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My last batch of homebrew was bottled right after my son was born. He is now 6 and all of my equipment has sat idle for far too long. I'm putting together an order so I can brew up one of my old standbys, but I paused for a moment. 6 years is a long time for all sorts of new techniques...

Not sure if there are any other woot.com / shirt.woot, etc. fans out there, like myself, but there is a "Homebrew" related shirt in this week's shirt.woot.com derby. For those who don't know, the "derby" is how they choose some of the shirts that get sold. The ones who get the most votes get...

Local Homebrew store is starting a keg exchange program. Basically they take your finished kegs, send them out to get cleaned and get new rings, etc. You then take one of the fresh, new ones, home to use. Basically all you have to do is put a deposit down on them. Anyone think this is a good...

Ugh, thanks to some heavy storms, I lost 2 Cascade bines (on the same string). We had some high winds, and a portion of my neighbors' patio furniture ended up in my hops garden and crushed the bines near the base. :( It didn't cut it all the way through, but it creased it to the point that they...

So it took until my 5th batch until I lost a piece of equipment. As many brewers before me, I have broken my racking cane at the bend while trying to remove the siphon tube. :mad: Anyway, this cane was part of an auto-siphon system that I purchased as a set. Am I going to have to throw out...

So yesterday I harvested my first year plants. I didn't get a lot, since they were first years, but ended up with about 7 oz. off the bines. These were all from 2 Cascades. My 2 Goldings didn't give anything worth harvesting, but they grew, so that's a plus. After the harvest I let the...

Normally when I brew I am using an aquarium heater to keep my ferment temperatures up, since my cellar is nice and cool year round. This Summer, however, has been brutal in Pennsylvania and my basement temps have actually risen to almost 80-degrees. My most recent batch was the first in...

My first years have been growing like wildfire for the past few months. I was very excited to see the number of cones starting to pop out. Now, though, I feel like I'm about to lose every single one. :mad: I've been chasing nitrogen issues for the entire growing season, and have been very...

So after surviving several VERY gusty Thunderstorms, my hops finally got beat up pretty good from a storm that blew up last night. I had a strong piece of wire going across the top of my trellis, that somehow got sheared right where it connects to the one post. So, of course, I woke up this...

My hops garden has become the living space for about 3 or 4 colonies of ants. They are crawling all over the mulch, and, obviously, up the twine and onto the hop plants. I tried to spot treat using Sevin spray, but they have only returned. I thought about using the "stakes" where they take...

I have my 1st-years in the ground and they are growing really well. I finally got the trellis up this weekend and started training 2 of my cascades. The Goldings need a little more time before training. Anyway, I noticed on the Cascades that about 11" of the bine is very robust and sturdy...

Anyone ever have problems with Meadow Voles, or Field Mice? After the amount of snow cover we had this year, we're experiencing a record number of these rodents. They've already gone through 2 of our hostas, and now I'm worried about my hop shoots. Caught one in a snap-trap, but not too...

I want to bottle today or tomorrow morning, but I'm a bit behind on my bottle preparation. Normally I hand wash 48 bottles with my bottle brush, but I just don't have the time. Anyone use the dishwasher to do the initial cleaning on the bottles? Unfortunately there is JetDry in the machine...

I just received my first rhizomes, (2) Cascade & (2) Goldings. I'm planting them on Saturday morning, but had a question about things I should buy today at the garden center. I know I need twine and top soil (a lot of clay in our area), but what should I look for when people say to mix in...

Do most of you pay any attention to the suggested yeast temperature ranges, or do you usually just use a set temperature for all ales? I'm in the 2nd week of fermenting my Dunkelweizen, and I used Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan yeast. I used a starter and the thing took off like a rocket through my...

I always set my primary in a water bath. In the Winter I have an aquarium heater hooked up to keep the temps up, and in the Summer, I use ice to keep it cool, if necessary. This morning, however, I found that the Rubbermaid-Tub water bath is also the perfect moat to protect my precious beer...

Thanks to being a wheat beer, and using a good starter, I had my first brew use my blowoff tube. It churned up pretty good through the tube for the first 24 hours of fermentation. We're now past 48 hours and there is nothing coming up through the tube anymore. Safe to assume I can switch to...

Just finished my first AG brew session. Everything went swimmingly. The 10-gallon Ice Cube cooler MLT lost only 2 degrees over the course of an hour. The new Bayou SP10 boiled like a charm. Perhaps, too great, though. The only bump we encountered was the boil off was a lot more than...

I'm going to be brewing the AHS Dunkelweizen this Saturday. I've never done a wheat-based beer before, and I'm wondering if my process needs to be tweaked at all. My previous brews have gone 3 weeks in the primary (give or take a few days), and then 3+ weeks in the bottle. With wheat beers...

I really don't feel like boiling up a minute amount of starter wort in my 5 gallon SS BK. The only other pots/pans in the house are the Non-stick variety. Any reason why I shouldn't use one of these for 1-1.5L of wort?