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Cooked up a nice midwest porter 14 days ago. I pitched an activator pack which had been in the fridge for a few weeks and got no visible signs of fermentation after 72 hrs. I pitched my backup Munton's Gold yeast and saw a 1 inch layer of foam on top by Thursday morning. That's when I...

Brewed a batch Sunday and pitched a Wyeast Activator pack. (Which after 3 hrs. showed no signs of swelling) No activity in carboy after 48 hours. Have to leave town tomorrow AM and am wondering if I should pitch my backup dry yeast or wait? I will be gone until Sunday so I am afraid if...

Broke pack two hours ago and it is not swelling. Should I ptich my backup dry yeast as a precaution.

I just purchased my first Better Bottles, a 5 gal. & a 6 gal. I didn't think much about sanitizing until they arrived at my house. Now I want to ferment a batch in one and don't know what to sanitize with. I have Star San, Easy Clean, and 1 Step. Are any of these safe for use in Better...

I have finally decided to try Better Bottles and am looking for suggestions from those who have experience using them. What types of caps/covers/airlocks are best when used with Better Bottles? Should I get the racking adapter and high flow valve or just use my wedges and rack the old...

Just cooked my first batch of Hop Head Double IPA which was supposed to have an SG of 1.070-1.074 but when I checked, it was 1.063. Did I do something wrong? This particular batch used 4 oz. hops during the boil so I decided to use a hop bag to keep the trub down, which it did quite...

Brewed at batch of Honey Weizen a week ago last Sunday (3/16) and it was still bubbling a little through the airlock last night. I took a hydrometer reading this evening and it is at 1.008. Instructions say it should have gotten down to 1.010-1.012. I've not had a batch ever go below the FG...

I just brewed a batch of Honey Weizen this weekend using Nottingham dry yeast and it is really going strong right now. I have brewed all my batches by adding the pellet hops directly into the wort with no issues but decided, because the Honey Weizen is so much lighter than the previous...

I mixed up a half gallon of 1 step in a plastic pitcher to sanitize my wine thief today. Can I just rinse the thief after using and put back in the same solution until tomorrow, when I plan to take another hydrometer reading, or do I need to mix up another batch of sanitizer then? Thanks

Brewed my second batch ever last Sunday. A midwest porter. As I posted mid week, I pitched some Wyeast activator yeast which had frozen and didn't swell in the packet, so I pitched some Munton's dry yeast. Got good activity for about 36 hours after which the foam disappeared and activity...

Just brewed a batch Sunday afternoon. My Wyeast activator packet had frozen and didn't swell after 4 hours at room temp so I pitched some Munton's dry yeast (which I had put in luke warm water for 5 minutes) along with the Wyeast. I got some pretty good fermentation activity after about 12...

Activator worked great on my first batch so I bought another one for the next batch. It arrived frozen so I let it thaw and kept it in the fridge for a week to settle down. When I cracked the nutrient pack I waited about four hours and got very little swelling of the pack so I pitched some dry...

Just moved to this beautiful Southeastern Tennessee town from White Bear Lake , Minnesota this spring and love it here. My family had given me my brewing kit as a present some time ago and I never got around to using it. When the movers were unpacking the stuff I saw all the boxes sitting...

Midwest Flat Tire Ale. Started at ~1.046 on Saturday. Still bubbling at about 45 sec. to 1 min. intervals. Tasted the hydrometer sample and it was really good. Looks really dark, almost like a porter, in the carboy but was a beautiful golden brown in the hydrometer tube. Can I expect it...

So I finally brewed my first batch last Saturday. Used Wyeast Activator pack and fermentation began within 8 hours. Noticed some cloudiness in the fermentation lock before going to bed Sunday night but didn't think anything of it. Woke up Monday morning to find that fermentation lock had...