Recent content by 3sheetsEMJ

I mean *water is 95% of the beer, sorry :/

Well beer is 95+% of the beer, Ive always heard that if its good to drink it will be good to brew, and have found this to be true in my brewing... The only way to know for sure is to try it out.

Sorry to hear about the job :( You could brew lighter ales that dont use as much hops or malts, might save a few bucks. Also ive heard all grain is cheaper, although im an extract brewer so I cant say for sure.

Please explain...

I know exactly what you mean. After my first homebrew which I was very proud of, I went to my local bar and had a craft beer on tap, my "regular" beer, and I couldnt believe how bad it tasted. It had a distinct twang to it that i had never tasted before. Several friends who were drinking my brew...

Agreed, however this problem can be averted if you have a CO2 tank and a regulator (although this may be an issue of u bottle rather than keg). Since CO2 is heavier than air, if you "pour" a little co2 into the fermentor after you open it and take a reading, it will displace the air/oxygen and...

I recently had the same issue. I made an american amber with wyeast 1056, and it had a vert astringent taste. Its hit or miss w astringency with me, which is very discouraging!

A bit on the cool side but it will just take a little longer to ferment. I would leave it in there for 3-4 weeks in the primary and you should be fine. You shouldget a nice clean finish with the cooler temps.

Yes fermentation is probably the most important step, but I wouldnt say buying pure oxygen is low hanging fruit for a beginner. We can agree to disagree with this, thats fine with me. As far as large brewerys doing it, yes they have to keep all variables as close to identical as possible in...

While I agree that "good enough" may not be good enough for some folks, I believe that with most novice/intermediate brewers the idea is to isolate the variables that greatly affect the beer quality first, such a ferm temps, boiling process and even recipe- the low lying fruit- then move toward...

This is what I do as well. Although I do a partial boil, so when I pour the extra water to get it to 5gallons, I pour it from high in the air and splash it into the fermentors. This seems to aerate it just fine. I always get fermentation at 12-18 hrs, and Im not too worried about excess O2 in...

Doesnt anyone use fermcap? I do and dont require a blowoff tube, but im wondering if this causes any ill effects? Ive gotten good results using it, although have had recent trouble with astringency, im wondering if there is any correlation, bc for the life of me i cant tell what is causing it...

Kona has a coconut beer. They roast the coconut shavins and add at dryhop. Ive had it and thought that it was good, but a bit on the sweet side, although Im not a big fan of sweet beers. Good luck!

Left Hand Brewing Company Sawtooth Ale, my alltime favorite beer!! :-)

I work for a very large home improvement retailer. We are theoretically so big that one customer won't make a difference. HOWEVER, our focus on customer service is second to none. I have ordered product from Florida and shipped it to a customer in Alaska, even though the retail was far less than...