Recent content by FunkyScribe

My fermenter is 7 gallons, and I left it in there for two weeks until the activity completely stopped and all the foam was gone. That’s when I tasted it, right before bottling, and it was not good. After two weeks of bottle conditioning, it still tastes like sour apple candy. Drinkable, but not...

I used the included dry yeast, which was called Cali. It is entirely possible that my highly developed lawnmower beer palate may be confused by the hops, good call on that. I guess young, uncarbonated, room-temperature beer might not be the best predictor of the final product.

So sour it almost puckered my face off my skull. But that was before I added the bottling sugar(?). So the sugar in the fermenter comes from the malt extract? Because I could drink that stuff straight, yum. Sour after fermentation because the yeast ate the sugar… My recipe was the American...

I brewed my first batch, and, yes, I didn’t know I was supposed to top off to 5 gallons in the fermenter so I only had 4 gallons with a 5 gallon recipe, but is your gravity supposed to go down after fermentation? For some reason I thought it would go up. Anyway, it went from 54 to about 15, I...

I think my OG was a bit high, around 54, recipe says estimates OG should be 44-50, but old eyes and the microscopic print on the hydrometer presented some challenges getting a solid reading (stupid bifocals). I’m guessing it will just be a little bit ‘heavy’, but I’m not really clear on the...

Hello! Obviously I made a mistake in my first attempt. I made a 5-gallon recipe but only wound up with 4 gallons in my fermenter and didn't know I was supposed to top it off. Fermentation is done, it's ready to bottle, should I just use a gallon of water instead of 4 cups when I boil the sugar...

Greetings! I'm Bob from Colorado Springs USA. Long time drinker, first time brewer. I've hit that (middle) age where I've started all the hobbies I've always wanted to try, homebrewing among them. I have some challenges with logistics (boiling on an electric stove, fermentation space...