Recent content by Ddogsleezy

i brewed a belgian wit yesterday, pitched the yeast and put it in my fermentation chamber. when i did so i failed to realize that my ferm. chamber was set to 50°. about 10 hours after i pitched, i checked on the wort to see if i was getting any ferm activity or not and realized that the temp of...

i recently brewed the chocolate milk stout recipe from northern brewer. i ordered an extra 4 oz. of cocoa nibs because i like my chocolate stouts to be very chocolatey and i thought the boost in nibs would help. I fermented in primary for a week and transfered to secondary. at the time of...

I brewed my first pumpkin spice beer (a northern brewer pumpkin smash ale extract kit). I am getting ready to rack into the keg but it has very little, if any, pumpkin spice aroma. I haven't tasted it so I'm not sure how much spice flavor is in the beer. Is there anything I can do at this stage...

When you checked the gravity after 3 weeks in the primary, it sounds like you did so using a refractometer. If that's the case, a refractometer will give you an inaccurate reading after fermentation has started. You need to use a hydrometer to obtain a good gravity reading. This might be part or...

i'm an extract brewer and have been experimenting with late extract additions to my boil. this evening i was messing around with beer smith and noticed that the IBUs increases significantly when i add my extract at 30 min as opposed to 60 min. i was just curious as to why this was. is there...

I've heard a few different thoughts on how long a batch of star San solution will stay viable. Just curious to hear what you guys have heard. Thanks.

My cousin is getting married on june 9th and I'm looking to brew 2 kegs for the reception. at the request of the groom, the first keg will be an american wheat with some citrus notes. i'm looking for is an ale extract kit that i can brew for the second keg. i want a nice session beer that...

i'm brewing a black IPA from a norther brewer extract kit. the recipe instructions say to ferment from 60-72 degrees. i just bought a johnson temp. controller and was wanting to control my fermentations a little better. any suggestions on what temp to ferment at? or what will be the difference...

hey guys, i'm getting ready to brew this weekend and have a question about using a smack pack. i've never used one before. the brewing instructions that came with the recipe kit say that the smack pack could take anywhere from 3 hours to a few days for the pack to expand. my question is this...

hey guys, i know that its important to chill your wort down as soon and as fast as possible after your boiling period has concluded. when implementing a whirlpool after the boil, is it okay to chill the wort at the same time that the whirlpool is going? or should you do one before the other? thanks

I'm a new home brewer and was wondering what the benefits were to using a conical fermenter as opposed to a simple bucket with airlock?

i'm a fairly new home brewer and am doing my first dry-hop batch. i was wondering what you all thought was the best way to dry-hop. i am using leaf hops with a glass carboy as my secondary. the guy at my local home brew shop said to put the leaves in a muslin bag and put them in the wort when i...

is it permissible to store freshly chilled wort in your fermenter, without adding yeast? to give some context to this question, say you were brewing, finished your boil and were chilling your wort when you realized that you are out of yeast. its sunday, so the homebrew shop down the street isn't...

Can anybody tell me what the benefits are to doing a full boil rather than just a partial boil. I'm a new brewer and have only done partial boils where I boil 2 gallons and then add water after the boil to reach the 5 gallon mark. Theoretically, this seems like it shouldn't matter to the flavor...