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Hi, I've held off asking for help on this for as long as I can, frankly because it is disgusting. But I'm losing at least 50% of my beer to this, and can't take it any more. I get fly larvae in my beer, and I don't know how it keeps happening. I brew all grain, 5 gallon batches. I use glass...

Hi, I keg and carbonate with CO2, set it to serving pressure for a week etc. I brewed my first ordinary bitter, and when looking up what pressure to use on the CO2, to my surprise the answer was 0. According to both charts and the tastybrew.com calculator. So.. ok, basically at about 1 volume...

Hello, I've just brewed an english pub ale (extract) from the recipe section. The recipe showed it should have about 1.035 - 1.040 OG, mine came out as 1.028. I did a full boil, but I did convert from LME to DME. It called for 3.3 lbs of LME and 1 lb of DME, I used 3 lbs 10.2 oz of DME...

Hi, I have a fermenter in a temp controlled freezer at 65F, on day 3. Each day the water level in the air lock has dropped from the max fill line almost to the bottom, I refill it at night. I'm on I guess my 11th batch of beer, and have not seen this before. Any thoughts on what could be...

Hi, I just switched to doing a full boil outside, and found a new problem that I'm not sure I'm solving correctly. Yesterday it was roughly 100F outside where I brewed, and with my wort chiller I could only get the wort down to about 90F, I think my tap water just isn't cold enough. Even that...

Hi, I'm all set to transfer my beer into a keg for the first time, planned to use the corn sugar to carbonate for a few weeks. While re-reading my various info on it I see it mentioned that it is good to purge the oxygen at the top of the keg with CO2, unfortunately I can't fill my CO2 tank...

Hi, I'm preparing to use kegs for the 1st time, and while there is a huge amount of info here I can't seem to find clear answers or options for a couple of questions: 1) What is the benefit of force carbonating versus using the corn sugar mix, for kegs? Is it just a way to shorter the...

After 2 mediocre batches (and that is being pretty lenient, they fermented too warm - very fruity), my 3rd is ready and it is quite tasty! An IIPA. I'm hooked now! :rockin: Rob ps. and that is even after making all kinds of mistakes during bottling the IIPA.

Hello all, I'm Rob. I've dabbled in homebrewing a little bit over the past 10 years, have just recently decided to really focus on it and try to get it right. I don't have anything close to the background apparently needed to understand the technical segments of the beginner books so the...

Hi, I did a search but didn't come up with anything that struck me as related to this, sorry in advance if this has been answered before. I just picked up a 5 gal BB from my LHBS to use as a secondary, and the guy at the counter said to be careful because the BB is air permeable. He...

Hello, Last night I made a double IPA kit: 12 lbs ultralight extract 1 oz Glacier (bittering) 1 oz Centennial (flavoring) 1 oz Sterling (aroma) 1 oz Centennial (dry hop secondary) The expected OG from the kit was 1.082. I came up with 1.152. Quite a surprise. I did a partial boil, 2...

Hi, I made my 1st yeast starter, the pic is from about 36 hours after it was made. Just checking if it looks right - anyone? I worked through the Mr. Malty calculator to determine what I needed, came up with 2.5 liters and 2 tubes of the yeast (white labs pacific ale), and 250g of DME. A...

In my attempt to better understand homebrewing, I've been reading more and keep coming across info about how much a difference yeast can make to the taste. Then today I saw a new brew from Stone, "Cali-Belgique" (also know as Cali-Belgie). This proves the point perfectly - it is simply the...

Hello, I've seen quite a few mentions of using a fridge or freezer with a separate temperature controller to keep fermentation temperature consistent and at the desired temperature. It sounds like most people drill a hole in the freezer to put the temp sensor itself through, but is there any...

Hi, I brewed a kit from More Beer, "American Ale", sort of a Sam Adams type beer in theory. Everything seemed to go fine, and I waited it out - has been in bottles for 3 weeks and I gave it a try last night. Well carbonated, and has the right initial taste but there is a strong lingering...

Hello, I'm new here and this is my first post, I've searched for an answer but I'm just not seeing it so here goes: I think I left too much headspace in my swing-top bottles, about 2 to 2.5 inches. I didn't think it would make any difference, but some info in the bottling section here explained...