Issue with Brewing Bavarian Wheat Beer - Low CO2 Pressure and Unusual Taste


  • I am writing to seek assistance regarding an issue I encountered while brewing Bavarian Wheat beer using my Igulu beer brewing machine.

    Here is the step-by-step process I followed:

    1. I added all the ingredients from the Bavarian Wheat beer kit into the keg in the order specified on the packaging.
    2. I placed the keg into the machine and connected the hoses as instructed, except for the CO2 hose.
    3. I used the RFID tag to initiate the brewing process.

    The machine ran through all the steps, but I noticed that the CO2 pressure on the display showed "0". After the brewing process completed, the LED indicator turned green, but the machine notified me that the pressure in the keg was low. When I pulled the lever to dispense the beer, there was a normal amount of foam, but the beer itself tasted very sweet with no bitterness or typical beer flavor.

    I have followed the instructions carefully and would appreciate your guidance on how to resolve this issue. Could this be a problem with the CO2 connection, the ingredients, or something else? Please advise on the next steps I should take.

    Thank you for your support.



  • @Pakpoom 

    The yeast was dead. There are a few other posters on here that reported the same issue. One said his yeast was actually expired based on the date on it, and it completely failed.

    Your results also indicate dead yeast. The Co2 pressure should have been climbing the entire time the brewing was going. The yeast should have been eating the sugars and converting them to alcohol giving off Co2 in the process. If you had a leak, that could result in no Co2, but the fact that it was sweet indicates that it never fermented the sugar. Your option at this point is to add an active yeast and start the brew up again. So you can buy a yeast such as this Bavarian Wheat yeast sold here on Amazon, add it into the keg, mix well, and then seal it back up and start the process. You should see the Co2 start to rise almost right away during the first day. When you add the yeast, do not add the entire packet, as it is designed for 5 gallons. Only use 1/3rd of the packet. You can of course go with a different type of yeast as well, but thats what you need to do. Add more yeast to kickstart the fermentation.

    I would also give it a quick visual look for mold before you add the new yeast, just to be safe, as it sounds like it just sat there not fermenting for the entire brew duration. With no alcohol content that is a warm sugary stew.


  • Hello,
    I made a similar experience as Pakpoom, but I had pressure in the system (around 1,6 bar at the end). The taste was exactly the same as Pakpoom described, really sweet and I had a solid and dense foam.
    It was undrinkable. The question is, is the recipe is wrong? The temperature while fermentation was around 15 degree celsius. Any ideas?


  • @Joerg Most likley same issue, yours just made it further into the process than his did before your yeast kicked it early. The recipie is definitely not wrong, it just just when breweing there is always the possiblity that yeast can stop earlier than it should, which is more likely if the yeast is old or expired. This info is going off your description of sweet, without tasting it myself. Some beers are a little sweeter and one person may say it is sweet and another not feel the same at all. But, assuming it IS too sweet, then the answer is going to be yeast stopped early.

    My yeast expires next year so no issue, but some folks did appear to receave expired yeast.

    Cannot guarantee for sure that is what is going on, but it is the most likely situation. Solution would be the same. Release the pressure, add more yeast which will eat the sugar left, and drink when it is finished. Yours most likely does not need to go the entire duration a second time, but should definitely go longer until the sugars are gone. If you add more yeast and get no activity at all it could just be the flavor of the beer is too sweet for you, but if the yeast activates again and continues to cosume the sugar, than that is the problem. 


  • Hi thanks for you guy information. In my case the expire date is 2025. I've fail the first 2 batches already. I just start the new batch 2 day ago. I just bring the keg to check and surprise no bubble at all. I've check temperature which normal 16 - 18 C. What should I do


  • @Pakpoom Did you dump the first two batches and not try to add more yeast to the failed batches to start them back up? That way we would know for sure if the yeast was dead for some reason.

    There is no reason at all it should not be brewing correctly if everything is in there and at that temperature, as that is the perfect range for a bavarian wheat beer. Even with NO iGulu machine at all, the kits should be working fine for you as long as the temperature range if correct.

    The only reason at all that would cause what you are seeing is dead yeast, or a yeast that has refused to start properly, so in your case, if it does not start fermenting, I would just spend a few dollars on amazon and buy some yeast and test if that is the issue. All the other ingredients will work with essentially any yeast at all. Each type of yeast will of course effect the flavor of your final product, and how dry it is, but everything else should work just fine as ingredients with any yeast at all. You could literally go to the store and buy bakers yeast for bread and even that would brew you beer without an issue, though I would recommend getting an actual yeast like I mentioned in an earlier post. I posted a direct link to  a yeast for you two posts ago. Just click on the word "here", where I said "So you can buy a yeast such as this Bavarian Wheat yeast sold here on Amazon".

    You should absolutely email their support as well and let them know that you have had two batches completely fail to ferment, and that you have started a third batch, and you have the same issue. Let them know exactly what you have done, that you followed the directions exactly, that the iGulu itself is in fermenting mode and the temperature is being maintained correctly, and that there are no bubbles, and no increase at all in Co2. That once the process was finished you ended up with sweetened water instead of beer.

    They will reply to you with support, and most likely send you replacements. Not sure if they will ask for pictures or anything, but support from their actual support email has always been excellent for me. While we can answer questions for you on this forums, as other owners of the product, to try to help you out, we cant give you actual support for your wasted batches. It sounds like you did absolutely nothing wrong if you left nothing out of your posts, and you received some bad beer kits, so you should definitely email them and let them know to get replacements sent to you. They will not help you here on the forums at all. You have to actually email them. You can use their Contact Us form on their web page or directly email them at support@igulu.com.


  • I  was brewing my 2nd batch of this today. The first batch turned out perfectly.
    It was about 8 hours since I started it, and I noticed the PSI was at 0. So I worried that something was wrong, as the filtered water I used was room temp, which here is 27c (80f).

    But then I plugged in the CO2 hose, and almost instantly the PSI started to rise, even though the CO2 tank is switched off. 

    So perhaps need to connect the CO2 regardless. 


  • @Jason You need the Co2 hose to be plugged in for it to actually measure the pressure. The pressure measuring mechanism is not in the keg or the dispensing hose.

    It measures the pressure coming through the Co2 line, as the pressure rises, it continues to measure it using that hose.


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