Recent content by bruceb07

Its been awhile since I have brewed, found a kit that was dated 2016. Decided to brew it. Made a yeast starter to check validity of yeast using some of the DME. Yeast started ok brewed using hops, LME and DME. Everything went well however wort was considerably darker that expected The OG was...

In a hope to reduce some bottling I purchased a set of mini kegs, about 1.25 gal per keg. I processes the batch in the same manner as always, using corn sugar to carbonate. I filled 2 mini kegs and finished the batch in bottles. After a month or so the bottles finished nicely however, when I...

Enter me please!

The brew is sitting at 1.015 which is where it has been, so I would say its done. Still some bubbles but it is beginning to clear, so I will let it sit for another week or so and bottle.

I brewed, partial mash, a Blue Moon clone 6 weeks ago. The brewing process went well however, the og was lower than expected. I pitched the yeast and after several days didnt see much activity. So I racked to clean carboy, mixed well and capped up. after a couple of days I began seeing some...

I have struggled with temp control also, using a swamp cooler you can easily get down to 69F but the temp swings between ice additions. I wanted better temp control so I went to the next step. Using the swamp cooler, another ice chest, my wort cooler an old fountain pump and a aquarium temp...

Keeping friends and family happy in Danville. Buster Brewery.

YES, count me in!!!

Typically it has been 5 -14 days at first racking, I may rack 2-4 times depending on the wine, total ferment time is typically 30 - 40 days. I manage head space with different sizes of carboys instead of topping off. I have used yeast nutrient from MWS in my wines. Ferment temps have typically...

I have made cherry brandy using tha attached recipe I found in Brian Cooks "Making Wine" It was great after 3 months but smoothed out after 6.

I have just bottled my 13th batch of wine, here are some of my observations and questions: Most of my batches finish with an bitter-alcohol taste. These get better after 6 months to a year of aging. Reguardless of which fruit is used, the wines finish very light with little or no flavour...

I have successfully harvested yeast from the primary after racking to secondary but, when I was racking to bottling bucket I noticed a significant layer of yeast in the bottom of the secondary. My question is can this harvested yeast be used or will it be exhausted and insufficient to brew...

Thanks for the input, the numbers fall where I would expect based on my taste but, I'm sure it is totally an individual preference. I guess thats why there are so many different types of wines out there.

Is there a rule of thumb or ranges to identify the dryness or sweetness of a wine using specific gravity? For example if I have a wine which finished at a specific gravity of 0.99. This is fairly dry. Where does the specific gravity have to be raised to to achieve a semi sweet to sweet wine??

I have been brewing for a little over a year now. I have brewed 8 batches of beer and 10 batches of wine. I have had some good batches, some not so hot and have had to waste 1 batch due to a sanitation problem however, I have hit a wall. I have not found that favorite beer and in the end, as...