Recent content by Firebelly

I just got mine and was about to fire it up when I saw that there is no air control shutter. The instructions seem to indicate that this part is very important. Does anyone know if it's safe to use without the shutter??

Anyone have success with hops in Vegas yet?? I feel like it might be too late to plant this year, but looking for input. Just stumbled onto a good deal on some rhizomes while in LA. Really tempting to grab some. Vegas has really awful weather for anything but cacti though.

My first batch had that medicine taste McDingle, and no it hasn't gone away over 8 weeks of aging unfortunately. I was confused about no-rinse sanitizers and found some c-brite in my fermenter kit. I didn't rinse it out thoroughly enough and voila! Nasty medicinal stout. I'm not giving up on...

This was in addition to a kit, and this LHBS typically mills any grains you buy, or at least offers to. I guess he just forgot and I obviously never knew in the first place. I did perform the minimash as instructed in Deathbrewer's Sticky. Beer seems fine, but yeah its like the Pale Malt...

Thanks DeafSmith! I will definitely try these out. If I happen to find a better alternative I'll update this thread. Seems kind of crazy that the makers of BB don't just produce an appropriately sized carboy cap of their own. Oh well.

Wow hopefully this is the answer I was looking for! Recently did a batch for pale ale from an extract/partial grain kit, but LHBS helped me up the gravity by adding 2lbs pale malt grains and then some extra hops because that seemed like a good idea. I made it and everything went ok but gravity...

I realize this thread is really ancient. My apologies. Just wanted to ask if the orange carboy caps aren't airtight on better bottles, how does the siphoning trick work? Can they really be sanitary if totally oversized for the mouth of the carboy? Thanks

If you wait until you have matching hydrometer readings over a few day span, then transfer to secondary and allow beer to age/clarify there, is there any possibility of priming sugar not working? How long does the yeast stay viable throughout all this aging?

Those replies were really helpful, and I am extremely happy to have found boards full of knowledgeable people willing to share. Why not secondary on first batch Jonk? Mine is still hazier than I would like after 20 days in primary and it's a stout which I've heard improves with clarifying.. I...

How would you go about adding the corn sugar to secondary? I'm a noob and get confused by certain rules. For example you aerate the wort before pitching yeast in primary. Since this addition will be After primary fermentation, do you need to aerate again? I would guess you boil corn sugar in...

Man do I love Chimay Blue! I am a beginner and can't imagine even doing an AG at all yet, let alone something like this. It makes me really excited to learn as much as I can about brewing just to tackle a beer like that! Those monks have got things pretty well figured out.

Hello this is my first post/ first batch of all time. I have read this whole thread as well as the fermentation thread, but I haven't seen anything about my specific question so here goes. I'm brewing a 5 gallon Irish Stout, and I seem to have accidentally killed my first packet of yeast by...