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Somehow or other, my beer always ends up getting infected. Can anyone spot where I'm going wrong? I mash and boil in a large aluminium pot which does have quite a lot of scratches and black-looking indentations in it, as is typical of old aluminium pots, although I figured this would be ok...

It's come to my attention that using a plastic fermentation bucket for lagering isn't really recommended. Given that this is all the gear I currently possess, would it be worth the trouble or racking off the yeast and into a secondary fermenter (just the same as my primary one) to lager? Or...

Hi, I live in a colder climate, so I have to manually create a warm place for my bottles to sit while carbing. I carb at roughtly 70F. Is it a good idea to remove the bottles from their warm spot as soon as the beer seems to be carbonated (determined by testing a bottle :D), and putting...

I just racked my lager to a secondary fermenter to lager it after doing a d-rest. SG is 1014. I gave it a taste - the first time I've tried tasting one of my brews along the way - and it was sour. Has it gone bad? I've had lots of brews get infected in the past, although I've been getting...

This may be a really silly question, but... I've just got my hands on some Star San for the first time. In all the posts I've read on here which talk about Star San, no one seems to be talking about using a cleaning solution first. So long as there's no visible dirt on my gear / bottles...

Hi, Should I be transferring my wort into my fermenter as soon as I've finished boiling it in my pot? Or should I let it cool first? I can't decide because I imagine that leaving it in the metal pot with its loosely fitting lid too long might introduce bugs, but I'm also not sure about...

I'm fermenting some lager in a fermenter with no tap on the bottom (I was advised that taps introduce bugs). Should I be simply opening the lid and placing my (sanitized) hydrometer in the brew to take readings? Or should I be siphoning out a small sample to test? Or (possibly a silly...

I've got a slightly strange problem on my hands here. With two different brews I've made (my first two ever), with mostly very different ingredients, my beer has suddenly started tasting like vinegar only a day or so after maturing in the bottle. A bottle of my most recent brew tasted...

I'm deciding between buying a bunch of PET plastic beer bottles from my brewstore, or reusing soft-drink bottles. Is there any actual difference between the two, besides the fact that some soda bottles aren't brown (which I gather means I need to leave them in the dark while brewing). Are...

I'm about to brew my first batch of beer, and was wondering whether bottling in screwtop wine bottles would work? Would the pressure of carbonation be too much for the glass? Or would the pressure break the seal of the cap? Thanks heaps for looking :)