Recent content by BrewBalls

So I bottled the pale ale today. I siphoned from underneath the top film. It wasn't oily, but a hazy film. I had a stronger stench today that I was worried about, but all the odor seemed to be in the film since all the beer in the bottling bucket didn't have the same smell. It smelled mostly...

I'm thinking i could have had a false reading when taking wort temp before pitching. after taking the temp off the top of the wort and pitching the yeast, the bucket felt warmer to the touch at the bottom than what the thermometer read. i use idophor sanitizer. i just opened the pale ale...

My golden ale still tastes as if I opened a bottle after 4 days when it really has been in the bottles for 5 weeks. Weird odor I can't explain. Not very drinkable. Not getting better. Pale ale in fermentor smelled great for the 1st 2 weeks, now has the same odor. I'll bottle it and see...

yeah i took it out of the fridge and I'll wait a few more weeks. probably wont even sample another one for at least 2 more weeks

A golden ale that I had in the primary for 3 weeks then bottled. There were still plenty of yeast clumps floating around in the fermentor at bottling time. Not a dense yeast sludge at the bottom either. I tried to siphon away and filter as much of that stuff as possible. The yeast is compacted...

i read on these forums that you add gelatin typically 3-4 days before bottling and that you can't really add the gelatin "too early" is that right?

about 10 days in the primary fermentor, I opened it up to stir in some gelatin and I saw what seemed to be yeast clumps floating on top. There were some hops in these clumps as well. They broke apart when I stirred in the gelatin. Will this settle in a few days with the gelatin? will it...

my last brew was a chocolate cream stout and I used hershey's special dark cocoa powder. it was added at the end of the boil. and just now looking at the recipe, I realized I put double the amount of cocoa the recipe called for. for some reason i thought i was to dump the whole can into the...

i hear you can add it at the end of the boil, but you don't have to. my last batch was a chocolate cream stout and I boiled it with my bottling sugar at bottling time. came out fine.

Well I'm brewing my 3rd batch which is a golden ale. OG 1.052. I can post the recipe if needed. I brewed on friday and used some irish moss. Do these fining ingredients shorten the need for any type of secondary fermentation? Should I just leave in the primary for 2 weeks and then bottle...

i have a chocolate stout that seemed over carbed and too sweet after 1 week, but after a few more weeks the carbonation mellowed out and the overly strong sweetness went away. i used 3/4 cup priming sugar for a 5 gal batch.

for my first batch, I sanitized my hydrometer, hydrometer test tube, racking cane, bottle brush, tubing, the tube my thermometer came in, and 2nd bucket. along with the stuff that actually needed to be sanitized at the time.

The stuff wont be over carbonated at 2 weeks will it? its a golden ale so I think a high amount of carbonation will be fine for this beer anyway.

So refrigeration will only stall carbonation, but not bottling conditioning? The beer can age well enough in the bottle while chilled? I put a bottle in the fridge after only 5 day just to see how well its coming along. Was carbonated pretty well so far. So I put a few more bottles in the...

good info thanks. I can wait. I'll just buy some beer. Since its my first batch I'll take some out soon and again after 2 weeks in the fermentor. I'll take notes on taste and other qualities and learn about the brewing process that way.