Recent content by EdgeBrewer

Starters are a good idea, and really necessary for high gravity beers. Starters in flasks on a stir plate propagate the yeast faster. That being said making a starter and just hand stirring (picking it up and swirling it) the flask occasionally is much better than no starter at all. It is...

Gonna brew this tomorrow, excited cause you can't get Fat Squirrel in IL anymore. Last summer a bunch of us FIBS rode out to New Glarus and camped out at the site right across from the brewery. Partied throughout the night (drinking NG throughout) and then in the morning walked over to the...

Yeah, I milled all of the grain together, I'm just worried cause I came up with and IPA that had 1 ILB of crystal 60 and it is almost cloyingly sweet (so far, only 2 weeks in the bottle). Thanks Ed.

Was planning on brewing this tomorrow so I went to the hbs and bought all the ingredients. Somewhere in the confusion of milling two separate grain bills (gonna be a two brew weekend) I milled the entire pound of the crystal, instead of a the required 8 oz. I know, I need to invest in a...

It was great, favorite of the night was the Firestone Walker XV and my fiancé really loved the creme brûlée from Southern tier. Everything was $5 and that got you about 3/4 full of a snifter, which was fine cause all the beers were high gravity and this amount allowed us to try more. The...

So a friend of mine and a successful local home brewer suggested I use bombers the next time I bottle for myriad reasons. Mostly because in his experience it carbed better and overall produced a better beer. Anyone care to way in?

So a friend of mine and a successful local home brewer suggested I use bombers the next time I bottle for myriad reasons. Mostly because in his experience it carbed better and overall produced a better beer. Oh and it's about half the work on bottling day. Anyone care to way in?

Hello fellow beer nerds! To celebrate the darkest night of the year, my local taproom Acre in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood is tapping some rare and amazing dark beers. Come out this thursday (12/22/11) to enjoy the likes of 2010 Goose Island Bourbon County Vanilla Stout, Stone 2008...

Ugh, when I put my grain bag in my strike water I noticed suds forming. Thankfully i hadn't added the grain yet. Probably residual oxyclean from the last time it was used. This oversight does give me the opportunity to ask an additional question. With the "dunk" sparging how long should I...

Thanks for the help, excited for tomorrow! I hope everything goes well, fingers crossed.

Thanks so much Yooper! So you think adding the Amarillo at 40 mins. would create a hop bomb? I was going for about 60 IBU and using Beer Calculus, these amounts at these timings give me about that. Like I said this is my first recipe calculation and I have never used Beer Calculus, are their...

Hey guys, I'm brewing my first pm recipe that I came up with tomorrow. It's an IPA, here it is: 5# Mutons Light dry malt extract 3# American 2 row 1# Crystal 60L 1 oz. Amarillo (10.3) 60 min. .75 oz Amarillo (10.3) 40 min. 2 oz Cascade (5.5) at flameout Wyeast American Ale II 1272...

Hello fellow brewers, Just tasted my first home brew after about an 8 year hiatus from the hobby. Man, wish i had never left! While the brew was a little thin (was over my final volume by about a quart) and it was a little green cause I only bottled it a week ago, boy was it good. No off...

I just saw the introductions page and kinda feel bad cause I've been reading on here for a while and even posted a few threads and haven't introduced myself. I live in Edgewater Chicago and am back to brewing after a long time off. This forum is great and I have already learned so much. So...

Hi everyone, fairly new to the forum. I was wondering if anybody had tips on feaux barrel aging a porter or stout using oak chips. How long did you soak the oak chips in the whiskey and how much whiskey was used? And then how long did the chips sit in the beer in the secondary. I know there are...