5
votes
Accepted
Changing the PH of mead for fermenting necessary?
IMHO mead does not generally need any adjustment of pH levels to ferment correctly. It is generally fermented to have a similar level of alcohol to a strong wine - which will not generally support ...
- 5,631
5
votes
Accepted
Is juiced Ginger root fermentable?
Ginger juice alone does not have enough sugar to be fermentable. However, ginger beer is a popular, slightly alcoholic beverage made from ginger root, sugar, water and citric acid. Take a look at this ...
- 9,028
4
votes
Accepted
Are there levels of contamination in a beer or is it a case that it's either "contaminated" or "not contaminated"?
First, technically all beer is contaminated, since you pitch yeast. And yes, I'd say pretty much all homebrew (and even commercial beer) is contaminated to some extent. The type and severity of ...
- 33.4k
4
votes
Accepted
Beer's susceptibility to contamination over time?
The short answer: Beer is susceptible to whatever can live in the wort/beer given it's specific condition at the time. As fermentation continues, fewer and fewer micro-organisms are able to colonise ...
- 2,060
3
votes
Got major contamination in my brew
Time for a good sterilizing.
Break all your equipment down that comes in contact with cooled wort, and use a sterilizing cleaner or boil the parts if they can handle the temperature.
Dismantle all ...
- 18.5k
3
votes
Help me debug my Christmas Ale band-aid flavor
Band aid flavours are related to phenols, which can only have a few possible causes.
Chlorine compounds in the wort (either residue from cleaning or as a result of using chlorinated tap water) may ...
- 2,480
3
votes
Is my home made cider safe?
The human senses are actually very fine tuned to alert you to the presence of bacteria and mold and prevent botulism (though I think you probably understand this implicitly and just want an ...
- 257
3
votes
Accepted
I can't differentiate between OCD or the smell of vinegar, and need some guidance
The cider / vinegar smell is normal, it is acetaldehyde and is a normal byproduct of fermentation. But it's a temporary byproduct, the yeast will consume it to recover NAD+ from NADH after all oxygen ...
- 3,020
2
votes
Which yeast/bacteria produce no, or little alcohol (like Bionade)?
Yes there are some sub species of lactobacillus that consume sugar and create latic acid, but don't create ethanol. (homofermentative)
Many others can be forced to only produce acid and cO2 by ...
- 18.5k
2
votes
What is the ginger bug, actually?
Ginger Bugs can provide very sharp amounts of ginger flavor depending on the quality and quantity of ginger used in the ginger bug. It is a fun, easy, inexpensive and surprisingly versatile ferment ...
- 21
2
votes
What bacteria species grow in brewing conditions?
A good article about bacteria and beer brewing can be found in this link:
http://sourbeerblog.com/fast-souring-lactobacillus/
Its an article in a blog about sour brewing. But if one scrolls down ...
- 5,631
2
votes
Accepted
What bacteria species grow in brewing conditions?
Lactobacillus breques is the most common one, followed by Pectinatus spp. The latter and Zymophilus can grow in pH between 4.3 and 4.6, with ethanol below 5%.
Other ones are:
Pediococcus acidilactici
...
2
votes
Are there levels of contamination in a beer or is it a case that it's either "contaminated" or "not contaminated"?
YES.
All biological contamination (infection) take time to do their thing. So yes there are levels of contamination. Acetobacter for example, can be at a range of non detectable to the palet to full ...
- 18.5k
2
votes
Pitching kombucha starter instead of yeast
If you want to play it safe, over-pitch (sorta) by pitching a regular amount of yeast to ferment the beer, and as a secondary fermentation pour in a bottle of your favorite basic kombucha with no ...
- 5,974
1
vote
Help me debug my Christmas Ale band-aid flavor
See the question I just answered 2 days ago about a similar issue. In your case I would say it's your water. Use Campden tablets, get a good filter or buy reverse osmosis water at your local grocery ...
- 3,012
1
vote
Beer's susceptibility to contamination over time?
The worst bacterias and fungi that could destroy your beer are most likely to impact your beer in the early stages of fermentation because the yeast has not had time to establish itself in large ...
- 350
1
vote
What bacteria species grow in brewing conditions?
Note that apart from bacterial infections you can also have mold infections. I've seen some weird stuff floating on top of the beer and in the krausen over the years, and quite a few times that was ...
- 2,480
1
vote
Accepted
Does High Sugar Concentration Inhibits Bacterial growth?
Osmotic pressure does retard cell devision in most micro organisms making it hard to grow "in" a dense solution but they will have no problem growing "on" such a solution. High sugar content does ...
- 18.5k
1
vote
Is juiced Ginger root fermentable?
I have made ginger beer from regular old yeast before so there is nothing inherent about ginger that makes it unsuitable for yeast fermentation. Yeast technically speaking is a fungus not bacteria so ...
- 449
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible