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  1. C

    Saison Advise

    The main thing that stands out to me is that there are no simple sugars. Saisons are meant to be dry, and have added simple sugars (plain sugar or syrup) to bring down the FG. The Belle Saison yeast will help with drying out the beer, but being extract, it will probably not dry out enough to...
  2. C

    No boil sour

    Did you boil before souring? If you did and added the lacto bacteria after the boil, it should be no problem. I don't sour in the kettle, but sour in the fermenter and then add yeast after it is sour, with no boil inbetween. Once the yeast start making alcohol, the souring will stop (really...
  3. C

    Vacation

    Wait, don't worry, it will be fine.
  4. C

    Does this look ok???

    Everything seems fine. No-one can exactly predict the FG of a brew. Even the big boys don't hit their FGs exactly. 1.003/1.004 is a pretty good FG, and is a lot lower than most beers. I assume this is a Belgian. You have done nothing wrong, and the picture seems fine. You need to allow...
  5. C

    Does vodka affect FG reading?

    Adding the vodka will mess-up your OG-FG calculation for abv. You should have taken a gravity reading before adding the vodka. 1.036 is a high FG. The vodka should have lowered the FG. Are you sure it is correct.
  6. C

    Every batch I make is sour

    Can you describe 'Sour'? Most organisms that affect beer (sour beer) take a long time to affect the beer. If you get a decent start to fermentation, most souring organisms will take a long time (months or even years) to make a significant impact to a beer. The one that will quickly affect a...
  7. C

    New and Obsessed!

    Welcome to the obsession. Pretty good advice from a rookie. Yes, fermentation is the yeast consuming the sugars and creating alcohol and CO2, but there is a lot more going on, and allowing the yeast time after converting the sugars helps to clean up unwanted flavors, so don't rush to bottle.
  8. C

    Missed my OG

    OG could also be low because the sugars are heavy, and the wort doesn't always mix well. If you take a gravity reading from the top, you could get a low reading. Why didn't you want the 'sludge' in the fermenter? It will end up at the bottom of the fermenter at the end of fermentation. Don't...
  9. C

    Brewing high abv beers and yeast slurry. Saving $$ on yeast.

    Once they are pitched, there is no difference between liquid and dry yeasts. Treat them the same, harvest them the same, re-use them the same.
  10. C

    Best Sugar

    I just use table sugar for additions and priming. I have not seen any difference between that and corn sugar, and it is a lot cheaper and more readily available.
  11. C

    Brewing high abv beers and yeast slurry. Saving $$ on yeast.

    Just harvest the yeast and re-use. 1.070 is highish, but should not be a problem. If you are concerned limit the number of re-uses to about 5. If you re-use the yeast within a couple of weeks, it is not necessary to make a starter, but only use about a third of what you harvest, otherwise you...
  12. C

    If I open a packet of yeast, do i have to use it all right away?

    Dry yeast will survive fine in fridge or freezer. There really is no need to store in the freezer; At fridge temps dry yeast will lose approximately 4% viability per year, so it will take 10 years to lose roughly half it's viability. If you do not use the whole pack, what you need to ensure is...
  13. C

    Clarifying homebrew beer question!

    I use about half a teaspoon for a 5 gallon batch. No need to use a lot. I let it bloom in an ounce of water for about 20 minutes, then add it to hot water (about 160/170F), stir and then add it to the fermenter (without stirring). I'm not sure how it works, but I think that by adding it hot...
  14. C

    Home Brew Kit - does the yeast packet or anything expire? 4/5 months

    Yeast is good, don't worry about it. Dried yeast will stay viable for several years at room temperature, and almost indefinitely at fridge temps. Fresh is always best, but kits will do fine for several months, even a year or more. Hops would have done better in fridge (freezer even better)...
  15. C

    Bottling sugar and Fruit puree

    Unless your beer got cold and stalled the yeast, they should have completely fermented the sugars from the Mango Puree. Check the gravity, and if it is where you expect it to be, bottle as normal, with the normal amount of sugar.
  16. C

    Can i use this Dextrose ?

    Just switch dextrose (corn sugar) with table sugar. If you are using it for something like priming, use 20% less table sugar than you would have used dextrose. Table sugar has 25% more fermentable sugars than dextrose, so if you swap it 1 for 1 with dextrose for priming you will end up with...
  17. C

    Clarifying homebrew beer question!

    I disagree. Gelatin will work to help clear a beer at any temperature. The reason a lot of people add it to cold beer is to also clear the beer of chill haze. Chill haze will not appear until the beer is below about 35 F, so if you don't chill the beer that cold, you will not remove the haze...
  18. C

    Paint Strainer Bag Question

    I use a bag to keep pellet hops out of the bottling bucket when I have dry hopped. I put the bag over the end of the siphon tube that I put in the fermenter so the hop particles stay in the fermenter and don't get in the bottling bucket. For many years I didn't use a bag, and still mostly kept...
  19. C

    Flat top stove brewing

    FermCap every batch. I boil 4.5 gallons in a 5 gallon pot on my flat-top stove, and not had any boil-overs since starting using Fermcap about 10 years ago. I'm sure there are different element sizes in different stoves. Mine seems to get 4.5 gallons to the boil in about 30 minutes. Also, the...
  20. C

    Newbie with some questions

    Off flavors vary depending on the yeast strain. Some love those hot temperatures, but most traditional ale yeasts do not. High temps create a lot of unwanted esters (bananas, cloves, apples, etc), and higher alcohols. Higher alcohols result in headaches. If a yeast max recommended temp is 70...
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