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My beer hasn’t started to ferment
yet.
Primary fermentation should start
in 8-24 hours if you used dried yeast or 24-36 hours for liquid yeast.
Another thing to check is to make sure the cover is on tight. Be sure that
the fermentation temp is correct for the type of yeast you are
using. |
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Something’s wrong- my beer stopped
fermenting after two days! Primary fermentation is usually done in
2-3 days. What you see is a lot of activity in the airlock when the yeast is
in its most active stage. It’s just doing what is normal. The beer is not done fermenting
yet and still needs to settle and finish for the next 7-10 days. A warm room will also speed
things up which is not always a good thing.
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| Do I have to sanitize my equipment
even if it’s brand new? Absolutely! Always wash your equipment with
brewing cleansers, then sanitize everything that will touch the beer.
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| How do you prevent the wort from
boiling over? When the wort begins to boil it will foam up. This is
called the “hot break” when the proteins from the malt/grains are broken
down, it will settle to a rolling boil. Now just watch the pot for that “hot
break”. You can bet that it will happen as soon as you turn your back.
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| How do I cool the wort quickly after
boiling? One way is to add the wort to the cold water in the
fermenter, cover and set in a sink with cold water and ice cubes. Please do
not add ice cubes to the beer itself. Also, you
can use a wort chiller, which is a large copper coil that attaches to your
sink faucet. The way an immersion chiller works is that you put the coil in
the brew kettle, attach to the faucet, turn on the cold water which runs
through the coil and chills the wort in about 15-20 minutes.
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| What is the easiest beer to make for
my first batch? There are two major categories of beer yeasts,
ales and lagers. We recommend any style of ale, which ferments at room
temperature (65-75 F). Whether it’s a light or dark ale, it’ll be the
same. Lagers require (with some exceptions) fermentation from an initial 55
F down to 34 F for about three to six weeks.
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| How long will my beer last once it’s
bottled? Not long enough! Carbonation will be produced in about 10
days at room temperature and the beer is drinkable BUT much better if
allowed to age another 2-4 weeks. Hops are a natural preservative so the
beer won’t go bad, after 9 months the flavor may start to deteriorate.
Stronger beers will last longer.
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| My beer’s not carbonated after 10
days, why? While the beer is carbonating (first 10 days) it needs to
be stored at room temperature (65-75 F) then once carbonated, it can be
chilled. Did you prime with a sufficient amount of sugar? 3/4 cup brewer’s
corn sugar or 1 1/4 cup dry malt extract for five gallons of beer will do
the trick. Did you boil the bottle caps? Sometimes boiling the caps softens
the seal and will not completely seal the bottle. Did you rinse the bottles
after sanitizing? Residue left from the sanitizer will kill the yeast and
carbonation will not be produced. Open each bottle, put in a couple grains
of yeast, cap, agitate bottle and wait for 10 days.
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| Why does my beer have a cidery after
taste? The use a high amount (several pounds) of corn sugar in the
primary fermentation will contribute this taste to a beer. Corn sugar is
mentioned on just about all of the canned kits, but the use of malt extract
will give you a fuller bodied, smoother tasting beer.
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| What’s the difference between dry
malt extract (DME) and malt extract syrup? They are both concentrated
malt extracts. The liquid syrup is about 80% solids. One pound of dry malt
extract is about equal to 1.2 pounds of liquid malt.
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