Recent content by The_Chemist

26, started brewing at 24

It looked exactly like a soup does when simmering on low heat. It was very odd. It's since calmed down, almost too much though. There is not much activity in the airlock and the top of the solution had no foam but some scum, if that makes sense.

It is probably not a big deal but my most recent all-grain fermentation is acting a bit oddly. Normally, I get a thick foam and gentle gurgling from the airlock during fermentation. This time, I am getting almost no foam and the solution is almost simmering... It's not simmering from heat, it's...

This is also the style that I try to brew in. The answers to the questions that you asked could fill a book or a forum full of debate, but the short answer would be something like: Equipment depends on the method that you want to use. If you want to go all extract (no actual grain involved...

From a chemistry perspective, the compounds in the hops that give aroma are volatile (evaporate quickly) by nature. Otherwise, you would not smell them. The longer these compounds are heated for, the more will be in the atmosphere instead of in your beer. The heating process might also cause...

That might be a good idea. I will try that next time. Although the duct tape makes it look so original, professional too, of course =D Updates soon, with pictures.

So I trekked out into the cold and got some Belgian mushroom corks, but I am still going to experiment with some different ways to cap these bottles. Here they are: Experiment 1: I am using just a normal wine cork without anything extra and no weight on top of it. I Fully expect this cork to...

It's odd because I put a few wine corks into the bottles and they seemed to seal really well. Again, I think I am just going to experiment with this for now. It seems that the consensus is against this working, so I will wait and get the real Belgian corks. A few more days in the secondary never...

So I am still not clear on why the Belgian Corks would be better than regular corks. I get that they allow you to hold down the cork with wire to prevent it from popping off, but I didn't use them with the last batch and it was not a problem (no tops popped off). I am wondering if the pressure...

So I have batch number two of beer ready to bottle. For the last batch, I used the plastic 'mushroom' shaped cork stoppers (similar to what you see with champagne bottles or normal 750 mL unibroue bottles only plastic instead of cork). I have two problems with these caps: 1) I am not sure...

Ahhh, I didn't realize that there were unwanted tannins and bacteria in the grains. That makes a lot of sense. I think you both have answered my questions. Thanks, Aaron

Alright, I have been making wine for years now but just recently started making beer and I have a general question concerning how to get the most from the malt in making a wort. I may not have a complete understanding of many of the technical terms, so bear with me. Also, I looked high and...