Troubleshooting-home-brewing-406

Troubleshooting Home Brewing

Stuck fermentation

Stuck fermentation occurs when your beer fails to

ferment to completion. This can result from the

use of old yeast or poor ingredients. The best

way to take care of this problem, is to prevent

it from starting. To do this, you should:

1. Re-hydrate the yeast by adding it to

some water and adding wort to the yeast an hour

or more before you pitch. This will help ensure

that your yeast is still active.

2. Use an all malt or a recipe that has

a lot of it, as yeast needs nutrients to stay

alive. Corn and sugar lack these nutrients. If

your yeast still fails to survive, it cannot

reproduce. For this very reason, distilled water

shouldn't be used when making beer.

Under carbonation

If you've used the proper amount of priming sugar

and your beer is still flat, it's probably due

to the fact that you didn't properly rise the

sanitizing solution from the bottles. If too

much sanitizer is left in the bottles, it can

kill the yeast, which results in flat beer. The

only way to prevent this is to stop it from

happening.

Over carbonation

Over carbonation can cause your beer to turn into

a foam disaster. It can result from these causes:

1. Too much or uneven priming sugar. You

should measure your primer carefully and dissolve

it thoroughly in boiling water and allow it the

proper time to cool. Before bottling, make sure

to stir this into your beer.

2. Bottling your beer too early can also

result in too much carbonation.

3. Poor sanitization is also a cause. If

you allow your beer to come in contact with wild

yeast, it can result in over carbonation and

possibly even off flavors.

4. Bottles that are under filled can

also contribute to over carbonation. You should

allow 1/2 inch of head space to allow your

beer time to pressurize.

By taking the proper time to fix problems, you'll

ensure that your brew comes out great every

time you brew it. If you happen to run into a

problem, always take the time to rationize it

before you rush into fixing it. If you rush into

fixing a problem, you may start another one.

You should expect problems, especially if this

is your first time brewing. Even for expert home

brewers, problems can occur from time to time -

which is something you'll learn to deal with.

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