worry wort

thanks for all the replies. After summing up i've decided to just let it ride, i've made brews in the past which tasted ordinary during ferment but after 3-4 months in the bottle ended up a lot better than expected. Appreciate everyones time.

HI guys, have a question I can't find a direct answer to. I put a brew down 5 days ago, one of the ingredients was missing, malt, but I went ahead anyway thinking it wouldn't make too much difference. It did. tasted the wort today and its not something I'd like to have 30 bottles of, however if I must, I must. Anyway, my Q is, is it now too late to add 250g of LDM to the batch? My plan would be dissolve it prior and stir it in, but was wondering if anyone has found themselves trying this late-add malt? cheers WorryWort.

I've just had a cancerous kidney ripped out and one of the new-life orders are to reduce alcohol intake. At least it wasn't 'no more alcohol'. Now, I've been brewing for many years and really love my HB, hence the search for a doable, low alcohol alternative. I've only been running between 3.2-3.8% for the past 5 or so years, more for enjoyment than effect, but if I can get it down another 1%, that would work well. As luck would have it I got a can of APA for chrissy, so going to give your recipe a whirl and see how it goes. Will post the results up when completed, thanks for your time.

I remember reading somewhere on the forum a while back about not adding any brewing sugar/dextrose/malt to the kit for the primary fermentation, just the disolved kit content, yeast and hops. I love my HB and due to medical necessity I have to greatly reduce alcohol intake, so was thinking if this was turning out beer at a very low ABV then I could still enjoy my drop without causing too many internal issues. Anyone tried this? I can't see too many probs and from memory of what I read it was about 2% or just under. Keen to hear your thoughts. Cheers WW

yep, was all but ready to pour the lot out at the time in frustration, lesson learnt!

Ok, so after 3+months in the bottle, I have worked my way to this batch, and its great. Good head retention, krausen lined glass, clear, no odour and good taste, so there you go, time solved the issue this time.

hahha, it took some time, but with 8 batchs, and I only drink 4 nights a week, maybe 5 months is a stretch, but certainly 4 months would be the average age

it wasn't overpowering, just a sort of 'here i am' taste, and as I have 8 batches going, by brews are usually 4-5 months before they're on centre stage, so I'm kind of hoping the aging process will 'soften' the taste, but just wasn't sure if there were any bad side-affects. I haven't read of any, but noone actually stated if they in fact saw it through 2nd fermentation to the point of drinking it.

Hey brains trust, just had my first issue with 'vegemite beer'. Coopers Real Ale, 1.5kg malt extract and 200g Dextrose. After 6 days I took an SG reading, and I always sample the brew at each reading stage. No real off-aroma, but it had a definite vegemite taste. Bottled yesterday (10 days sg 1.010), took the lid off the fermenter and there was a sort of film of swollen brown 'things' on the top, which I took to be the affected yeast cells, so after researching here it all points to autolysis. I bottled anyway, but now wondering if the beer is ok to drink?

ok, I don't know how long this bow is I''m about to draw, but here's something to ponder. I am now 2 beer batches in after the soft bottle episode. The last batch all firm and fizzy and just what its all about, this batch, soft bottles again. I make pretty much the same brew each time, the only change is the hops, and here's the thing, both the soft-bottle batches used citra hops. I cannot possibly see how this could have any bearing on the problem, but the batch inbetween, an identical brewed beer but with Centennial, was perfect, but two batches using citra have resulted in about a 40% soft bottle failure. I have used citra often with others, but never exclusivly citra. Keen for opinions.

thanks Shamus, the only issue with the priming sugar amount (I bulk prime) is that those that don't go flat are brilliant, good head and ringss all down the glass, its just one of lifes little mysteries....

minimal. There is a slight 'pfftt' when opening, beer still taste ok and there is a bit of life in the poured item, but not much, and there is no head. I greatly appreciate the answers given by the guys, but I can't get my head around why if there were an existing issue between bottle and/or cap, why would the gas not escape prior to chilling (and it does on some bottles, which i then deal with by replacing the cap and re-priming with a sugar cube), and if there is a problem with the plastics contracting in the fridge, why is there no leakage of the beer? I still drink it, usually open a 2nd bot and have a 50/50 mix.

the annoying this is that I've been using plastics since moving to Darwin in 95, no longnecks there, so to brew had to use 1250ml soft drink bottles. Never had an issue over all those years until the past 12 months. I do actually mark the bottles and caps of chilled but now soft bottles, pop in a sugar cube, new cap, shake and leave on shelf for a few weeks then back in fridge. I recently managed to pick up 90 grolsh bottles so I can see at least 2 brews being back in glass. I

A few batches back I started doing this. i'd put an x on the bottle and a small dot on the lid. I'd open the bottle, drop a sugar cube in, seal with a new lid, give it a shake, then put it back on the shelf for a period and then back in the fridge. Sometimes I would get softies before going to the fridge, usually an issue with the lid or the bottle itself, but it didnt explain to me why the ones that went flat in the fridge held their pressure prior to chilling.

In an answer to another question I have posted, a reply came back to ditch sugars all together and only use malt. As this is new to me, what would I put in a brew, the can of brew mix, the yeast, and then just malt? How much would I be looking at using, a kg, 1.5? Keen to break new ground. cheers WW