Recent content by levand

I'm following this recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/grahams-english-cider-107152/ But I was talking to a guy at the homebrew store, and he said that all my yeast might be dead by now and I might have to re-pitch. But won't that make it gross and defeat the purpose of letting it...

I live in a small apartment, and space is at a premium. Unfortunately, I've also had several batches of beer turn out quite poorly due, most likely, to high fermentation temps. So it seems I need a cooler. Unfortunately, the wife has vetoed getting an extra freezer or building any large boxy...

Thanks for the help, everyone! Definitely going to start exploring cooling options.

There are no visible chips in my pot - doesn't mean there aren't any, I guess, but I'll take another look. I'm using bottled spring water from the store... shouldn't be any problem there. I chose that water because it tastes great to me, much moreso than tap water or pure distilled water...

I just tried the first couple bottles of my second batch of beer ever, and I'm rather disappointed. My first batch was an Imperial Nut Brown from a Brewer's Best kit. It turned out ok, I thought, for a first batch, although it had a bit of acrid sharpness/sourness to it that I would rather...

I've done two batches so far, and in both cases it bubbled for 2-3 days and then stopped. I let it sit quietly for the rest of the week in primary (it's not going to hurt it) and then moved to secondary. Sounds like that on the track you're on, so yes, you're probably fine.

Ah, yes, I'm sorry... was off by a decimal point. Yes, I have ambiguity at hundredths of a gravity (.01), not tenths (.10). Still, that's too much. I wouldn't worry if were just thousandths (.001) - that is below my margin of error.

All good tips, guys... thanks! I'll definitely calibrate it, and try out the other tips. And yes, it's definitely off by (up to) 0.10 - I wouldn't worry about .01, that's well within the margin of error for a beginner, I think.

I just bottled my second batch, and although I love the brewing experience so far, I'm finding gravity measurements a bit frustrating. Every time I've measured, it's been up to .10 off of what the recipe said it would be (on the high side), even when I've measured the ingredients precisely...

Thanks, everyone... this is exactly the answer I was hoping for. I'll go with buying the smaller pieces of equipment and scaling the recipe. Looking forward to it!

I'm very new to home brewing... actually, I haven't even bought my first set of equipment yet, hence this question. It seems that the standard batch size is 5 gal - the local brew shop (Annapolis Home Brew) seems to only sell recipes and kits at that size. However, there are a number of...