Improper cleaning
Important note: Please note the important difference between cleaning and disinfection. Proper cleaning of the equipment in the brewery can remove dirt, dust, and scum, as well as fat, protein, and various viscous substances that may spoil the flavor of the beer. Disinfection will not have any effect on anything mentioned above, but it will kill unwanted bacteria, which cannot be done by cleaning alone.
Not disinfected properly
Use poor quality water
With the development of craft beer around the world, many of these beer styles are made around the type of water available in their area. For example, Bohemia, the birthplace of Pilsner beer, has soft water and very few minerals.
Your local tap water may not have the minerals or pH balance required to produce the formula you are using. You can use the water treatment device to adjust the local water quality to ensure the flavor of your beer. Of course, you can also fine-tune your recipe and ensure that the mineral content in the beer is balanced.
Fermentation is slow or even not fermented
- Check whether the beer has started to ferment. You can observe the foam or a ring of brown scum around the fermenter through the manhole door on the fermenter? If so, it means that the beer is fermenting or has begun to ferment.
- Use a hydrometer to check the specific gravity of the beer. If the final specific gravity is 1/3 or 1/4 of the original specific gravity, then the beer will begin to ferment. For example, 1.045 beer is fermented to 1.015-1.012 or lower.
- The amount of yeast is insufficient. An insufficient amount of yeast may lead to slow fermentation, you only need to put some yeast into the fermenter to solve it.
- The wort is too hot. All yeast strains will have an appropriate temperature range. When the temperature is too high, the yeast may become unconscious or even die. The wort needs to be cooled before it can be introduced into the fermenter.
- The wort is too cold. As mentioned above, all yeast strains have an appropriate temperature range. When the temperature is too low, yeast strains can stop life activities, resulting in a slow fermentation.
- The fermentation is going well, but the fermenter is not sealed, so you can’t see the beginning of the fermentation.
- The disinfectant in the fermenter is not rinsed. Disinfectant residues can also kill the yeast. After disinfection, the inside of the fermenter needs to be rinsed to clean the residue of the disinfectant.
Other beer brewing frequently asked questions
- Inadequate amount of yeast pitched
- Wort too hot (yeast stunned/killed)
- Wort too cold (yeast dormant)
- Fermentation fine, but bucket not sealed (so you can’t see bubbles in airlock)
- Fermentation already complete (look for a ring of “crud” around inside of fermenter)
- Not enough yeast pitched
- Inadequate aeration
- Wort temperature too low
- Yeast strain flocculated early (rousing yeast may help)
- Fermentation is finished, not stuck (take specific gravity to check)
- X: steeped grains in too much water (over 3 quarts water per pound of grain)
- X: steeping water too hot (over 170 °F)
- AG: excessive volume of sparge water (collected wort less than SG 1.008 or above a pH of 5.8)
- AG: excessively hot sparge water (over 170 °F)
- Contamination
- Tart ingredients (like raspberries or cranberries)
- AG: mash sat overnight and the temperature dropped to 120 °F (or below)
- The yeast did not absorb diacetyl (a diacetyl rest is required for some lager yeast strains)
- Contamination
- Racked beer too early
- Yeast strain
- High fermentation temperatures
- Inadequate pitching rate
- Yeast strain (some British and Belgian ale strains are supposed to be very fruity)
- Contamination, especially in conjunction with exposure to oxygen
- X: concentrated wort boil
- X: scorching of malt extract (stir in thoroughly)
- Running off wort too quickly
- Grains crushed too finely
- The high percentage of wheat or rye
- Crush too coarse
- Collecting wort too fast
- Collecting too little volume of wort per unit of grain
- Poor lauter tun design
- Water chemistry is not conducive to good mash (check calcium levels first)
- pH outside of 5.2-5.6 range
- Maybe the beer was supposed to have a high FG
- The high percentage of specialty malt in the recipe
- Yeast strain
- Any of the causes listed under “stuck fermentation” (above)
- Use Irish moss (at the rate of 1 tsp. per 5 gallons)
- Boil too short or not vigorous enough
- Glassware dirty
- Weak fermentation
- Too little protein in wort (esp. when high amounts of adjunct are used)
- AG: overly-long rest at 122-131 °F
- It may be yeast, not mold (different yeast strains behave differently)
- Wort is exposed to oxygen, which encourages surface growths
- Move bottles to a warmer location for conditioning
- Give beer more time to condition
- Beer and priming sugar not adequately mixed in the bottling bucket
- You forgot the priming sugar
- Not enough yeast left in beer to bottle condition (rarely happens)
- Contamination
- Beer and priming sugar not adequately mixed in the bottling bucket
- Too much priming sugar
- X: wort and topping up water not mixed thoroughly
- AG: poor extract efficiency (see above)
Hops are old and stale
- Wort cooled too slowly when certain very pale malts used
- Contamination
- Fermentation temperature too high
- Inadequate aeration
- High original gravity
Beer exposed to light (especially due to bottling in clear or green bottles)
Beer exposed to oxygen during late fermentation or conditioning
- Beer exposed to oxygen during late fermentation or conditioning
- Long aging of high-alcohol beers (appropriate in some cases)
- Some sediment is always present
- Let beer fall clear before bottling
- Be sure all valves are closed before transferring liquid to a vessel
Fermentation lock clogged (use blow-off tube next time)
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