Recent content by WesternBrew

The leaves on the bottom foot or so actually look intact. It's the ones higher up that look the most chewed.

Hoping someone can help identify what's eating my hops. This is the second year since planting and the first year of serious growth. Nothing else in the garden is being eaten like this. I've had Japanese beetles in the past, but they eat everything indiscriminately. I can't see anything on the...

Hi guys I saw a few threads when I searched, but I was hoping to get a little better answer for this. I just finished building my cfc. It's built with 3/8 copper interior tubing and all the fittings are copper as well. I did a TSP soak, vinegar soak, and then rinsed the hell out of it. Water...

+1 to this. I just learned my lesson with using my refractometer for FG. I thought I had a stalled fermentation because the refractometer was reading 1.033 for 3 days straight. Spent some time panicking and raising the temp to 75 before asking the guys at my LHBS. I took a sample for my...

Thanks Falcon. I probably raised for d-rest later in the fermentation than I intended anyway. So without checking I would bet it's close to FG although I'll check to be sure. Good to know that I can drop it fast after it's reached FG and still get the good affects of lagering.

I was using the lagering method in Dave Miller's homebrewing guide, which has you drop it to lager temps in the fermentor when it's about 2/3 the way to FG. I haven't actually taken a gravity reading, so maybe that's my next step just to see where it's at. I was kind of guessing by the airlock...

I'm fermenting my first lager. I raised the temp to 64 F after primary finished for diacetyl rest. Now I'm dropping to to lager temps. I've been setting my temp controller down 2 degrees every morning. I just thought to check if the airlock was still bubbling today. As far as I can tell it's...

I just kegged my first batch. I'm not sure I can ever go back to bottling now. I set my regulator to 13psi and left it overnight. By the next day the beer was carbonated. However, my regulator read that it was set at 10psi. Does this normally happen? Do I have to continuously adjust my...

I think I'll leave it in primary. I like making beer with a funky flavor that you might not be able to get anywhere else. Also the only thing I had available for primary was a 5 gallon carboy, that I filled to the brim. So the only head space is what blew out during primary. Plus the only thing...

Thanks GuldTuborg, Yeah it's a flanders brown ale. Sounds like I should move it to secondary, but I just posted it over in the other forum so we'll see what they have to say.

I'm brewing my first sour beer using wyeast 3763 roeselare blend (Northern Brewers Oud Bruin de Table). It just finished primary fermentation. I was wondering if I should rack this into secondary; which is something I don't usually do. Would I possibly be removing enough of the lambic cultures...

I'm brewing my first sour beer using wyeast 3763 roeselare blend. It just finished primary fermentation. I was wondering if I should rack this into secondary; which is something I don't usually do. Would I possibly be removing enough of the lambic cultures that it would take years to get any...

I have the same unit you do (MH1210F) and I just finished setting it up. The directions are hilarious. My favorite is "do not place in dripping where elderly children can reach". Anyway it took some tinkering but I think I have it all figured out if you still need help. I'm guessing you...

That makes a lot of sense...I guess that's what makes them so flocculant. Thanks!

Hoping some of you out there have seen this before. I made a starter using yeast (WLP 007) that had passed its expiration date. It looked like the yeast never broke up, even though it was on a stir plate. I assumed it wasn't fermenting at all and tossed it. Yesterday I bought a new vile...