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Hey! I'm asking about an issue that goes decades back to the dawn of my homebrewing career. Back in the days of canned malt extract with those "instructions" on the label and those 5lbs of sugar that produced a cidery brew that left you feeling like you swallowed a pile of campfire embers...

Robar, Were you using a real lager yeast? If so, I've known some strains to have a bit of a sulphury smell, or a subtle "pukey" smell during primary ferment. I ran taste tests upon encountering that, found nothing overly questionable about the taste, and took those batches to completion...

Wanderer, First things first: what is the temperature of your primary ferment? If it's anything over 68F, we might have found the root of the problem. Also, could a wild yeast be getting into your ferment other than whatever brewing yeast you are using? Are you using any rice-based adjuncts...

I also have a very large collection of flip-tops of the EZ Cap brand. I too have had issues with failure to carbonate and when that happens, I adjust that cage that keeps the cap on the bottle in a way that the seal is further tightened. That technique seems to work for me. I replace the gaskets...

Hey Chem, I too use those Grolsch-style flip-tops and sometimes get a problem with the washers not sealing. What I do first is adjust that little wire cage in a way that a tighter seal is formed upon closing the cap and that seems to work. OTOH when the washer breaks or splits, I have a...

Hey frizzel, I'm not too sure about the nature of the issue with the type of refrigeration equipment you are using but I've had the pleasure of finding books about refrigerator repair at the local library. In your case it appears the compressor let go. I replaced a defroster coil and a...

Stainless steel fermentors.

Willy, I cold-age all of my beers 3 to 4 weeks in carboys in an old large capacity refrigerator. At bottling time I just take it out, siphon immediately into a clean 5-gallon bucket, mix in the same amount of priming sugar (boiled in a cup of filtered water) and bottle. Cold-ageing causes...

skip, You can never turn an ale into a lager but the cold-ageing will impart desirable traits nonetheless. I cold-age all my beers 3 to 4 weeks and the difference it makes is like magic. You will get a cleaner, crisper-tasting beer, like a cream ale. If you go with a real lager yeast and...

brew, Is there a room in your living place that you can install an air conditioner and maintain a lower ambient temperature, or do the same in whatever space you use for your brewery? I don't know how much that would affect your electricity bill but it could be worth a try. I thing a AC...

Hey Phan, I've had the same thing from some strains of ale yeast I've used before. What seems to happen there is that as some CO2 bubbles rise from the yeast bed, they take a little lump of yeast with them to the top as seen in your pic. The batches I had that did that -well I fermented...

Well hey, I wouldn't be posting such a story if I didn't succeed. You are correct with your theory of the beer sitting around 35. Yes, the water there was about 4' deep but with the river being moving water, the ice never formed thick enough to walk on. Either way, cornies would probably be...

Actually, no. If anything the beer turned out cleaner-tasting with the very vigorous boil produced by an open fire as opposed to a less-vigorous boil had from an electric burner. I was actually scooping out the hot-break flakes with a strainer, and no, they weren't ashes ;-)

Hey niquejim, doesn't acetobacter need a steady supply of oxygen to do its dirty work? I guess we'll find out soon enough. I'll run another taste test at the end of the secondary ferment before deciding whether to take it to the next step: cold-ageing. If it's off-tasting, oh well... it's just...

Are you into gardening? Spread them in there and till them into the soil. They're better than sphagnum moss. May I add they are an excellent soil builder.

lol ISF Well I'm banking on the hopes that the alcohol content (at that stage) and the hops will have killed off the unwelcome intruders. I'll be tracking and taste-testing the batch between stages and as long as it tastes as it should, I'll take it all the way to the finish. Secondary...

Hey fellow brewers, I'm still new here but I thought I'd share with you an experiment I did while I had the good fortune of living in the country on a river shore some years ago and had unlimited open space to deal with the mess and stink that comes with doing all-grain mash beer. The...

killian, I'd be leary about any metalllic markings or anything on those carboys that won't come off with any washing or sanitizing. My first Q upon coming across old containers like that would be: "What were they really used for?" Is it possible they contained anything toxic at any time...

Hey DB, You could be in for some great suds when you get that up and running. Are you brewing authentic lagers with those imported European yeast cultures? I sure would if I had space for a system like that. As it is, I am using a large capacity refrigerator for cold-ageing my beer in the...

A kamikaze fruit fly dove and drowned in my primary just as I was siphoning into the carboy (first time this happened). I finished the job anyway but am I better off to just dump this one? I know fruit flies are foul little critters that carry all kinds of nasties that ruin beer. I marked the...