How long does it take to get an account approved at homebrewtalk.com ? It's been hours and no email or anything. Just the page header saying that "Your account is waiting for approval. You can read in the meantime."

A little new to homebrewing. Just been doing some Meads, Ciders, and Cysers. I wanted to explore Sake because its one of my favorites. I found reputable suppliers for the koji and rice variety (I think). The yeast is a different matter. I know i can just use wine yeast, but i wanted to try to use sake specific if I can. One of the few places I found that seems like a decent supplier is Propagate Labs. However, they dont have many reviews. Anyone use them to purchase yeast for brewing before?

Apologies if this is something that has already been posted, but has anyone ever put together a kind of beer tour of commercial beers that one could buy to taste and understand exactly what a good example of that style should taste like? I'm looking to do just that as I brew various different styles and realize that I might not have the right benchmark mentally for what it should taste like.

Also looking for help putting labels in my brain, if that makes sense, for different flavors and taste. For example it took me a while to understand that some pilsners have a "crackery" taste because my brain just didn't map to that description.

Is my red ale spoiled? Any expert that can diagnose my krausen? Thanks.

https://imgur.com/a/oUHdSWh

Hey!

I'm trying to brew a festive / winterwarmer lager I had a planned abv of 8.5-9% so I used around 8.5 kilos of malt (can share the recipe if it helps) I added around a kilo of brown sugar after boil for the taste + alcohol bump also have added spices with hops to stop it from being too sweet

I ran a new heating system for the first time this brew, I basically made a diy fermentation controller/inkbird and upgraded my heating system this brew, I'm using 2 2 kilowatt submersible water heaters and a 2kw electric stove a total of 6kws of heating power, I very very underestimated this number and set my thermostat to 67c with a sensitivity of 0.5 degrees.

I ended up mashing at 80 degrees for the first 2-3 minutes and 65-75 degrees for the rest of the boil. I tried to mash for longer to try and fix it but even with a sparge I was way under my planned og, I was shooting for a 1070-1090 og, ended up with 1055 even with the added sugar.

After checking the hydrometer I gave it a taste and it's very very sweet, sweeter than the regular worth taste if that makes any sense.

Is there anything I can do? I have been thinking about doing a staggered feeding like you do with meads, wait for Krausen to form and slowly add around a kilo of sugar / brown sugar mixture

Would adding sugar like this ruin the mouthfeel? Do I need to add extra yeast? I originally bought 2 to help with the fermentation but only added one pack since 1055og.

I also have pure alcohol at home, 97%. I can add a bit of that?

3 kilos of München malts 3 kilos of Vienna malts 1kg of wheat malt 1 kg of pale ale malt 250 grams of dark coffe malt 250grams of dark crystal malt 350grams of oats 1 kilo brown sugar

Hello!

In 15 years of brewing this is a first- a brown/ reddish spot on the ring from fermentation. This was a Swedish Gotlandsdricka, og 1.057, pitched with Voss Kveik. Fermentation bubbled away after an hour, having pitched a packet at 80 degrees F. Placed in my basement, it slowed and dropped to about 70-72 degrees Fahrenheit, and I spunded the beer at about 1.015. Today, took the FG and saw it was 1.010. Beer tasted and smelled great.

My question- how worried should I be? If I saw this on yogurt I would dump it. I am inclined to let it ride, given that fermentation began immediately, and this yeast tends to drop PH more than most, to my understanding.

Any microbiologists screaming right now? Thanks!

Picture of the spot:

https://imgur.com/a/4aQ4EeM

How to know if the ingredients are still good?

Bit of context.

The ingredient packs where on date but the mout says store at <7c. (Why and means that the beer would taste off?. Im sure the seller had it just at room temp for months. The hop looked more brownish than the picture on the site that sells the kits (smelled as described) . And the yeast stands keep cool and dry. Why isn't there a temp. What is cool? 10c?

Im sure it has been at room temp for a long time.

So for context I recently got into home brewing and made a batch of mead that ( while overly sweet as I didn't have nutrient) was pretty good but after I added a campden tablet to make it last longer it's completely undrinkable now due to it causing severe stomach pain, I followed the instructions on the bottle to add one tablet to one gallon of homebrew but clearly something is horribly wrong, I'm wondering if I did it wrong or if I'm just allergic or overly sensitive to the tablets any help would be fantastic

Efficiency was very low. Somewhere near 50%. I had to mash additional grain in order to reach target gravity of 1.070+

Now this may have been due to a malfunctioning thermometer, buy i noticed alot of organic sprig or sprouts in the mash. Some were longer than 1/4 inch.

I had the malted barley stored in a bucket and they did not seem moist during the crush. I bought from the supplier 2 monthes ago.

Now the last two falls were pretty wet, so im thinking the barley may have fallen in the field and sprouted before malting.

Im just unsure if this sprout presence is a storage issue, a grain quality issue, or what.

Was really disappointed with my grain efficiency and beed to get to the bottom of that.

Wheat malt was 30% of the grain bill.

Any thought? Questions?

Hop Drying Calculator 1.0 is finally here!

After plenty of development, testing and a few bugs along the way, I've finally released my first Android app on Google Play!

Built for home hop growers, it helps take the guesswork out of drying freshly harvested hops, making it easier to monitor moisture levels and track drying progress.

It's free to download, works offline, and I'd love to hear what you think!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.hopdrying.calculator

So, I’ve got a query. I’ve just made my first batch and it is currently fermenting. I’ve got a magnet in the bucket ready to release the dry hops on day 7 and then plan to remove on day 10.

This is where I have my question. Do I take the lid off slightly and remove the bag and leave for another 2 days and take a gravity reading. Or shall I just take the gravity reading on day 10 and bottle ?

I know there is risks of over carbonation and also oxidising the brew. So I’m not sure what to do.

I’ve also had an idea to use the magnet to raise the bag above the brew but that is dependable on the bag and magnet position so probs won’t work.

Please help!