Frequently Asked Questions For The New Brewer

[labels]

Adding glucose (aka dextrose) will increase alcohol, whether that helps with body and mouthfeel depends on the beer style*. It's probably more reliable to add a little maltodextrin if you wish to increase the perception of fullness.

* Higher alcohol increases the perception of bitterness, which can in turn alter the perceived balance of the beer.

I stand corrected, maltodextrin was the word I was looking for

 

[Bandit24]

Anyone seen a yeast cake that has a distinct baby-pink colour to it? Like a baby-pink, light-grey kinda colour?
I've had 2 batches with that now, and both batches had off flavours. The first one a kinda of soapy/alcohol flavour, the second one a kinda underlying winey flavour. Both were drinkable but just not very enjoyable with those flavours. The flavour of course could be completely unrelated, but either way I'd like to know the pink yeast cake is the cause of anything i'm doing wrong, or if its normal??
I know there are a lot more variables, but basically both batches were like this: pale ale fresh wort kits, US-05, perfect temp controlled 18c ferment, cleaned (brewers sodium perc) and sanitised (starsan) both fermenter and bottles, both batches had around 2-3 weeks ferment and 7 days cold condition. one of them a bit longer.
thank you

 

[labels]

Sort of points to an infection somewhere along the line. I don't know where of course but to give you a couple of examples: fermenters, remove taps, knock them apart, clean the thread in the fermenter, take out the big 'O' ring and the grommet. Clean and sanitise thoroughly before re-assembling. This is just an example of where bugs can hide so look at your set-up in detail.

 

[Bandit24]

Thanks, I'll review my process and see if I can iron it out. I feel like I'm pretty good with cleaning and sanitising. I leave used fermenter to soak in sodium perc for 24 hours, then clean out with a soft cloth and check all the crevices, I take the tap out and rubber ring off the tap and soak those too. I use about a litre of premixed starsan and shake/roll it for a few minutes to sanitise the fermenter right before using. I use glad wrap for the lid which I sanitise with starsan. I take care to sanitise all utensils and anything else (and the surfaces I rest them on). The only area I can think that may be affecting it is the garage that the fermenting fridge is in. I clean and make up the batches in the kitchen, but aerate and add dry hops in the garage. The garage is quite dusty and also houses a dog. The glad wrap lid comes off to aerate and dry hop. I make sure aeration stuff is sanitised and sanitise the dry hop packets and scissors used to cut open the packets. Could potentially be the dusty/dog hair garage? Anything else I'm missing in the process? It's not the fermenter, as this happened in two different (and both very new) fermenters.

 

[Grott]

Do you pull the tap apart, clean and sanitise? Don’t forget the ferment threads for lid and tap.

 

[Bandit24]

Hey Grott, yep indeed I pulled the rubber ring off the tap, soaked in sodium perc and sanitised in a bowl full of starsan. Using a glad wrap lid which is sanitised before use (not a fermenter lid). Cheers

 

[Grott]

Mmmm.. not just the rubber ring. You need to seperate the two parts of the tap (assuming your using a common fermenter).
Using a hammer and the end of a wrench, just tap apart.

 

[Bandit24]

Thanks Grott, I didn't know about the tap coming apart. I've just had a look at my spare tap and pulled it apart, definitely could a culprit for infection. I'll clean this up for future batches. What is your opinion on the dusty garage, a bit risky to conduct even small brewing activities in a dusty / dog hair garage?

 

[Grott]

If your not disturbing the dust/dog hairs when you aerate and hop your brew then should be no problems but care must be taken when you remove the glad wrap. If bottling or kegging leave glad wrap on while filling.
If you haven’t cleaned taps before I’d suspect this is where the infection is coming from.

 

[Bandit24]

Thanks Grott, big help!

 

[Bandit24]

are fermenters and taps stuffed once they have had an infected batch? or is that only true if its because they were scratched (which I know they are not as I've been using soft cloths)
cheers

 

[Grott]

I’d soak in your sodium perc solution, rinse with hot water and then sanitise just before use. Before re-assembly put some keg lube around the shaft as this makes the tap easy to fit together and turn on and off.

 

[Bandit24]

Thanks Grott

 

[Ben Hardman]

I’d soak in your sodium perc solution, rinse with hot water and then sanitise just before use. Before re-assembly put some keg lube around the shaft as this makes the tap easy to fit together and turn on and off.

What's the cheapest source of this used to use homebrand napisan but only got a coles near me.

 

[Grott]

People do use napisan, non scented. Do you have a home brew shop near you? If so you can get from them. Here in SA I get bulk from Beerybelly, deliver 8 bucks.

 

[Ben Hardman]

Yeah half the price than brew shop stuff.

 

[mondestrunken]

View attachment 110455 View attachment 110456 View attachment 110457
Using a hammer and the end of a wrench, just tap apart.

Fantastic advice. I do this every time I make batch of beer after I found out about it. I use an old wooden spoon, put the handle end in the fermenter end of the tap, bang the spoon part on the table/ground/whatever until the pieces separate, and sanitise both pieces, and then put it together again.

Old wooden spoon = one of the best pieces of homebrewery equipment.

Seriously.

 

[Andy_27]

I’d soak in your sodium perc solution, rinse with hot water and then sanitise just before use. Before re-assembly put some keg lube around the shaft as this makes the tap easy to fit together and turn on and off.

Ahhhh!! Keg Lube!! Brilliant!!!

 

[Judanero]

are fermenters and taps stuffed once they have had an infected batch? or is that only true if its because they were scratched (which I know they are not as I've been using soft cloths)
cheers

Not necessarily stuffed, liberal use of boiling water, sodium per, star san *should fix it but you can pick up a suitable 'water drum' aka fermenter from Bunnings for two parts of f-a.. If you've had back to back infections I personally wouldn't risk the cost of another batch just to see if you've fixed the problem.

*-May not actually.

 

[SeeFar]

@Grott
Thanks for that pictorial, I wasn't up on that either. Will definitely do from here on in.