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[-] verity_kindle@lemmy.world 11 points 9 months ago

Thank you for this. Might have this tattooed somewhere...or tattoo it on the dog....

[-] alcyoneous@midwest.social 9 points 9 months ago

Tattoo it backwards onto your forehead, so every time you stare into a carboy you can see it reflecting back

[-] verity_kindle@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

Yasss, this is the support I need as a noob

[-] No_Eponym@lemmy.ca 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

EILI5, why is mold bad in beer? Won't the alcohol kill anything bad for you? Haven't you just made kambucha-beer or frontier penicillin?

Beer doesn't have a high enough alcohol content to kill most infections, you need about 50% alcohol (100proof) for an effective disinfectant. The fermentation process will kill most infections because the yeast you intentionally put in out competes other things that find their way into your brew. Most infections that commonly occur (wild yeast, mold, and bacterial infections are possible) are not dangerous, a few are beneficial like the bacteria that works with the yeast to make kombucha, or lactobacillus for sours and most fermented foods, or penicillium mold. If your brew becomes infected the most likely result is that it will taste and smell bad and maybe cause some gastrointestinal upset but not be particularly dangerous. For homemade alcohol distilling is where it really gets dangerous. Every fermentation will create some methanol but a healthy fermentation will produce very little and it will mostly get cleaned up during aging. A bad fermentation, either caused by infection or bad yeast, will produce more and in beer the levels will cause an unpleasant taste and smell but not hit toxic levels. When you distill a beer with higher levels, it gets retained and concentrated along with the ethanol and can cause serious illness.

[-] verity_kindle@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

There are thousands of types of mold besides the ones you mentioned and most are not harmful to humans. But there are many that can be very, very harmful under the right conditions, like some types of black mold people find in their basements. Source: real life experience, this week, trying to convince a non profit to move out of a free basement rental location before the mold related lawsuits start :) Unless you can precisely identify the mold, it's best to assume the worst. Sorry, bud

this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
102 points (99.0% liked)

Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider

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A community dedicated to homebrewing beer, mead, wine, cider and everything in between. If it ferments, bring it over here.

Share recipes, ideas, ask for feedback or just advice.


Some starting points for beginners:

Introduction to Beer Brewing

A basic mead primer

Quick and diry guide to fermenting fruit - cider and wine

Brewing software


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