Recent content by mcliffor

Less than 12 hours after I skimmed all the mold off the top, it was back in full. It might have tasted good in the end, but there was a too much mold for comfort, so I chucked it. I have another batch of store bought cider from a farm near my house that is fermenting with no mold problem. My...

A week ago I friend and I made a sweet cider out of some apple varieties she had in her orchard. I had read that the best cider is made from wild yeast, and not having any campden tablets, I decided to just go ahead and let nature do its stuff. Since the cider wasn't sterilized at all, I've...

I came across a really cheap 6.5 gallon glass carboy. I'd like to buy it, but is it too big to use as a secondary for a 5 gallon batch? Would it be a problem is there was that much air inside?

So I just finished bottling my first period beer, well, my first beer ever to be honest. When I was bottling the beer, I put some in a mug, let the yeast settle (though it was still cloudy) and tasted it. I found the aroma to be quite pleasant, but was a little surprised with the bitterness of...

I followed a recipe for five gallons of beer, but only came out with 4 gallons of wort after I mashed the grain. I imagine it was lost to evaporation. Can I add a gallon of boiled water to bring it back to five gallons or will this ruin the recipe?

Some English period recipes call for oat malt, but that's not commercially available. If I use oatmeal, will I have to let the beer sit longer during mashing so that all the oat starches are converted to sugars, or will this happen in the same time as if I used 100% malt in the recipe? My...

This seems like the kind of question people would ask all the time, but I can't find it anywhere on the forum. Can you use 5 gallon plastic water jugs designed for office water coolers as fermenters? They're the right size, light, clear, and most importantly, they're free. I don't want to...