/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Some of the things people say in homebrewing threads here scare me. You tell some people tried to do their research but either didn't understand what they read, got part of the story or just got their info from a source that was wrong too. So let me just set a few things straight:

Using bread yeast: Don't ever do this. It has next to zero alcohol tolerance and the flavor will be a far cry from what it could be if you used a proper dry ale/wine/champagne yeast. It's called bread yeast for a reason.

Making a yeast starter: First, make sure you understand what a yeast starter actually is. Putting your yeast in warm water for 10 minutes is not a starter. Starters take 24 hours at the minimum as well as a stir plate and an erlenmeyer flask. If you're using a proper dry yeast, (like saf-04 or ec-1118), making a starter will actually harm the yeast. Only make a starter with liquid yeast.

Using carboys: You know those blue plastic carboys you see used for water? Don't ever use those are homebrewing. Those are much cheaper plastic and are designed to breath oxygen in and out because oxygen is good with water but not with your fermenting beer/wine. Also, on every one of those blue carboys you'll see a date on the bottom and that's not necessarily the expiration date of the water, it's the date that they no longer can guarantee that BPA chemicals won't leak into the liquid.

Anything else I can try to cover? I've been brewing for several years so I like to think I have a little better perspective on these things.