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So I am planning on adding cinnamon to my batch of apfelwein. How long should I leave the cinnamon sticks in the fermenter? The batch is coming up on 1 month in the primary so its going to be time to bottle it shortly. Is it like dry hopping where you add the sticks 4-5 days before bottling...

So my next batch this weekend will have 4-8oz of malto-dextrin in it. When I add it during the boil do I need to be concerned about scorching? Or does it readily dissolve and I can just stir it in while continuing to boil? Thanks!

This question has been bugging me ever since I started reading about mashing. The amylases in the seed become most active at ~150F and denature around ~160F hence brewers aim to mash at temperatures around that. Enzymes, for the most part, function in a narrow band of temperatures. Below which...

So I am trying to replicate Woodchuck's fall cider flavor profile for my GF which Wikipedia describes as having cinnamon and nutmeg in it. My recipe is EdWort's recipe and we are planning on back sweetening to taste with lactose. It's a 5 gallon batch. However, I am unsure how much...

So I just tasted my second batch of my own recipe and the hop aroma and flavor is pretty lacking. So obviously one solution is to dry hop but I only have 1oz of Yakima Magnum hops. What can I expect dry hopping with the Magnums? Here is the original recipe(its my first recipe on my own and was...

So the water in my home is quite hard with ~280ppm CaCO3 with little magnesium. Is it OK if I use the tap water for the sparge step? For mashing I am using bottled spring water. But my understanding is that sparging is just to more or less rinse the converted sugars out of the grain which...

So I got a 7.5 gallon aluminum brew kettle and am wondering if I need to do anything to it before I use it? I've heard some say that you have to boil water in it first to generate the oxide layer but then others say that its only if you scratch it. So do I need to boil water in it before I go...

So the GF and I want to make a cider for her birthday. She likes ciders on the sweeter side which means I will have to halt the cider from fermenting all the way out. I do not have kegging equipment or the space to do such which would be the easiest way... So my solution to this problem...

Pretty self explanatory: Can I use my bottling bucket with lid as a secondary? Would I be able to just bottle straight from it after its done aging or would I just end up sucking a bunch of the sediment into my bottles? Anyone do this before?

So I took a sample of my beer last night with a sanitized measuring cup to take a FG reading after 1 week of no bubbling in the airlock. I looked today to see my airlock bubbling but very slowly(about 1 bubble every 2 minutes). Did I infect my beer and thats why I am seeing activity? Its...

So this is my first recipe and I just tasted the sample I used to get my FG and it seems to have some promise. Thought I'd post it here for critiques and thoughts. I realize now to just go with the base malt extract and steep specialty grains so I probably didn't need the dark malt. I wanted a...

So I need to check the FG on my beer that has hopefully finished fermenting but I need a way to sanitize just the utensil I will use to grab a sample, not a whole slew of equipment. My normal method is to make up about a 4 gallon solution of Iodophor solution on brew or bottling day to...

So I am looking to get a better bottle to use as a secondary to free up my primary bucket so I can get two batches rolling at the same time. My question is: should I get a 6.5 gallon size so that I can use it as a primary if need be(maybe skip racking to secondary and just have two beers in the...

State College to be exact. Bottled my first my batch and it tastes quite good for how little I knew what I was doing. My 2nd batch is about a week into its fermentation and I already am looking at recipes for my 3rd. I'm in a small apartment so I don't have room for a lot of equipment but I...