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It's been along time since I posted, but here it goes. Ive been improving my brewing since over the past year and am doing full boil, all grain, starters, controlled fermentation temp, etc. But I did a taste test with a non craft brew drinking friend and was embarassed not from anything he...

Last night I cooled my primary down from 60 to 42 to prepare it for kegging. Can I still harvest the yeast cake at the bottom or is that a bad idea?

Ok so I've been rabidly downloading all of Jamil's podcasts and listening to them in my sleep, driving, and drinking (not at the same time). After going all grain I have tasted the "potential" for my beer to be awesome, but not what I wanted. Basically I gathered three important themes that I...

I want to start whirlpooling my wort in addition to immersion chilling. I was surfing around mcmaster carr for pumps and found a drill driven pump for 10 bucks with garden hose inlets and outlets. Any one use one of these? It's max flow is 6 gpm and max temp is 120, but I might try to push it...

So i just got a counter pressure filler. What a PITA. I must be doing something wrong because after 6 bottles with 3 inches of foam at the top and beer all over the floor and my kegerator, I would discribe it as anything but convienent. Is it normal to get beer foam off the pressure release...

Just got a used challanger VI keg and I replaced the o rings on it. Now when I put the lid on and flip the latch it fits loose. I bought the standard oring set for ball lock kegs from my LHBS. I filled the keg with CO2 and it held pressure for about 2 hours. I noticed that the original...

I am interested in getting a recipe book that has many classic beer recipes with all the possible styles. I looked at one at the bookstore called Brewmasters Bible or something like that and it looked pretty good. Does anyone have any experiences with any of those recipes or have other books...

I read a thread about sanitizing CO2 lines and it seemed that some people did and some didn't. I decided not to and other than the initial sanitizing and didn't sanitize immediatly before hooking the keg up. I have three beers on tap 2 of which taste good and one tastes crappy. It has a funky...

Im have extra space in my kegerator so i want to try my first lager. When pitching the lager yeast (american lager wyeast) is it better to bring the wort to 50 degress and pitch or pitch at 70-75 and bring it down slowly. I have heard both ways. Its easier for me to cool the wort to 50 and...

I was thinking about doing a Ommegang abbey ale clone and wanting to get the yeast from one of their beers. I thought I read a post about someone doing this with Chimay or something. Can someone link me to a post or the wiki where a procedure for this is given (read wiki on yeast washing and...

I love Rogue's Brutal Bitter and decided it would be a great beer for the late DME addition method that I learned on the website. I just drank one after 10 days of carbing and it is extremely good with great colour. Not as bitter as the brutal bitter ( which my sweet wife and brew assistant is...

I did my first Partial Mash with a Belgian Tripel (5 gallon batch). I had 5.5 Lbs. of extra light dme, 4.0 lbs. of of american 2 row grain, 1 1bs. of cara-pils and 1.5 lbs. of candy sugar. Using Beer Smith I estimated 70% efficiancy and had a SG of 1.084. My actual reading at 70 degrees was...

This has probably been asked a thousand times, but what the hey. I'm preparing to do my first partial mash. In Papizian's book he says to test the wort for starch conversion with some iodine. What happens if it doesn't convert? Do you have to start over with new grain or just keep the temp...

There is a hot chocolate mix from Lake Champlain Chocolate Company that is called Aztec Hot Chocolate. It has a slight cayanne and and cinnanmon flavor, which goes real well with the sweetness of the chocolate. I have been playing around with doing a stout or porter that mimics the flavors. I...

No not for St. Patty's. I did a pale ale that I wanted to mimic Rogues Brutal Bitter. I used the late addition of extra light dme to keep my color light. I used pellet hops because my local brew supply had crystal hops only in pellet. I straineed my beer and it's so light that the only color...

I am brewing a belgian white from extract. My starting specific gravity was 1.048 and 9 days in the primary I racked to secondary at 1.012. I let it sit in the secondary for 13 days. I added 3/4 cup of corn sugar for priming in my bottling bucket. I had a little left at the end so I took a...

I'd just like to say hello to everyone. I just started brewing again. I brewed in college, but it was highly not successful. Now I have the right gear and more patience. I have researched so much by reading all the threads in the forums on this site and have learned so much from them...