Recent content by samorg42

As a five year homebrewer who mostly toiled by myself and learned by experience, I have to agree with every point that was expressed in the article. Try to be diligent but stuff happens. Relax and be patient. It will turn out more than not.

Watch the Nottingham. It goes way too fast, uses a lot of headspace and blows out the tube. The beer tastes like bananas. If I do this again I will make sure that the ferment happens at around 60 degrees.

Ed: I brewed a citrusy IPA recipe of yours and a Pale ale previously. Both were great! I like your beers better than any of the brew pubs. I love your work! I've been brewing all-grain in keggles for less than two years and people are starting to think that I am some sort of expert. That is not...

If your wife likes your beer, consider yourself lucky. She will be supportive of the hobby/obsession. If she didn't, resentments may smolder. I am brewing at least 11-12 gallons at a time now in keggles. It is the same amount of work as doing 5 gal at a time. My daughter and I just did 22 gal in...

I've got it so that my costs (not including my labor; it is a hobby) are about 1/3 of what it would cost to buy craft beer. I buy my 2 row malt from a brewer in 50 pound sacks. Otherwise buy in bulk online. I buy hops by the pound online or from other homebrewers. I'm going to grow my own next...

As others have said, be careful with your sanitizing, including your hands. I put my carboys on a table in the cold garage overnight (cold crash) before racking. All the yeast settles out. Then put your secondary on the floor and rack. Don't let anything splash to keep O2 out. It is pretty...

I sure wouldn't just take a wild yeast and put it into a batch. A small experimental batch might be in order, using your "wild thing" to make a starter. You might well have other things contaminating that soda can, including bacteria from the mouth of whomever drank the soda. You can get...

Anything with 50-60,000 BTU works fine. If you are using keggles for pots make sure that it sits on the cooker completely and is nice and stable. Some don't and 15 gal of boiling hot wort spilled can ruin your day. If you are into brewing, I recommend having at least two cookers. You can get by...

I am fermenting 12.5 gallons in a Sanke keg with a blowoff tube for the first time. The beer is a hopped rye- O.G. 1060. I used two pkgs. of Safale 05, which I've used a few times before with good results. The yeast was fresh and has 200 billion cells per pkg. It started to vigorously ferment...

I was using Wyeast smack packs for ales, rye, and IPA. The smack packs were fine but expensive and I had a smack pack blow up when I smacked it and had to use what was left because of the extreme distance to the brew store. I tried Safale 05 based on good ratings. It has twice the yeast cells...

We have a profusion of wild hops growing in the mountains where I live. I thought that you couldn't use hop cones that have been pollinated. A brewmaster at a major regional brewery said that you could. Input? Also-when to harvest?

I made my own 3 keg setup for a ridiculously small amount of money and it functions great. For the mashtun, cut the top of the keg (about a 10" circle) and use the cut-out piece for your false bottom. It fits perfectly into the bottom of the keg and the dome shape froms a plenum. Drill a lot...

gupdike1: I strongly disagree that you can't "find a decent brew anywhere" in Utah. Wasatch, Squatters, Uinta, Moab, Shades of Pale, Epic and several others have won many awards in brewing competitions. I know several of the owners or brewmasters and those folks are very supportive of home...

Salmonbrook: I don't understand the part about "hitting the ceiling" if you are using a blowoff tube. I think that too many brewers just use an airlock. I get foam in my small blowoff tubes and that translates to beer in my bottle and tray. I may go to a larger blowoff tube..... I think that...

All of the comments about brewing equipment and methodology are interesting. A question: How do you brew in the kitchen and stay married? It seems almost impossible to get through the process without some kind of a spill. I brew outside on my deck on good days and no harm comes of it. I did have...