Debating between getting a brewing certificate from UC Davis or Cornell University. I have the GI Bill, so cost is no factor. Either way I will be doing it online.

Curious to any opinions/ experiences from anyone who’s enrolled in either program. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m looking into producing a small pilot run of a custom mead—around 240 bottles—to test interest with a handful of local restaurants and specialty grocers before considering anything larger.
I have a few questions for anyone who’s worked with contract mead producers:

Is a batch this small realistic, or is it below what most producers are willing to do?

If I wanted to use ingredients I source myself (for example, a specific botanical or spice blend), how does that typically work? Would I ship the ingredients directly to the producer, and are there any regulatory or quality requirements?

If the mead is produced at a licensed facility, can it be legally sold to restaurants and retailers, assuming all labeling and state/federal requirements are met?

Roughly what would a project like this cost from start to finished, bottled product?

I’d really appreciate any insight or recommendations from people who’ve been through the process.

So !

I will not get into the details for reasons of identification but basically :

I have to brew a simple SMASH beer for 70H for an experiment, at which point I am supposed to throw it away. Which I do... Mostly.

The mash isn't an issue (had a foaming once because I kept it a 50°C) for ages because Lab techs kept me busy at the worse time), and it ends up at 1053-1053.

After a fermentation of 70 hours I reach about 40 to 45% reduction which translates to a density of 1025-1026. Nothing surprising with SF-04 so far. The fermentation of these 70 hours is thermally regulated to have a heat spike that follows the activity of the yeast thanks to a software that correlates CO-2 production, so the bachelor's cooled down to 25 degrees where the yeast is added and then it is fermented with a baseline of 20 degrees all the way up to 24 at peak activity, then back to 20 degrees and I let it rise up to 24 before I throw it away.

The thing is I don't really throw it away. I keep around 5 to 5.5 liters of it, can I date something that I wasn't used to. Thing is at this point I have already brewed beers of that kind with that yeast and I would usually have thrown it in a bucket cleaned carefully, kept it in the shade and waited for ages.

Only had to throw away two batches because during the heat wave they cooked - the buckets are opaque but not thick enough to be truly protective of the light and they were kept on a table which actually does get some sun in the morning, so when the temperatures reached 38 degrees indoors... They actually managed to reach 42. The yeast, understandably, stressed the fuck out and made a fuckton of VDK, before fucking dying.

However I have three batches the latest of which is three weeks old, that I have kept in the shade which have been fermenting between 20 and 25 degrees so far.

Now the thing is each and every single one of these batches, is one that I have reintroduced sugar to in the form of honey until they reached about 1036 gravity - the goal was to get them out of the bucket at around 7 degrees ABV, at which point I could give them just a little bit more honey diluted into a syrup pour it into bottles and voilà !

However after a week they all went down from 1036 to 1027-1028… which is not exactly strange because the concentration of alcohol is rising and the temperatures are not exactly ideal. A week later they go down to 1026 - two of them have done at least. The latest one however another week later has only gone down to 1024.

The questions are :

Am I stuck ?

And if I am, what can I do ?

Would it simply work to do a sort of second brew without adding any more sugar by just schlucking it in a bucket I either at ambient or in the fridge, and then add some honey before bottling ?

Should I use another mead yeast for a second brew like that, making a Meadeer ? Or Beeread ?

More infor :

I have access to fridge I can't control the temperature of but I can know the temperature of the exactly.

All three batches have been sweetened with honey, the same money for all three beers and the beer itself is the same for all three - a smash with 20 EBC malt and Perl hops.

I have access to urea and phosphate nutrient blend for yeast, and I have attempted to add a few RAMs to the latest bench just to see if it produces the difference but it is not old enough to show it.

I just shook them around a bit slowly without opening the pots to try and get the SF04 to resuspend a bit.

I am certain that I still have brewing activity because I still have bubbles in my bubblers, and that the lids of the buckets are buckling under the pressure.

I am using an optical system for the follow-up of the density but I have more precise lab equipment to follow up the alcohol concentrations, C02 production, and density, but only for the first 70 hours of the initial fermentation.

Just got a brewzilla 4.1 35l i haven't brewed in over 7 years. Looking to get back into the hobby, setting up a brew station in my basement bar, just wondering. If anybody out there has got any good smash beer recipes so that I can get the hang of it again.

Made this beer like 2 years ago with my dad, this bottle got forgotten. It's been in a cool dark place, I found it while looking for something else. Just wondering what the stuff on top is and if it's still safe.

I'm thinking of adding a feature to Brewhalla brewing app called a "brew deck" as a brew day screen. The idea being that on brew day a screen is mounted or kept close to where brewing takes place and features:

1. super large timers that can be read from across the room
2. large "DONE" buttons that can be clicked with wet or gloved hands
3. all tasks pulled from the recipe and active batch
4. easy toggle between current recipe and "brew deck"
5. using cloud, the "brew deck" can open on a second (older) device

Most of us have an older phone or tablet that we wouldn't mind getting dirty/wet (or worse haha) rather than using our primary phone during the brew.

My idea is that on brew day the older device be set to "brew deck" mode with the easy to read tasks/timers and the main device be used to open/edit the recipe and get the ingredients weighed out.

Big buttons for wet or gloved hands and readable at a distance while setting up a pump or checking temperatures.

Would this be a useful add-on feature to a homebrewing app?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brewhalla.beer

Dented can of extract in my brew kit. I generally don’t trust any dented cans due to potential contamination or zinc exposure. What are the collective thoughts of Reddit?

Hello everyone,

I am on my second attempt at homebrewing after my first batch suffered from a Kham yeast infection (pellicle).

This is Day 7 of my fermentation using a Morgan's Lager kit, with a mix of 500g white sugar and 500g cane sugar, topped up to 25L in a Young's plastic bucket. Fermentation temperature has been kept around 25°C.

On Day 5, I noticed a film forming on the surface (similar to the image I am sharing, which shows a dry-looking skin with small balloon-like gas pockets). Out of concern, I skimmed the surface with a sanitized ladle and gave it a gentle stir.

It has been a couple of days since then. Today, the film has broken apart, and there are flaky sediments (ori) floating on the surface, along with a faint fizzy, bubbling sound.

However, when I pulled a small sample to taste it today, it actually tastes very fresh and delicious, with no off-flavors or foul acidity yet.

My local brew shop took a look at the video and mentioned that "it might be okay / just the final stages of fermentation (Krausen)." But given my past failure, I am highly concerned that the pellicle might return or that the sediments are a sign of wild yeast.

Is it possible for a batch to have a pellicle but still taste great at this stage? Is this just normal yeast sediment/Krausen? Should I proceed to bottling, wait it out, or dump it?

I would highly appreciate your brutal honesty and insight. Thank you.

i have a clue of what they are but im just wondering the first one i made is a pale ale that i dry hopped maybe a little early but i wanted the yeast to react with the hops a bit bc i heard that can create different flavors and then i have a faux lager/cream ale that i also dry hopped to experiment, anyone got any suggestions or tips?

Am I missing anything at all. Can't get a proper response from Google and this the only community I have enough rep to post in smh.

Okay so it's the summer and I live on the top floor of my building and it's been pretty hot the last few days. I started a Cab Sauv kit on the 5th and now I'm getting an H2S smell from the ferment. The room often gets to 24-26c most days and doesn't help that I have a grow tent putting off heat in the same room. So my best guess is the room temp that's at fault for causing the H2S to be produced.

My solution is to make a carboy chiller using a small car/camping electric freezer and a pump to circulate water from a tank placed in the freezer through tubing wrapped around the carboy. In theory it should be able to reduce the fermenter temp to 20-23c.

Tell me I'm crazy lmaooo

Current set up;

6gl carboy with S airlock, in a demijohn tote.

On The House, Cab Sauv wine kit.

The basics are

​

Using a 8 gal e-biab

​

​

5 lbs oak smoked wheat malt

5 lbs weyermann pale wheat malt

4 lbs german pilsner

​

1 oz Bennett hops (60 min boil)

​

Wyeast 3068 yeast.

​

​

Wondering if the group would have any comments.

I was wondering why so many brewers sell their new equipments on the Marketplace? I found the answer: ingredients are very expensive in this area. Could you post some budget-friendly beer recipes here?

Hello everyone,

This is my first batch of beer (Morgans kit, 20L batch).

Due to a sudden drop in temperature over the last few days, fermentation lagged. When the temperature rose today, I opened the fermenter and found this white film/bubbles on the surface.

Current facts:

• Smell / Taste: Surprisingly completely normal. No off-flavors, no sourness.
• Gravity: I don't have a hydrometer to measure.

I was planning to bottle it today, but I am hesitant because of the risk of bottle bombs if this is an infection.

Should I dump the whole batch? Or is it safe to consume immediately without bottling? I'd appreciate your expert insights. Thank you!

Started 1.100 ended .994 I like that it’s not too sweet. A little funky but hope it ages well. How long should I age for?

I've recently received a 5 gallon bucket of melter's honey. It has a very sweet flavor of molasses and lends itself to making a braggot stout. I'm thinking of making an oatmeal stout but wanted to get any tips and suggestions on hops to use/timing, using Oats for this type of recipe, and gravity point ratio of honey to malt. I've made a few braggots and beers before but i've never made a stout.

None of us are IPA fans. While hops are a good addition, we aren't aiming for pucker your face bitterness but balance. Thank you in advance

BrewHalla is now fully up and running for Tilt and Rapt pill users. Integrating your hardware with the app will generate a fermentation chart. The app also has pressure on the Y axis for anyone that pressure ferments.

In the tools section I've added a simple carbonation calculator so you dont need to hunt down the carbonation chart on the internet. Just plug in your desired co2 level, the temperature, and the app will calculate the PSI to set your beer at.

This is in addition to the draft co2 calculator which helps balance draft systems and asks for beer line diameter, distance from keg to taps, and temperature etc to help you pour perfect pints.

The app is fully unlocked and can be downloaded from Play Store
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brewhalla.beer

BrewHalla is a new app designed for touch screens. Beginners will love it's simplicity and customization. Super fast recipe building. Full water chemistry, mash calculator, batch tracking, cloud storage + every brew tool you can imagine!

Screenshots of the carb tool and the charting:
https://ibb.co/Gf1hw7q4

https://ibb.co/vxGRWGxC

https://ibb.co/mrTcJfTC

I ferment beer, cider and seltzer at home and got sick of doing the same recipe math every time, halving a batch, converting units, noting all ingredients. Everything was so scattered.

So over a few weekends I built a small Chrome extension to do it for me, and figured someone here might want it too.

It spots a recipe on whatever page you're reading, (YouTube descriptions too), scales it to any batch size, converts the units, and gives you a shopping list. It's free, no account, and collects zero data. Everything stays in your browser.

There's an optional one-time $5 Pro for the deeper stuff (brewing calculators, BeerXML export, a brew journal, paste & parse and a few more), but the free version covers the core — detect, scale, convert, shopping list, save up to 5 — and it's one-time, not a subscription.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/fermentory-%E2%80%94-homebrew-rec/cgcilikjgbgbmlpknnmpejcjikmapmme

It's early and rough in spots, so I'd genuinely love feedback.. what's annoying, what's missing, what breaks. Happy to answer anything 😄

So I opened this key, diy style but now if I screw the spear parts together it doesn't fit anymore no matter what you try, only separate but I can't get them together if I put them in separately. Help please!

Edit: This type of spear brand has a lock that can only be unlocked with a specific tool. I ordered a new spear off brand and its now working perfectly!

Thanks everyone for your feedback on the look and feel of Brewhalla. I've streamlined the welcome screen and redesigned the malt and hops favorite tile selectors.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brewhalla.beer

1. On opening, you will land right on the recipe page. Create, open, import recipes and start brewing. All the tools remain on the top in easy to find buttons.

2. The recipe randomizer is now a dice button. Click it for 5 random recipes. Fun if you need some ideas.

3. Malt favorites now have a color coded stripe (matching malt color) under the malt name. You can set your 20 favorite malts here for quick additions to the malt bill.

4. Hops no longer use icons. Your 20 favorite hop tiles now have the first three letters of the hop name to quickly spot the hop you are adding.

5. Rapt pill integration is working. Tilt is still underway and should be working this week.

Remember if you want recipes, batch data, hardware integration you'll need to sign in.

**android only at this time.

Screenshots:

https://ibb.co/ym9c1ttB

https://ibb.co/qM18bYp4