Recent content by Ill hophead

The melted part of the bag was a black crusty char on the bottom of my pot. As I mentioned before, I'm not as concerned about the off flavor as I am about whether or not the beer is safe to drink.

Well I made a stupid mistake when brewing over the weekend and I think I've ruined my first batch in 4 years of brewing. When I put my immersion chiller in my kettle it trapped a nylon hop bag down on the bottom of the pot and a fairly large portion of the bag melted on the bottom of my kettle...

I recently visited my LHBS and the guy there told me that many times he brews a new batch on the same day he racks his last batch from primary to secondary and then racks the fresh wort into his primary onto the yeast cake left over from the previous batch. I'd like to start doing this so I can...

I have a 6.5 gal. and two 5 gal. carboys and so far I've been using the 6.5 for primary. The krausen builds up a couple inches and then settles down leaving that nasty brown stuff in my fermenter. I was thinking about trying a 5 gal. w/ a 1" blowoff tube stuck directly in the top of the carboy...

Today at work I thought of a great name (IMO) for my latest batch. It's a Two Hearted Ale clone that smelled like rotten eggs the first few days in primary so I'm naming it Who Farted? Ale.

I just brewed an IPA last week and the first few days in primary it smelled like rotten eggs. It's a Two Hearted Ale clone that I've decided to name Who Farted? Ale because of the smell coming from the fermenter. I had just read Charlie Papazian say that this is common and a change in...

Here's my technique for starting a siphon with your mouth without having to worry about contamination. I cut a piece of 5/16 inch hose about 5 inches long and stick that in the end of my 3/8 inch siphon hose. I suck on the 5/16 hose then once I have a mouthful of beer, bite down on it and pull...