Recent content by blarsen71

Thanks for the advice.

13.5%abv.

Made my first Barleywine back in January. Have been trying it from time to time to see if flavors develop or change to my liking. Very, very boozy. About 3 months ago, I added some French oak chips. I tried it this morning and you can definitely taste the subtle flavor of french oak...

They are allowed. I do have a bottle capper as well. Will the beer remain carbonated this way?

Entering into my first beer competition and need some advice. I need to submit 2 12 oz or 1 22oz bottles. I hate bottle conditioning so should I submit carbonated beer from my keg in grolsch bottles instead? Any advice would be most appreciated.

Wondering if anyone knows of any competitions held around Chicagoland or a website that shows upcoming events for home brewers.

Have a couple of beers that are waiting on empty kegs. How long can a beer last in a secondary?

Have a bourbon porter in primary for 2 weeks. Recipe says to put in secondary with 2oz wood chips and 16 oz bourbon for 4 weeks. Do I really need to rack and put in secondary or can I just add ingredients to primary and let sit for 4 weeks? I hate all the cleanup!!!!

Thank you! BTW, did you toast your chips?

I'm making a bourbon barrel porter. It calls for 2oz of bourbon soaked oak chips along with 12oz of Makers Mark. Has anyone used wood chips before and do you have any pros and cons of using them? It will be a good 6-8 weeks before I get to try it, so I want to make sure I don't screw it up.

I'm going to try your hop selection. It's teally good, but it needs a little more umph. Does that make sense?

TopherM I just had my first glass of the hefewiezen recipe with honey. It is outstanding!!! I used orange honey from whole foods like you said and also used the honey wheat. Can't wait to share it with friends. Thank you again.

I accidentally left the hop sack from the boil in my primary last night. It won't do anything to the fermentation process, right?

One last question. How long do you ferment?

Thank you very much for the advice.