Recent content by SamFen

Hi all, I'm about to use my very small quantity of first-year homegrown hops in a recipe, and I was wondering what kinds of adjustments brewers normally make when using homegrown. Are they generally hoppier or less hoppy than commercial versions? Better for dry hopping? Worse? My hops...

Ok, new question (maybe I should have a separate thread...): Little sunlight (4-6 hours) in the ground, or... Lots of sunlight (9-10 hours) in containers? Here's the deal: I was originally thinking of having the hops -- cascade-- grow up the side of my porch. There's really only one place in...

Cool, that's what I hoped. What about the question of seven hours of afternoon light for Cascade? Will that be enough, or should I pick something that needs less light?

Hi all, I finally have a yard, and want to plant some hop rhizomes, but am worried that I missed the best time to plant them. Here in Boston our last frost was probably at least three weeks ago (although, randomly, after over a week of 70+ weather we may go down to 35 tonight). Will it still be...

Just restarting this dead thread because I've got a couple inches and I feel sure there must be more to do with trub than just composting it. Anyone ever make bread out of it, maybe? Or put it in the fridge and save it as yeast food for the next beer? Feel sure all that stuff must be good for...

So, when I took the hops out of the fridge yesterday, after everything was ready and my grains were simmering away, I suddenly discovered that I (and the guy at the store) had made things a little difficult for myself: the 1oz centennial and 0.5oz tett were in the same baggie! (I bought the...

Well, I hadn't even considered dry hopping, but since you both mentioned it I guess I should! I think it may be hard to pick up more hops for my brew tomorrow, but how much later can it be added? (I've never dry hopped before.) Can I add it in after I rack to secondary? And so you think another...

Hi all, I went to my LHBS the other day to get ingredients for my second beer. I told him that I was looking for something in the style of a Victory Hop Devil, which I find to have a lot of really good hops taste, and yet not super bitter like some IPAs. Here are the ingredients I walked...

Alright guys, you've given me hope. This batch has been feeling like a bit of a downer for a while now, but here's to it working out fine in the end. Thanks! Next batch will be an IPA -- if I can ever get my friend to lend me his brew pot again!

Hi all, So I brewed my first beer about three weeks ago (and posted the recipe I used back then). It was a Irish Stout from a Brewers Best kit. The OG was 1.05, and after a day of clear fermentation, it seemed to stop dead. Two days later, I took a gravity reading. 1.02. A week after that...

Huh. So when people re-pitch yeast (my case aside, I have seen several posts with suggestions to re-pitch more yeast), do people not aerate? It seems like the yeast wouldn't get enough oxygen if not. I'm absolutely fine waiting, but after 8-9 days at the same gravity, is waiting around another...

I really think there's a confusion in this thread. All the comments are saying that it's ok if bubbles slow down or stop. OT is saying that bubbles are speeding up, not slowing down, and wondering if this is ok. I think it should be clear that the answer is yes, it's fine. There's no point in...

Is there any need to crumble to hop pellets, if you're not using a bag? I assume that the 60 minutes boil time will dissolve anything, but what about the final aroma hops?

First, my specifics, second the more philosophical question: I'm brewing my first (well, second, but first was 10 years ago) beer, a stout that I already had a couple questions about earlier. My OG was 1.05. 12 hours after I started I started getting some nice bubbles. 36 hours after it...

Thanks for all the responses! Ok, so trying to synthesize: - I should probably not do anything right now - There's no point in adding more of the same yeast - There could be value in adding some different yeast such as Nottingham or Safale 05 Do those sound right so far? If I did pitch in...