Homebrewing Stack Exchange Community Digest

Top new questions this week:

All Grain vs Dry Malt Extract

Please, what are the major differences between brewing with all grain versus brewing with dry malt extract, besides the amount of time?

all-grain extract-brewing extract-plus-grains

asked by Jack Scotti 3 votes

answered by brewchez 3 votes

Mead in secondary, looks to be going well. However, the lighting isn't totally dark. Also, there is a single dog hair in the carboy, but not touching the mead. There seems to be very little oxygen, ...

sanitation mead

asked by Czernina 2 votes

answered by Rodrigo Borges 4 votes

First Time Brewer: Skipping secondary fermentation, bottling and a few other questions

I'm brewing my first batch of home brew, 'Hank's Hefeweizen' from Norther Brewer (extract). The instructions say 2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary, and 2 weeks bottle conditioning. I did not check my ...

kegging first-time-brewer secondary-fermentation

asked by adivis12 1 vote

answered by chthon 1 vote

Under OG, and only 3 days fermentation

So, I'm brewing an all-grain batch of the Rogue Chocolate Stout Clone based on this recipe (https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/rogue-chocolate-stout-clone/). I divided the recipe ...

fermentation all-grain mash original-gravity stout

asked by Carey 1 vote

answered by Philippe 0 votes

Greatest hits from previous weeks:

How do you sparge?

One of the biggest hurdles I came across when switching to all-grain was learning how to sparge. I honestly still don't think I do it 100% correctly. There are very detailed descriptions online, but ...

sparge all-grain process

asked by hookedonwinter 31 votes

answered by Dean Brundage 42 votes

Why is there so much foam when I open the bottle?

I have a batch of beer, fermented and then bottled. When I open the bottle, there is a lot of foam and it flows out of the bottle for a while. What could cause this? I assume it's too much CO2 and ...

bottle-conditioning co2 foam

asked by Michael Stum 6 votes

answered by brewchez 9 votes

How do I avoid airlock foam overflow? Does it affect the fermentation process?

During my last small batch brew, American Wheat from Northern Brewer, I came home to find that the foam in the 1 gallon carboy had overflowed the three-piece air lock (which was a mess to clean out). ...

fermentation airlock foam

asked by kbjohnson90 8 votes

answered by Scott 12 votes

Consistently high final gravity

I started brewing about a year ago, currently on my sixth batch, all using extract and some additional grains. My problem is that my beers consistently finish with a higher than expected final ...

fermentation final-gravity

asked by bughunter 4 votes

answered by mdma 7 votes

What happens when beer freezes?

After a bit of trouble with a thermostat on a 2nd hand fridge, I discovered that my latest batch of bottled, ready-to-drink brew had frozen. What happens to beer when it freezes? Will the taste be ...

beer temperature frozen

asked by Mark McDonald 17 votes

answered by iWeasel 5 votes

What is a "blonde" beer, and how do you make it?

I recently bought a 6 pack of Shiner Blonde, and just loved the taste of it. What differentiates a blonde beer from others, other than a lighter color and flavor? Also, how do you make a blonde, and ...

recipe process

asked by Steve M. 6 votes

answered by mdma 4 votes

What is cold crashing?

What is cold crashing? When is it done? How long does it take? Best temperature to make it happen?

conditioning cold-crash clarification packaging

asked by brewchez 24 votes

answered by Brandon 20 votes

Can you answer this question?

How to make an optimal fermentation for ginger beer with ginger bug

I'm trying my first batch of ginger beer and decided to make it with ginger bug. What I want to achieve is a bit sweet ginger beer with max alcohol my ginger bug can handle, I read somwhere it is ...

fermentation sugar alcohol-content ginger-beer alcohol

asked by Terry Raimondo 2 votes