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I'm trying to get a caramel flavour into an apple pie mead without using any extracts, and have come up with two main options. Option one is to do a basic caramel (sugar + water) until it's a light amber colour, add cider to thin it out and cool, and then rack the mead on top of it...

This is a simple concord grape juice wine - no strange additives. The carboy was cleaned with oxyclean and thoroughly rinsed. Starsan was used to sanitize. Right now, there are gigantic bubbles in the carboy as seen here - http://imgur.com/EFGCJtc. Any thoughts as to what's up?

Wasn't even thinking at the LHBS to check the alpha on the pack of hops before leaving, but I decided to check when I got home. The pack of US saaz has the alpha listed at 8.1% which seems high. I'm guessing I should go by what's on the package but could this be a misprint?

I'm doing a 10-gallon batch of brew this weekend and splitting it up into two different 5-gallons. One of the two I plan to add Wyeast 5526 to sour it. I've already made two starts of WLP002 - one for each 5-gallons. Should I add the 5526 directly to one of the starters, create a starter...

Would a wooden dowel with notches be safe? Or what about using electrical tape? I've considered using PVC as well but was nervous about it nor being food grade.

This is the first time I've tried this beer and overall I'm not very excited about it. But I'm curious if I somehow ended up with a bad batch, and was curious if anyone was familiar with this brew. Basically, if I let a bottle just sit in the fridge, I get about an inch of sediment in the...

Just bought a hydrometer to replace another broken one, and the scale (the paper inside) during a reading just kind fell from it position making it completely usable. Before I go and buy a case of hydrometers, I'm thinking of just ordering a refractometer. Is there one that everyone swears...

I posted my first recipe and someone commented on my boil-off rate and how high it seemed. With my pot 7.5 stainless steel gallon pot roughly 12" wide, I can boil off 1.5-2 gallons/hour depending on temperature and wind. That's on a 38000 BTU propane burner. Is this 'abnormal'? I don't...

Recipe: Boos Myller "Want some rye?" Ale Style: American Wheat or Rye Beer TYPE: All Grain Recipe Specifications -------------------------- Boil Size: 6.70 gal Post Boil Volume: 5.20 gal Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal Estimated OG: 1.051 SG Estimated...

My daughter is 16-months old, and while I work on my fermentation chamber my buckets are on the floor. Generally, she's left them alone but she did the strangest thing when I came home from work. She ran up to the bucket, tilted the airlock maybe five degrees, and proceeded to sniff the...

I'm in the process of washing my yeast, and I've read a bit on making bread from the yeast. The one thing I can never seem to nail down is how much yeast. I realize ale yeast isn't conditioned to rise quickly so it needs longer, but does it need more yeast? For example, if my recipe for...

I have a kegerator that came with a CO2 regulator and tank. It's a single guage regulator but it looks like I should be able to expand it to a dual gauge by buying a high pressure gauge with left hand thread. Same thing with expanding it to support two kegs by removing the existing shutoff...

I'm about to keg an oatmeal stout. I planned on using the CO2 from the tank to force the air from the tank, and put it aside for a bit of time to let it age a bit more. Is it best to age it at serving temp or at room temp? And when is warm too warm?

It drives me insane. I pace. I go over in my mind everything I could have possibly done wrong. Please tell me I'm not alone. Please.

I expected bad weather, but instead got a bit windy of a day but in the end, I think it turned out alright. The great: 2nd all-grain batch. Still have all my fingers. New wart chiller (homemade, 1/4" copper) worked fantastically without a single leak thanks to a compression fitting. It...

Tomorrow I'm going to go look at a chest freezer to convert into a fermentation chamber. Outside of look at size - what else should I be looking for, if anything? I'm bringing templates with me the size of buckets and bottles to see what I can fit into it.

So, after some discussion with a friend, I picked up 50' of 1/4" soft copper for building a wort chiller. After a few attempts I've got it shaped, and looking like a coil of copper but I've ended up with two issues. The first is stability/wobbliness. I doubt it's really an issue and more of...

I've reached the point where an immersion chiller is a necessity, and I'm in the debate mode of buy versus build. Right now, build seems to be my answer for two reason - value and customization. However, in all my searching for the tubing, I find a lot of different types and I wanted to...

New to brewing, and I already want to take a strong leap into all-grain brewing. I'd like to get started on building a mash tun using a cooler. I've read the post about sizing (and I think I'll stay with a 10-12 gallon) and have read a lot of instruction on how to use SS water supply line and...