermentation chamber is still on the to do list. I did spend several hours pondering my options....perhaps next weekend.

It makes sense to me. Those big packs are marketed to professional breweries. The slight risk a beer won't ferment as expected may be acceptable to a homebrewer but pros have a much smaller risk tolerance. Fermentis is basically saying you accept the risk if you don't use the package as...

I suspect they will be fine but I do think 12 weeks is too long for these styles. I wouldn't toss them without investigating. You worry about infection and flavors associated with yeast autolysis (meaty, sulphur, etc.) If there are no obvious signs of infection I would take a gravity...

114 is out of the recommended range (77-104). I am not sure what that will do. it might cause more of the orange flavored Ester production. I have pitched at 95 in the past and let it ride. I did not notice any orange flavor. However I was using cascade and centenial so perhaps that...

I plan to brew a Schwarzbier on Sunday. ...but that assumes I finish my fermentation chamber on Saturday. Plan B will be to brew a blond ale with kveik.

I primarily ferment in a 5g ball lock keg. A blow off tube as you described works fine. I do not add CO2 to the keg to pressurize and seal it and I have not had any problems. However, some lids just don't seal without pressure. You can use a little keg lube on the lid gasket if you want a...

Any chance you got a lot of hop material in the bottles? IME this can give a lot of nucleation points for the CO2 and cause some gushers.

Here are some generalized bulletpoints that you may find helpful 1. You can usually fit more kegs in a chest freezer as compared to the same size upright freezer or fridge. 2. It is generally easier to lift kegs in and out of an upright. 3. Some like to use a traditional fridge with a...

I have made a blonde ale with cascade and centenial hops fermented with Voss. The fermentation tasted pretty clean. I didn't get much orange (more grapefruit as you would expect). I thought I might be getting an orange rind flavor in the finish but it was subtle and pleasant. I pitched...

All of my bottles came from the store bought beer. I probably have about 200 in rotation. I am sure some have been used for 10+ homebrews. It can be done but some bottles are definitely better than others. I have a lot of Sam Adams and Sierra nevada bottles that work well. The labels...

The 1.017 on the first higher ABV beer seems pretty reasonable even though it is missing brewfathers calculations. I think thats about 75% (assuming OG was about 1.068). That's in the advertised range. The second beers attenuation does seem low even with the higher mash temp. What temp...

IME Getting your equipment profile dialed in takes a couple brews. If your mashtun dead space is set appropriately the issue is probably with the grain absorption setting. It appears beersmith is expecting 0.42quart per pound of grain. If my calculation is right you are saying you only got...

Ugh.. I am only replying here so the OP understands his options. I have bee called worse than a dishonorable skin flint. Haha If you live in an area we're the CO2 vendors only do CO2 swaps it makes little sense to pay more for the aluminum tank or to buy a new tank. When you show up to...

Just to clarify, I recommend buying a used steel tank if you will be using a co2 vendor that does exchanges (basically any of the national gas suppliers like Airgas, Praxair, etc). I bought cheap steel tank and was given an aluminum tank on every subsequent swap.