Recent content by Dabbers

Can anyone explain this separation I'm seeing in my secondary? It's been in the secondary a week. I've brewed several batches, but I've never seen this degree of separation. Anyone know what's in the top layer? Is it a bad thing?

Brewing an IPA tomorrow afternoon. Thinking about overdosing on Citra!

Thanks! I'll keep an eye on it. BTW, I brewed a partial mash of that Brewers Best Summer Ale in September (it was my first home brew). How'd yours turn out? Despite following the directions by the letter, I ended up with a really low OG. Added another pound of DME and 8oz of honey to get the...

Does anyone have a good source on the science of conditioning? I'm trying to understand what is really happening and how temperature and other factors may affect it. Like, why is my stout better at 3 months vs. 4 weeks? If I keg a beer and cool it, does that slow conditioning, change it or...

Vanilla sounds good! As for making this a session beer, it would have to be a very short session for me :-). My ABV is over 6%.

I was concerned the ABV would be too high. iBrewmaster was estimating nearly 9% and I thought it would end up too dry and too hot. Good to know it won't be wasted and its bubbling away right now! It's a long wait...

Brewed this yesterday. My OG was 1.082, which I felt was too high, so I added boiled/cooled water until I got the OG down to 1.072. Was this a bad thing? Used dark brown sugar and Sweet potatoes in lieu of pumpkin (store was out)...Sweet Potato Pale should be ready just after Turkey Day!

Yep, sorry. And it's even written on the darn bags :-(

Generally, the priming sugar provided in a kit is not table sugar (sucrose). It is usually corn sugar (fructose) and ferments differently than sucrose. If you experiment with different priming sugars, consult this tool for the proper amounts. Failure to do so could result in a nice little...

If it were an old plastic bucket, I could understand the concern, but since its a glass carboy, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't keep using it. Maybe a glass carboy seller is spreading the rumor you heard :-)

I thought about a starter on this one because of the OG, but just used a single White Labs vile and had a strong fermentation going in less than 12 hours. I think you'll be fine, but your 1.6L starter certainly won't hurt!

Thanks for the response! This helps a lot and a search on autolysis was very helpful. Cin cin!

After reading this thread, I had to try it. Brewed today and my numbers look pretty good. My only mistake was with the yeast nutrient. i used it for the first time because of what i read in this thread, but my LHBS sells individual capsules of White Labs Servomyces from a larger package they...