Solving the Crimes of Common HOME BREW PROBLEMS

the home brewery at night there's nothing quite like it the smell of fermentation permeates the air the subtle sound of an airlock bubbling in the distance and the taste of a crisp home brew on the lips it's nice like this that keep me searching for that perfect beer recipe but tonight there's something different in the air the smell of a problem a home brew problem and she's about to walk through that door my name trent mucho and they call me detective brew show let's solve homebrew problems [Music] there she was a dame with a problem i could see by the look in her eyes she had it bad i asked her to cut the chase what's the matter doll she started off by telling me an issue she's been having one of great gravity she told me she's been having issues hitting her original gravity sometimes too high sometimes too low it's actually quite common issue and luckily can be resolved easily first you gotta understand your system depending on your brewery you're gonna have a different efficiency or how much extraction of sugars you might get out of a given amount of grains and how much work you can get into that fermenter knowing your efficiency percentage will greatly help you hit a consistent original gravity several factors can impact your efficiency first in the mash a finer crush can lead to a higher mash efficiency overall raising the amount of sugars in your wart then in the boil you have to consider your losses like boil off rate trap losses and dead space losses when transferring into a fermenter all those combined with your mash efficiency give you your brew house efficiency which typically ranges around 65 to 75 percent but you can't know this without brewing a few times to figure it out and once you have a rough estimate based on your system you can plug it into the software and start hitting more accurate ogs but let's say you just have a fluke like the broad that walked into my office and your og is randomly too low that's where you say hello to our little friend dme dry malt extract is your partner in crime if you find yourself a few points under tossing in a pint of dme can help raise up that gravity sure you can do some math to figure out the exact amount but smarter joe's than me made these handy calculators to get you the right numbers but don't worry this isn't cheating pro brewers are even known to do this to keep things consistent and as long as you aren't adding pounds and pounds of the stuff shouldn't have to worry about flavor or color swings too much now on the other hand if your og is too high well that's a problem too it usually means you've condensed your wart a bit too much meaning you're probably low on volume as well no fear just add some distilled or rl water and raise up that volume while lowering that lg to the right range you definitely don't want to use tap water it's got all kinds of chemicals in it so stick with the clean stuff and you want to add the water before fermentation starts adding it after introduces oxygen and you know what oxygen does to your finished beer right [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's also some handy calculators for this dilution process too so use those and save yourself a headache and don't worry it won't dilute the flavor this is also very common at the big breweries and works like a charm i could tell that dame was pleased with the answer but i could sense something was still wrong what's it now baby shoot this time she went on about a recent fermentation where it all started out fine and then went completely sideways it was like any other fermentation brew day went off without a hitch she dumped the yeast and let it ride but after a few short days the bubbling activity halted she checked the gravity and lo and behold it was less than halfway from its expected final gravity a stuck fermentation there can be many reasons for fermentation to stop short the first that comes to mind is not enough yeast if you pitch too small of the east colony they can only handle so much before they come overwhelmed and start dying off before finishing the job also not having the right amount of nutrients can cause issues with the fermentation yeast health is a major factor for minimizing all flavors and ensuring your fermentation goes smoothly definitely consult a yeast picture calculator especially if you're making really big beers or using fresh packs of yeast that tend to have lower cell counts making a yeast stutter is never a bad idea for prepping that yeast to perform and get things started with a bang if you do have a stuck fermentation there are a few things you can do to salvage it first is to really be sure you have a stuck fermentation and not just a finished beer some yeasts just finish high or maybe you brewed a huge pastry style your final gravity is going to be much higher than a low abv pilsner take the gravity reading with the hydrometer or if you use a refractometer be sure to use a conversion calculator as refractometers aren't accurate alone once alcohol is around one other trick is to do a forced fermentation test this is where you carefully pull a sample of your beer and place it into a small container then add a good helping of yeast shake it up and place it somewhere very warm within a couple days test that sample's gravity to see if it drops by then it should hit the final gravity if it doesn't move then your beer is done and probably a sign that you miscalculated or mismeasured along the way but if it drops then you got a stuck fermentation and you need to take the next steps first option is to raise the temperature fermenter yeast are more active when it's warm and that might be all they need to get going again but if that doesn't work try adding in more of the yeast you used but don't just drop it into the fermenter make a nice big starter and make sure it's very active then pitch it in this should give your beer the kick in the pants it needs to get started the look in her eyes said it all she knew what to do now my job was about done when she whispered but there's one more thing she knew i was ready for whatever it was and she let me have it a story about a bottle of brew that wasn't quite carbonated or was it [Music] packaging beer is the last stage before you get to put back the delicious cold one and after all that hard work the last thing you want is for your beard to be flat or even worse over carbonating and exploding all over the apartment like a chicago typewriter sure kegging solves a lot of those issues but bottling is the way of a new brewer so how do you know when the carbonation is just right it all starts with knowing the right amount of sugar to add also known as priming sugar adding sugar into bottles restarts fermentation creating pressure in the bottles and thus bubbles but you can't just be tossing in random amounts of sugar or relying on prefabricated sugar drops to get an accurate carb level you got to use a priming sugar calculator it takes into consideration your desired pressure level volume of beer and lastly and most importantly the temperature of your brew and i'm not talking about the temp now i'm talking about the highest temp that your fermentation reached this is an important distinction because that temp determines how much dissolved co2 is in your beer and will impact the amount of sugar needed so try and track that temp once you're bottled up with the sugar added you just gotta wait it can take up to two weeks but if you're like me and like knowing how far along things are i got a tip bottle up one into a plastic bottle something that can hold pressure like a sparkling water or soda bottle as it sits and re-ferments you can feel the pressure build and the bottle stiffen up and once you feel like it's the right stage you can toss it in the fridge to chill and try it out if it's right then get all those other bottles in the icebox and start enjoying while they're cold they'll last longer and they won't get over carved as quickly but hopefully your precise sugar additions will keep them from getting over carved as well [Music] there was a stillness to the air i sensed the name had gotten what she was here for that's all i got honey be sure to come back again sometime soon she smirked and blew me a kiss another job well done when suddenly [Music] a fatal blow she sure had gotten what she had came for and left with it in a dash all alone and all i could smell was gunpowder no more yeasty ferments in the air and no more sounds of airlocks bubbling i guess detective work ain't what it's cracked up to be but at least i got my beer good to the last drop [Music] you

Channel: TheBruSho

Views: 12,011

Keywords: home brew problems, home brew problems and solutions, common home brew problems, common issues, home brewing, home brewing beer issues, how to fix home brewing problem, fix home brewing mistakes, home brew, home brew issues, home brew mistakes, film noir, stuck fermentation, how to fix stuck fermentation, stuck fermentation beer, fix original gravity, original gravity too low, original gravity too high, beer carbonation, how to fix beer carbonation, homebrew

Id: SFXcGoK0FLs

Length: 9min 35sec (575 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 16 2022