Recent content by SurlyBastard

Wait three weeks before you pop one. You can sneak some but they will seem over carbonated at first and flat after a few minutes. The carbonation really needs to settle into the beer. Also, make sure to chill the beer for a good 24 hours at least. You will not be disappointed. Happy brewing.

IMO whole leaf hops work the best for dry hopping and I just dump them all in. A lot less clean up than pellets, even while using a grain bag. As to your beers being cloudy, it could be a variety of things but I would start by using a clearing agent like Irish moss or gelatin and see if that helps.

Good lord is right...they spanked the Canucks and made them look stupid for 60 mins. You missed a really good game. Although, brewing and hockey are on the same level for me, so I would have either brewed where there was a TV, or brought the TVto my brew spot : D

I use gelatin and a good cold crash, but then again as someone said, it's all about your preference. The only reason I use gelatins you don't have to remember to add it to the boil, which means it is one less thing to remember on brew day, which let's me have more beer :)

The longer the better. You will rarely go wrong with leaving it longer. My rule of thumb is three to four weeks in the Primary, three weeks bottle conditioning. If I am adding fruit to a beer, I will do two weeks Primary and one week Secondary on a bed of the Fruit, but other than that I...

What he said ^^ I prefer buckets because they are much cheaper and a lot easier to clean and sanitize, not to mention, they are stackable, and when you don't have a lot of space, things that stack in each other are great (and I store my brewing stuff in my empty ones...when they are empty...

Good to hear! I will crack a beer tonight in honor of you. Keep fighting the good fight! Prost! :mug:

Really glad to hear that your doing better Revvy, how did the move go? Also, no harm in being a little nuts 'Cat', my wife tells me everyday! :drunk:

Welcome back to the wonderful world. I'll drink one tonight for you. Also, you couldn't have picked a better forum to join!! Prost!

Citrus is one of those notes that can go south really fast (as in too much). I have used way too much lemon in one of my batches, and it took a good couple of months to mellow out, and even then, it wasn't as mellow as I wanted it. I tend to stay away from citrus now, specifically for that...

I would have to agree that it is entirely perception, or at least the majority of it is. I happen to love Simcoe. I use it in a lot of my beers (Amarillo, Nugget and Simcoe are always in my supply). It all comes back to personal taste. I happen to hate the smell of fish/seafood cooking in...

Everyone loves the smell of cat piss! :D

First, IIPA is officially Imperial IPA and Double IPA is essentially just "slang" but is still accepted in the BJCP guidelines as a reference to the style, but currently there are only three official styles of the beer, English IPA, American IPA and Imperial IPA. Now in my opinion you are on...

I wouldn't worry yet. Some of my beers have taken a full 24 hours to really take off, and some have exploded in 6 hours. There are a lot of factors at play. If I were you, I would give it a full 2 days and if you still don't see anything, open the bucket and check and then evaluate from there...

I use Lalvin 71B-1122 because its what my LHBS stocks up on, and then if my cider finishes too dry, ill add Malic acid to taste to bring my desired tartness back.