In
April 2006, Asheville Brewers will
mark its twelfth year in business, and
we owe it all to our customers!
Have questions not answered on the site?
Please check our troubleshooting section below, or feel free to contact us one of many ways!
Troubleshooting Home brewing is easy, but things
can happen that yield what we refer
to as “special effects.” See if these
sound familiar:
My beer is flat.
Did you prime it?
You have to add
more nutrient at bottling time or
the product won’t carbonate.
Is it conditioning at room temperature?
Bottling beer and
sticking it in the fridge will yield
flat beer, unless you’re working
with lager yeast. We recommend
a 65 degree environment whenever
moving yeast. With the exception
of lagers, we advise you to
condition beer at room temperature
for 10-14 days after
bottling in order to ensure proper
carbonation.
Did you cap securely?
Fugitive
gas will yield flat, slightly oxidized
beer. Invert all bottles on bottling
day and listen for hissing, which
would indicate a poor seal.
My beer is the opposite of flat – it
foams like crazy.
Did you overprime?
Three-quarters
of one cup of priming
sugar is sufficient to prime 5 gallons
of beer. Don’t overdo it.
Did you bottle too early?
If there
was residual nutrient left in the
fermenting batch when it was
bottled, the math gets messed up.
The beer will ferment the original
nutrient and the newly introduced
priming nutrient to produce too
much carbon dioxide. We’ve
found that chilling the beer
thoroughly (say 20-25 minutes in
a freezer) prior to serving lessens
foaming.
Are you sure everything was clean?
Excessive foaming and awful
flavors are also consistent with
some kinds of bacterial infection.
Review your sanitation method
with us.
Is it a wheat beer?
It’ll probably be
a tad cloudy.
Did you use good yeast?
Some
brands of dry yeast do not drop out
of solution very well – use highquality
dry yeast such as Coopers,
Edme or Superior, or liquid yeast.
Was grain present?
If grain is
steeped above 170 degrees or
boiled, protein infusion occurs,
resulting in a beer that clouds
noticeably when chilled. We
recommend steeping adjunct
grains at 155 to 160 degrees for 45
to 60 minutes and NEVER boiling
grain.
In
April 2006, Asheville Brewers will
mark its twelfth year in business, and
we owe it all to our customers!