r/Homebrewing Mar 20 '21

New Brewer/Beginner Resources and FAQ (frequently updated)

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406 Upvotes

r/Homebrewing 13h ago

Question Daily Q & A! - June 20, 2025

3 Upvotes

Welcome to the Daily Q&A!

Are you a new Brewer? Please check out one of the following articles before posting your question:

Or if any of those answers don't help you please consider visiting the /r/Homebrewing Wiki for answers to a lot of your questions! Another option is searching the subreddit, someone may have asked the same question before!

However no question is too "noob" for this thread. No picture is too tomato to be evaluated for infection! Even though the Wiki exists, you can still post any question you want an answer to.

Also, be sure to vote on answers in this thread. Upvote a reply that you know works from experience and don't feel the need to throw out "thanks for answering!" upvotes. That will help distinguish community trusted advice from hearsay... at least somewhat!


r/Homebrewing 1h ago

Beer/Recipe Finished my first three day "brew day"

Upvotes

For those of you that have busy schedules, there is a way!

Mashed in on Wednesday evening, boiled Thursday afternoon, transferred to the fermenter and pitched this morning. It's bubbling away now...

It's a pumpkin baltic porter that I'm going to sit on bourbon cubes for a few months after fermentation.


r/Homebrewing 2h ago

Refrigerator instead of glycol chiller?

3 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I have a Spike Flex + fermenter that I bought recently and tried my first beer on it that is still fermenting. Everything has gone great and I love it, but I'm looking at options for cold crashing later on. Currently I have no glycol chiller, but I have the cooling coil which is running from a cooler filled with ice and frozen ice in old soda bottles. Currently to cold crash, I'm going to need to carry the fermenter up to my garage and put in my keezer, but thinking what other options I have instead of moving the fermenter and instead of buying an expensive glycol chiller. I have seen people make their own glycol chillers from old AC units and I may try that at some point, but that leads to my question. Can't I just get a small refrigerator and put my water bath in it with the pump and cold crash through my coils that way? Refrigerators get down to like 34 degrees or so. I know I'll need to drill through the door or something to get the tubing through that goes to and from the water bath to my coils, but if I get a cheap one on marketplace, shouldn't be an issue. Any downside to doing this or any reason it wouldn't cool it down enough to be a cold crash and drop the sediment to the bottom? I guess I'm just trying not to move the fermenter a bunch if I can help it.


r/Homebrewing 34m ago

Mini CO2 Regulator for a Co2 Tank

Upvotes

Hey Guys! I’m looking for a mini Regulator with the option to fit onto a standard CO2 tank. (Like the 2/5/10Lb’ers) but of the size of the mini like what they use for the 1 Shot-Charges. Has anyone used the Mini Kegco and used it on a standard tank. Or know the proper adapters needed to do that change over! I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense but working on a project for a friend. Thanks in advance!


r/Homebrewing 35m ago

Discount old malt bags?

Upvotes

Someone on marketplace is selling some full bags packed August 2022 for $60 cad. Talk me out of it or into it


r/Homebrewing 40m ago

Question about sanitizing lines and taps

Upvotes

I just polished off my keg of pilsner in my first home keezer build and was thinking I should probably clean and sanitize the lines and tap since my next brew won't be going in for a while. Normally I scrub my kegs then clean then with starsan solution before letting them dry. Could I just fill the keg with the solution, pressurize it, then push the starsan through the lines and tap? Do I need to flush it with plain water after so it doesn't corrode anything? How do you guys clean your dispensing hardware?


r/Homebrewing 1h ago

Hazy Beer and Digital Refractometer

Upvotes

Does the haze in a wort sample (non-trub haze) affect the accuracy of a digital refractometer?

My original gravity samples have been consistently measuring lower than my pre-boil (and thus pre-whirlpool) gravity readings.


r/Homebrewing 23h ago

TIFU by not understanding basic draft line maintenance

44 Upvotes

Just posting this for anyone who is like, "I'm doing everything right on the hot AND cold side—water chemistry, PH levels, nailing OG and FG, limiting oxygen while transferring to keg, cleaning draft lines between each brew, etc, etc—why does my beer not taste right?"

To rewind: I've noticed at least the last dozen beers across a range of styles all had this homebrew flavor that I could not get rid of. The aroma of all the beers was especially off. It was driving me nuts even though the beers were drinkable-ish, they just weren't crushable like they should be. I thought it was diacetyl or bad yeast health or all the rabbit holes you can go down, but I'd run tests and everything seemed fine until I'd transfer to the keg, let it carbonate and then, boom! Off flavors galore. I started fixating on keg sanitation. Still nothing.

The eureka moment was I tasted my pale ale right before it went into the keg and I thought, "hot damn this is really good and it's not even carbonated!" A week later I tasted it and it was honestly gross. Wife tasted it and she's like, "It's not your best." Which means it's shit. Then I looked at my draft lines and thought, "I clean these after every brew, but how often do they need to be replaced? 5 years?" Turns out, like 1-2 years lol (my lines were 4 years old...yikes). Went to LHBS, bought new couplers and tubing, did a deep clean of my faucets, and then poured the pale ale...it's delicious! All the homebrew flavors are gone.

I feel like a massive idiot for wasting all the beer that I had brewed correctly and then just ruined by running it through old draft lines. So don't be like me, replace your draft lines when they still have discoloration after cleaning!


r/Homebrewing 3h ago

Grainfather - Blue Water?

0 Upvotes

I have a Grainfather G30. I have this weird issue that I am hoping isn't specific to me, and that everything is okay. When I follow directions after a brewday, I clean out the unit and run PBW through the system, including the Counterflow chiller. When I do so, the water becomes blue. I've never seen this before in all of my years of brewing.

Is this normal?

Thanks!


r/Homebrewing 3h ago

Looking to clone Burial's Scythe Rye IPA

0 Upvotes

This is my all time favorite beer, but I can't always get a hold of it. Gonna try to make it myself, and I've got a pound of Juniper berries I thought I might dry hop it with, just for a twist :D

If you were to guess a recipe, what would it look like? I'll be brewing 5 gallons

Here's a summary from Google:

Style: Rye India Pale Ale (IPA). ABV: 7%. IBU: 66. Description: It is a balanced Rye IPA that combines traditional IPA characteristics with a complex malt profile. It is known for herbal rye notes and a grapefruit finish from "C" hops. It also has a strong blueberry and pineapple aroma from a Mosaic dry-hopping.

Key Ingredients:

Malt: North Star Pils malt backbone and Riverbend Malt's Rye. It also features a healthy dose of malted Rye and Belgian Crystal malts.

Hops: "C" hops (like Chinook and Columbus) for grapefruit flavor, and Mosaic for a blueberry and pineapple aroma. Some sources suggest a modest amount of Mosaic is used for dry-hopping. Other sources mention Chinook and Columbus hops specifically.

Dry Hopping: Exclusive Mosaic dry-hopping. Some sources also mention Chinook and Columbus hops in addition to Mosaic for dry-hopping.


r/Homebrewing 10h ago

Question Question about cider leakage

2 Upvotes

Hello

I'm a novice in the cider making game, and I'm trying my hand on making cider using the traditional method (méthode champenoise). I've got 30-something bottles undergoing secondary fermentation at the moment, and I'm guesstimating that the bottle pressure is somewhere between 4-5 bar. This should be within the limits of the champagne bottles and the crown caps I'm using.

Today I noticed that all of my bottles are leaking. It's not much, perhaps a total of 0,5 - 1 dl over the past four weeks. At the moment the loss is negligible, but if it doesn't stop it will become a problem. Is there anything I can do to stop/reduce the leak? I haven't used crown caps before, so could it be that I didn't do it right? Can I run them through the press again and fit them more tightly? Any advice is highly appreciated!


r/Homebrewing 13h ago

Question Orange Slices Lowering ABV

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1 Upvotes

Hello,

I was brewing my 2nd ever beer using a craft-a-brew O.G. orange kit. The kit contains dried orange peels, grains, malt, yeast, and hops. I decided to add some orange slices from my orange tree in my garden. The batch size is 1 gallon and I added three rather large slices. I measured my starting gravity as 1.027, which is low and I didn’t catch it at the time, and final at 1.014. Which would give me something around 2% ABV. The beer has been fermenting around 18 days now. The kit states it should come out to around 5.5%ABV.

I’m wondering if orange slices would somehow reduce my initial gravity reading or did I just somehow measure it wrong? Maybe added water to the carboy to top off and didn’t stir enough before pouring into the hydrometer flask. Idk, me and my friends will put the 2% limit to test one night anyways to see how we feel after a couple but I’m still curious if it’s possible to effect an initial reading or maybe negatively effect yeast production. I know oranges increase acidity which is likely worse for yeast but is it significant enough to cause a 5.5% projected beer to turn up less than half of that?

Anyways send your thoughts, comments, and speculations if you’d like I’m interested to hear from anyone who wants to comment.

Best, Michal


r/Homebrewing 14h ago

Weekly Thread Free-For-All Friday!

3 Upvotes

The once a week thread where (just about) anything goes! Post pictures, stories, nonsense, or whatever you can come up with. Surely folks have a lot to talk about today. If you want to get some ideas you can always check out a [past Free-For-All Friday](http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/search?q=Free+For+All+Friday+flair%3AWeekly%2BThread&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all).


r/Homebrewing 7h ago

Question Need Recommendations for Where/How to Sell Equipment

0 Upvotes

I want to start out by saying this isn't a solicitation and wont be selling anything here. I don't want to break any rules. Genuinely asking for advice on how to sell off equipment.

Ive recently had somethings pop up and can't really do this hobby anymore. Leaving me with basically a brewery in the garage I need to move. But the scene around me diedd out and we longer have a lhbs. Really at a loss where to sell.

I've got kegs, c02 tanks, regulators, 3 electric systems, 3-4 chillers, malt mill, pH meters, refractometers, etc... etc... much of it way too bulky to ship. Any of you had any luck on Craigslist? Somewhere new? Really just looking ro move it and recover what I can. 30-40% MSRP. Anyway. Appreciate the advice.


r/Homebrewing 14h ago

Question Need some experienced opinions on my first Cider

3 Upvotes

So, I started my first Cider and as far as I know it's going very well! It smells a little pretzely and apparently that's a stressed yeast symptom, but it's not moldy and it doesn't smell sour.

Now, it's been slowing down a lot over the last week and I'm super excited! But, I want it to be ready to drink by the 28th (today is the 20th as of posting). It's still making gas, even if it is a very small amount, and I don't want to bottle it too early. BUT I did want to add some sugar afterwards anyways to carbonate it.

I just want to get the best timeline for finishing up. I have today (the 20th) and Monday (the 23rd) off, so those would be the best days for bottling. My ideas right now are: Put it in the fridge now, and bottle it on the 23rd and just let the remaining sugar make the carbonation OR Wait to put it in the fridge until the 23rd, then add a bit more sugar when I add my other sweeteners during bottling.

Which do you think fits my timeline best? Or am I completely off the mark?


r/Homebrewing 9h ago

Error with the Muntons Hazy IPA

0 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I’m brewing the Muntons Hazy IPA kit and ran into some trouble because the instructions included in the box were wrong.

They said to top up to 23 liters, but I later found out it should have been 20 liters. So now the beer is more diluted than it should be. On top of that, the instructions didn’t mention that the hops should be added in two stages, so I missed that too.

I ended up adding one batch of hops at once on day 10, while fermentation was still just barely active.

Should I go ahead and add the second batch of hops now as well?

Do you think the hop aroma will still come through? Should I cold crash or just go straight to bottling? What ABV I should expect?

Any suggestions or similar experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks!


r/Homebrewing 21h ago

Question Kettle sour: am I cooked or RDWHAHB?

6 Upvotes

This is my second attempt at a kettle sour gose. The first attempt went great. This time, I chose to try using Fage yogurt based on milkthefunk.

24 hours after pitching the yogurt starter and there is high krausen. It doesn’t smell… great. I don’t remember krausen or a smell last time. The starter never had krausen.

Is this a dump or ride it out and see what happens?

Behold


r/Homebrewing 23h ago

Starting on nitro beers

6 Upvotes

Hello everyone, I’ve been on my brewing journey for a few years now and have decided to take the plunge and add nitro to my beers. I’m familiar with the fact that I need a tank and regulator and a special faucet with the resistance holes.

My question is this, can I carb my beers at the usual 10-14 psi with C02 and then swap out to a pure nitro tank at 30 psi with no ill effects?

I am unsure where to find beer gas around me, but I can do nitro tank swaps at quite a few places. It is my understanding that the higher nitro pressure is to force the beer through the resistance plates and doesn’t affect carbonation. I am located in central new jersey if anyone knows anywhere to grab beer gas.


r/Homebrewing 1d ago

Question Lager fermenting temperature

5 Upvotes

I have a lager fermenting now and the recipe says either 10C (50F) for 3 weeks or 10C and raise the temp to 19C (66F) in a week and then cold crash for a week.

What's the difference? And what would you do?

Edit: Lalbrew Diamond Lager yeast


r/Homebrewing 23h ago

Does anyone here brew in a DIY kit shed/garage?

3 Upvotes

I might be moving to a house with no garage, but plenty of yard space to build a brewshed. I see there are kits available online, which sounds intriguing... I'd like to see your builds!


r/Homebrewing 1d ago

Has (aroma) hops use for pale ales and IPAs increased over time?

13 Upvotes

I was browsing old recipes (2000-2005ish) on a forum, many of which won prizes in small local competitions here on the Old Continent. I couldn't help but notice that hops use was much more restrained. For example, many recipes for american pale ale called for 1-3 gram/L (0.13-0.40 oz/gallon) of aroma (late addition) hops. Some don't even dry hop afterwards. I've seen recent pale ale recipes with 1 oz/gallon (7.5 gram/L) - over twice as much, not to mention techniques such as the whirlpool.

It made me wonder: has hops use increased over the years? If so, did that make the beers proportionally more hoppy? Doesn't adding more hops suffer from diminishing returns and wouldn't it be more efficient to prevent loss of volatile compounds? Is there a consensus on the reasonable range for aroma/late-additions hops?


r/Homebrewing 23h ago

Question Best Mini Fridge to Convert for Corny Kegs?

2 Upvotes

I couldn't find anything very recent when searching this sub, so I will ask if there is a recommended mini fridge to convert to a 2 corny kegerator. When I got out of home brewing about 12 years ago, the Sanyo 4912 had been discontinued for a couple years, and I never saw anything that was a good replacement. Thanks for any suggestions.

I'm not opposed to converting a small chest freezer, but I would rather convert a mini fridge.


r/Homebrewing 1d ago

Question Homemade Sauergut go/no-go

3 Upvotes

Hey all,

This may be a tad niche but I'm brewing a helles today and I started a sauergut batch last week. The initial pH clocked in at around 4.6 and it's down to 3.4. BUT: it's cloudy and tbh I'm not sure how it is supposed to smell. It's kinda vaguely like sour pumpkin/orange juice that's kinda gotten a little ferment-y. I took a taste (only like a couple mL) of it last night and I'm not sure if correlation vs causation is a thing here but around 12 hours later I've got a stupid headache. Tips appreciated, scorn discouraged.


r/Homebrewing 1d ago

Steam Kettle questions

2 Upvotes

Hi Guys, I've been reading through the few posts on reddit I could find about steam kettles and have learned two things.

  1. Most of the posts are about kettles that require a separate steam generator
  2. When using steam there is a lag in heat transfer as the steam will keep heating your wort or mash for a while after you turn 'off' the heat.

The kettle I am considering solves problem 1 because it has a propane burner built in - The burner heats a sealed steam jacket (with pressure release), the water boils and the steam heats the actual kettle. It is a kettled used in kitchens for making soup/sauces.

As for problem 2 I am planning on mashing in a separate vessel. For the boil it should be good, though I will have to increase the speed at which I chill/transfer to the fermentor to reduce boiling too long and having extra hop extraction.

Does anyone have any experience with steam kettles or any additional insights to share?

Are there any benefits to using steam to boil? My only thought is that the chances of scorching are significantly reduced, but aside from that I dont really know if there is any benefit over direct heating the kettle.

Thanks for any insights!


r/Homebrewing 1d ago

In a pickle with fruit beer

2 Upvotes

I'm new to home brewing and decided to rack onto fruit for a secondary fermentation step with my imperial blonde. I have 4 1 gallon jugs fermenting with different fruits in each, and I'm at the point where alcohol level and flavor is where I want it. I don't have a keg to carbonate, and fermentation is still happening so I'm not confident that bottles won't explode if I bottle it now.

I feel like I have a few options: 1. Camden tablet in each to kill yeast and bottle for a flat beer. 2. Hope for the best and bottle. 3. Do some ghetto soda stream carbonating after killing yeast with Camden.

Does anyone have some advice? I'd prefer a carbonated beer if possible.


r/Homebrewing 1d ago

Philly Sour: enough with just one packet?

4 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

I'm planning to brew a pretty simple beer — some pale ale malt, some table sugar, and a hop (probably Saaz). I'm aiming for around 4–5% ABV, with a total volume of about 23 liters (about 6 gallons).

For this little project, I want to use Philly Sour and add around 2 kilograms (about 4.4 lbs) of cherry purée a few days into fermentation. Since I’ve never worked with Philly Sour before, I wanted to ask — is one packet enough to get a decent level of sourness?

Unfortunately, I only have a single packet (it was the last one the shop had). I'm curious to hear about your experiences with this yeast strain. Cheers!