Search results

Well, when you ferment out all of the sugars in the juice, the acids will be more apparent. Cherry juice can be especially acidic. Read through the Cider for Beginners thread, and I think you will find tips to improve your cider/wines. Start with higher quality juice, for one... garbage in =...

FAJC = frozen apple juice concentrate What don't you like about the juices you have fermented, so far?

It is normal when the yeast are stressed, such as in a low nutrient environment like apple or berry juice. In general, a healthy fermentation will not throw a lot of sulfur. So, adding nutrients is one way to help the yeast out.

Some fruit juices just don't taste good fermented. What juices are you using? I would start in the Cider forum, and read the Cider for Beginners Thread, a lot of it will pertain to other juices: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/cider-for-beginners.508303/

You can add yeast nutrient, which you have done. With cider, I typically wait until I get a strong sulfur odor before adding nutrient, and I will typically ad about half of what is typically recommend. Then I wait a day and see if the sulfur is reduced. If not, then a little more nutrient and...

A refractometer is fairly accurate for OG readings Refractometers are not terribly accurate at determining the SG once alcohol is in the mix. You can get an OK correction using one of the sites out there, but as @balrog recently demonstrated...

If you are asking, "How much water do I add to the cooked rice?" The answer is, "zero." The rice should be cooked or steamed, just like you would if you were going to eat it. The fermentation process breaks down the starches in the rice, which is what holds all of the water in the steamed...

By the way, for best results with hops, you need to use a package that will block the blue-UV spectrum of light. Brown bottles are your best option. Especially when using the wonderful hops you have chosen.

Yeah, mine was present at bottling, but it definitely got worse the first three weeks in the bottle. Then it stabilized.

The last time I made an British Mild, I had an off-flavor that was almost metallic, despite fermenting in plastic and bottling. The next beer I made (same base malt batch) did not have the off-taste. However, the third beer was a Belgian Pale Ale that used some of the same British Pale...

Why do you use StarSan at such a high concentration? The manufacturer specifies the dose that they tested in EPA-required studies to prove lethality against standard organisms. You don't really gain anything by using at a high concentration. You just buy more StarSan. At the manufacturer's...

Typically, one would use the StarSan immediately before bottling, and it is considered a "no-rinse" sanitizer. There is a small risk to introducing microbes via rinse water, but you are using boiling water, so that risk is minimal. One thing that I would point out, is that your cleaning...

Shake your sample and let the CO2 come out of solution as the beer warms up. Do that until the sample is flat, then measure.

No, that is not correct. The refractometer is intended to be used on solutions of sugar in water (fruit juice or wort). The refractometer should be accurate for unfermented wort. Once you get alcohol in the mix, it has an effect on the refractive index of the solution. The refractometer will...

Typically, bottle conditioning will increase the ABV. You end up adding approximately 1 gp (0.001 sg) for each 0.5 vol of CO2. This usually ends up being about 4 gp (0.004 sg) added, and all of that will be converted to alcohol and CO2 during conditioning. Using the rule of thumb that ABV =...

You should read through the Automated Brewing forum: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/forums/automated-brewing-forum.235/

Sounds like fermentation wasn't done when you kegged, or an infection: bacteria, wild yeast, or the "dreaded" ;) diastaticus. Any chance you ever had a saison (or other beer using a known diastaticus variety of yeast)? OR... what temperature was the beer when you originally kegged it? If it...

Are you planning on pasteurizing? You would need to stop the refermentation in the bottle in order to maintain some residual sugar for backsweetening.

Azeotropes have nothing to do with freezing.

Those freezing temperatures are for pure methanol and ethanol. You are working with an aqueous solution, which means that the freezing point will not be the same for the individual components. Your freezing point of solution would change as the alcohol is more concentrated in the liquid, and...