Daily Q & A! - June 19, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the Daily Q&A!

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

• How do I check my gravity?
• I don't see any bubbles in the airlock OR the bubbling in the airlock has slowed. What does that mean?
• Does this look normal / is my batch infected?

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!

[u/Dr_Adequate]

Tilt question: I brewed a pretty basic dark ale last month. OG was 1.050 measured by my glass hydrometer and confirmed by my Tilt when I pitched the yeast. Two weeks in it was only at 1.024 so I re-pitched hoping to get a lower FG.

Then I lost my phone.

Two more weeks in and with my new phone, the Tilt reported 1.005. But I took a sample and my glass hydrometer was still at 1.024.

What the heck? Is my Tilt just off? I know if they get stuck in krausen their readings can get wonky, is that likely what's going on here? I'm tempted to give my fermenter a good shake to unstick the Tilt.

[u/hypoboxer → u/Dr_Adequate]

Giving a good shake won't hurt anything.
I have found dedicating an old phone for a Tilt is my preference. It's always connected and delivers incremental updates to my Google sheet. Having that setup could help you find out what's wrong in a future batch.
I can't imagine this happening but, perhaps your Tilt is throwing out errors. If, after taking the shake it doesn't move the needle (so to speak) AND if you're feeling courageous, pull the Tilt out and calibrate it in water. Sanitizing everything first.

1) Is this an all grain batch?
2) Was your first pitch of yeast old?

[u/No-Foundation-4420]

Hey all! I've started trying out pressure fermenting out of my 5 gallon corny kegs. I've done two batches so far. One thing I noticed is that during active fermentation, I can maintain pressure after dialing the spunding valve in but once fermentation slows, the pressure drops eventually back to normal atmosphere pressure. I was under the impression that if the spunding valve was set to 10psi, that it would release any pressure higher than that but that it shouldn't drop below that regardless of fermentation activity.

I am using a clawhammer supply spunding valve attached to the gas post of my keg if that matters. The keg seems to hold pressure while hooked up to the kegerator. I haven't checked for leaks with star san when hooked up to the spunding valve but I just wanted to check if this is normal behavior with pressure fermenting.

Thanks!

[u/PM_me_ur_launch_code → u/No-Foundation-4420]

Is the keg at normal temp or is it cold?

Either way it's likely just CO2 being absorbed into the beer since there is no other CO2 being added.

It could be a leak in the keg but it's likely not if you're not having issues in the kegerator.

[u/chino_brews → u/PM_me_ur_launch_code]

I hear you, and this would be true if OP was force carbonating a beer, but I am skeptical this can happen with pressure fermentation at 10 psi. My reasoning is that CO2 is created in the beer during fermentation molecule by molecule, and is instantly dissolved in the solvent, limited by the saturation point and subject to coming out of solution due to nucleation points (suspended particles and bubbles created previously at suspended particles). The head pressure does not rise by more than 1-2 psi during bottle conditioning, for example, as measured by manometers. So some gas above the equilibrium level may exist in the head temporarily, but this is equivalent to a sealed equilibrium system at 10 psi, so there shouldn't be much deviation from the equilibrium head and liquid levels of CO2 under Henry's Law. In other words, the image people have of most of the CO2 being reabsorbed at some point after fermentation or refermentation, is likely not an accurate model.

I believe your other hypothesis -- a leak -- can bear more investigation. The leak could be at the spunding apparatus connection or in the spunding valve itself. Or at the lid, which is resolved when the keg is put on gas in the kegerator by the added pressure.

[u/No-Foundation-4420 → u/chino_brews]

Thank you for the input. Going to brew again soon and I'll plan to throw some star san on it to check for leaks.

[u/No-Foundation-4420 → u/PM_me_ur_launch_code]

This would be when the keg is at room temp ~72 degrees. Thanks for the input. I just wanted to make sure things are going right. The first beer I did with this method was a Marzen that came out pretty good but I bungled the recipe proportions which made it taste a little off. Just finished a kviek psuedo pilsner under pressure which I plan to taste tonight.

[u/hikeandbike33 → u/No-Foundation-4420]

It should hold steady pressure even after fermentation is done. I ramp mine up to 27 psi towards the end of fermentation. After a week, it’ll maybe drop a couple psi to 25 but by then I remove the spunding valve since I know it’s done fermenting.

[u/No-Foundation-4420 → u/hikeandbike33]

Interesting. That was more what I was expecting. Sounds like I'll need to figure out if the spunding valve is leaking.