Recent content by NChomebrewer

I found this thread late but I am going. The wife and I went in 2005. Last year we stayed local and went to the Charlotte Oktoberfest but I like the Durham festival a lot better. It's less than two weeks away!

The station called Versus is showing the Rugby World Cup. Unfortunately ESPN is too busy showing poker, spelling bee's, and cup stacking tournaments. I did not make that loast one up. About a month ago ESPN televised cup stacking from Denver. ESPN sucks!

Did anyone see that the Beer Hunter Michael Jackson died of a heart attack in London yesterday? I have a couple of his beer books. It was a shame to here about that today.

Hello from the "spectacular" twin cities area of Charlotte and Gastonia. :D

what was the temp when you originally did the smacking? i think they are supposed to be around 75f? When I smacked the pack it was initially chilled from being in the refridgerator but it was left out to warm to room temperature prior to pitching. The temps in our house are around 68-70...

I need a little advice on yeast. This is my fourth time brewing. On Saturday I brewed a Flat Tire ingrediant kit from Midwest Brewing using Wyeast Belgian Ale liquid yeast. I hit the smack pack and gave the pack a good 5-6 hours to swell. The only problem is it never did. I felt around the pack...

Anyone have experience using the Better Bottles as a primary fermenter? I was looking at them in the Northern Brewer catalog. They sound really nice. Lightweight, odor-free, stain resistant plastic. They can be fitted with a racking outlet so beer can be transferred with a spigot instead of...

I have been using this web site for a couple of months and just now noticed the Introductions forum. I am new to homebrewing. I brewed my first beer (Irish Red Ale) in August and I am getting ready to bottle my second this weekend (Honey Brown). First one turned out great. I am drinking it...

Excellent idea! I would buy one or two. Any thoughts on having a long sleeve and short sleeve option? Since it has gotten cold recently I have had to break out the long sleeve shirts. The days of short sleeve tees are numbered at least until next spring.

I have tasted the beer and there is not much of a honey taste to it. The recipe called for a pound of honey and I used 1.5 lbs. I didn't think using honey instead of corn sugar would make that much of a difference because so very little is used but I thought I would ask anyway and see what...

I am getting ready to bottle a honey brown ale and I have a few questions in regards to using honey as a primer rather than corn sugar. Will using the honey increase the taste of honey in the beer? How much honey should I use and how should it be prepared before putting it into the...

I recently purchased a Honey Brown Ale ingrediant kit from Northern Brewer. It came with one pound of clover honey that is to be added at the end of the boil. From my experience when I have tried a beer made with honey I barely taste the honey or not at all. While I don't want it to be an...

I have seen/heard/read one person say it is fine to sanitize your bottles in advance and another say only do it right before your are ready to bottle. I sanitize my bottles in advance, place aluminum foil tightly over the tops, and put them back in the box. I think it works fine. Plus it saves...

I live outside of Charlotte in Gaston County.

I used the powdered yeast which evidently will finish faster than the liquid yeast. I've taken a few hydrometer readings and all is well. I am bottling it tomorrow. Never brewing before I wanted to make sure everything was okay. Thanks for all the replies.