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I have a small brewery setup with a friend where we brew and store all our beer in a shed in my parents garden and we bottled a 5G batch last week so it has been conditioning since then with some priming sugar in each bottle, however as I'm sure you're all aware it's been freezing over the last...

Gently stirring with a sanitised copper pipe for about a minute always gets rid of the sulphur smell in my ciders, can't think why this wouldn't work with beer.

Won't the fermentation process strip out the flavours of the spices? I've always thought adding them in half way through fermentation would be better but don't have much experience with it.

Was mostly trying to get a more appley flavour and considered the additional sweetness a bonus. people add campden tabs to wine to keep it at their desired level of dryness dont they, isnt that stopping the fermentation?

I was thinking of a way to get a more appley flavour and backsweeten my cider at the same time and thought it might be possible to use campden tablets then add in apple juice afterwards, so a 1 gallon recipe would go something like: 1) 3.5L apple juice, nutrient etc and yeast, fermented for a...

Hm, from what I can gather only some of the seals were letting air in. What I would probably do is use copper on the ones that still have a good seal and possibly dump the rest if it's not too much to get rid of. Never had a problem with metallic taste by using copper, possibly because its only...

The sulfurous smell comes from unhappy yeast - usually if it's too warm or as another poster pointed out, not enough nutrient. I get this when I make cider sometimes as temperature control is an issue but a way to get rid of it is to stir the wine with a steralised piece of copper piping for...

Ah great thanks for that, do you know the ampage of your new element?

I'm currently putting together a DIY brewery and am looking into heating elements for my boiler/mash tun, does anyone have any experience with this kind of build? For my design, I'm basically making a home made grainfather so the vessel will be recirculating my mash water which is being kept...

I did give it a stir when I added the extra nutrient and still got no response, even after I added extra yeast the next day. Fingers crossed something will happen in the bottle, although not too much or I'll have a mess to clean up! Thanks for the tip about English style yeasts that's good to...

Thanks for the feedback its interesting to get other people's perspectives on it. I added extra dextrose to help things along but it still came out under par so I'm less than impressed with this one. jceg316 let us know how yours turns out!

Oh, yes - typing error. it is indeed M-15!

I made a batch of blackberry stout last week and had major problems with the fermentation, with it grinding to a halt after about 2 days and only going from 1.040 to 1.020. Having checked a number of possibilities, adding more nutrient, more yeast, agitating (didn't need to increase the...

Started at 1.040 and it is now 1.030. I need to add some blackberries at some point so I was hoping there would be no oxygen and some alcohol to stop it from going off before I bottle it so I will give it a stir and wait a couple of days, thanks for the feedback. Raising the temperature isn't an...

Hi all, I'm sure this has been asked a million times on here before but what can I do about a stalled fermentation? I made a stout at the weekend and it has only dropped 0.01 points since saturday - now I know it has only been a couple of days but all activity seems to have stopped, no...

Oxygenation is a problem after its fermented and should be minimised at all costs before bottling as it'll do weird things to the taste while its conditioning. Often people report a 'cardboard' taste if the brew has been oxygenated.

It depends on the FV you're using. If it's a bucket then you can just gently place the (sterilised) hydrometer in there and take a reading. If you're using a demijohn which I imagine you are for a 1 gallon batch its a little more tricky you;d probably have to siphon some out. There is a layer of...

Just out of interest, what kind of berries are you using and how much? I'd like to give a berry cider a go!

Sounds like its almost done anyway. Try taking a daily reading for about 3 days and if the FG doesn't change then you're finished with fermentation. The airlock only really shows vigorous fermentation and always stops bubbling before the yeast have actually worked through all the sugar. Hope...

The sulphur smell can be easily sorted, and is a sign of stressed yeast - either its too hot or there's not enough nutrient (or too much in some cases), too much sugar - there's a number of ways to keep your yeast happy! To sort it out I have found that stirring the wort gently so as not to...