Recent content by Bear85

Thanks all, we'll bottle it when I get back and we'll proceed as normal. Thanks!

A friend and I have a hobgoblin clone (from the recipes section on this site), sitting in the primary, it's been there since mid-July. We brewed it together, then I moved away for 2 months and he hasn't "gotten around" to bottling it. Will it still be ok in another month's time, it'll be that...

My friend cleverly stored the yeast in the freezer, not the fridge. Is it still ok? It's a dry yeast, Danstar Nottingham. We're just planning to make a starter and see how it looks, and pitch more yeast tomorrow after a trip to the LHBS if it doesn't look good. Any advice?

Yes, we've been storing the bottles at room temperature, its at least 72F. By the time we get to putting the last of the batch in the fridge they'll have had about 5 weeks. I'll try sucking up the trub a bit more. I didn't realize 6 weeks of fermentation might be pushing it a bit too long, we...

I'm curious if there is a way to get more carbonation in my beers. We use about 5oz of priming sugar, and are leaving them for 3-4 weeks before trying them, but we're only getting a little carbonation. These aren't stout beers, IPAs and such. I don't know if this is related, but we're getting...

Thanks for all the tips. We first scrubbed it off with water, then PWB soaked, then StarSan soaked, then more PBW soaking and more StarSan for a final few minutes. Hopefully this got it ok! The bucket didn't seem scratched at all, it had only been used once or twice before. I hope we nixed it ok!

Hey all, We're just midway through a brewing session, and on taking the fermentation bucket out of storage there was a little bit of mold on the bottom. Is a good clean with PBW and StarSan enough to kill it off and make it good for using? To be honest we don't really have much of an...

My stove only boils water (3 gallons) with a lid on the pot, but once the extract is in it can boil it quite happily without a lid. I don't know the science behind it, but you might want to give it a try and see.

I have pretty much the same pot, it's works fine. Definitely not the best quality but no issues with it.

Hey, I'm fermenting in a corner of the bedroom, obviously room temperature is a little too warm so I've had the swamp cooler set up on the go for the last week. It's doing a good job of keeping the temps down, but man does it stink. I'm using the t-shirts over the top of the fermenters to...

Thanks for all the replies. I should have said that it's a porcelain enamel top. I'll try and find some BFK or Oxyclean or some other heavy duty cleaner, I was wondering if one was definitely the best but it seems like they each have their own following! Cheers.

Had my first boil over last night, and instead of mopping it up right away I foolishly left it to encrust onto my stove top during the boil. Managed to clean up 95% of it last night with a lot of effort, but there is some that just won't come off with what I had in the kitchen. Is there...

Sorry to revive an older thread, but is there a definitive good solution for this idea? Most of the links are sadly dead now.

Thanks for the replies everyone, I drink the tap water here quite happily so I guess it's good to use. I was more worried about sanitation than taste, so that's fine.

What is the consensus on using tap water (without boiling - i.e. straight from the tap) to top up partial boil worts? I'm having my second ever brew day this weekend, 2 weeks ago we followed John Palmer's instructions on How to Brew for partial boils, and boiled the water we were going to use...