Recent content by tim.jamison

I was bottling my pale ale last night and i tasted just a bit of it before adding the corn sugar. it tasted awful and smelled pretty bad as well... can i expect it to get better after conditioning in the bottle? i was really careful with sanitization and what not but i think i might have my...

Ok this is what I did. First I used Deer Park bottled water which I bought in 2.5 gallon jugs. I put cracked grains in a nylon bag and added the water on top of the grains. I then left the grains in the water for 27 minutes while the water was heating. I removed the grains and soon the water...

While boiling an American Ale kit from morebeer.com last night, I was reading (to keep me on task) C.P.'s the Complete Joy of homebrewing. He said that using a blowoff tube can help get some bitterness down as well as some oils that will lead to headaches. Well, I am on my 8 or 9th beer and...

I was brewing some american brown ale and i began to try to use filtered water. I realized when i was adding cold water to my primary fermenter (i do a partial boil) that the black things from my Brita filter got in. What do type of effect will take place?? Also, should i be using boiled water...

I just recently purchased a bottling tree and most comments on here say that people will sanitize the bottles and then place the bottles back on the bottling tree to dry. I will being using the idopher stuff but how safe will it be to put that plastic back up the middle of the bottle?? also, a...

Sorry, I meant steep. The instructions say to boil then stop the boil and soak the grains.. my bad. Ok, So you can pick individual ingredients even if you aren't doing all grain right? And, dry is better than the syrups.. right?

Janx, You say to use some grains and a light extract, if I just buy kits how do I go about doing that?? I usually buy through Austin Home Brew and they come with extract, grains you boil then take out after the 1st 20 minutes or so and then you start adding hopps. so where can I make the change...

It seems a lot of extract kits (which is what i have to use at the moment) are at 5% and I would like to get it up to about 7%.. nothing too crazy.. maybe a little less. Since I am using extracts I could just order some DME with that, is there anything special I need to do?

Is there a special way to up the alcohol content? It would probably make the beer taste strange though.. right? yeah probably...

yeap, I add the sugar as well, hoping it mixes evenly throughout.

What I have been doing is 1. Primary Ferm. 2. Secondary Ferm. When its ready to bottle I syphon from the Secondary to a bucket that has a spigot and use that bucket for bottling leaving the crap at the bottom of the Secondary ferm. so I won't have tons of sediment in my bottling bucket...

i am really not sure how to explain the taste i am getting. i brew extract.. i am college student who lives in the dorms.. so all grain is a little too much for me i am guessing.. if its cheaper and better i would love to try it but eh.. i don't know if i have the time for it right now all my...

There seems to be a flavor that is consistent in all my beers and I thought using the blow off technique might help. Thanks for your advice.. I will follow it!

You know those things that they turn upside down on water coolers?? Could I used that instead of a glass carboy and would glass carboy fittings work with one of those?? I want to try to "blow off" thing that is suggested a lot of times but I don't have the $40 to shell out right now for the...

I have been ordering all of my kits from Austin Home Brew Supply. I have been really happy with their product and speedy shipping but I am looking for some variety in companies. There are tons out there and I don't want to get burned so let me know where you guys like to order from. Thanks, Tim