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Bottled 3 gallons of a Belgian Tripel last night. Carbed to 3.2 volumes by adding a boiled and dissolved corn sugar mixture to bottling bucket. I just remembered that I did not stir the mixture in the bucket. I racked to the bottling bucket, added the mixture by pouring all around the edges, let...

Brewed Jamil's Lagunitas IPA clone. Recipe calls for 158-160 degree mash, so I did. Followed the recipe to the letter, pitched a starter of 1968, fermented at 66 degrees. After 3 days fermentation slowed way down, i raised the temp to 68-69 and fermentation stopped a day later. Let it sit for...

I've recently started brewing some two-gallon test batches to try out some new recipes before making a larger batch. I've been fermenting them in a 5 gallon carboy since it's the smallest i've got. Should I be worried about all the headspace? Should I be careful about how long I leave these...

Brewed a Barleywine (9.5% ABV) back in early May. Transfered to secondary after fermentation finished and it's been there ever since. I'm planning on bottling it this week and i'm wondering how much yeast to add to make sure it's going to carbonate. It's been in secondary for about 3.5 months...

Brewed an IPA on May 25th, 08. Fermentation finished in about 10 days. Left it in the primary for about 4 weeks. Dry hopped in the primary for another 7 days, then bottled. Two days before bottling I crash cooled to 40 degrees. The day of bottling I let the beer warm up a bit and it was around...

I just picked up a chest freezer off craigslist and i'm looking to get a fermentation controller. I need something that will do both heating and cooling. The Controller II from Williams seems like one of the better controllers i've found as far as features and price. Anybody used it? Is there a...

I'm trying to decide what hop utilization formula to use for my brewing software (beertoolspro) and I haven't been able to find an answer. Seems like there are several popular formulas to use and they all calculate bitterness different ways. I do full boils and primarily use pellet hops. Any...

I'm looking at getting a setup for controlling my fermentation temps. My plan is to get a temperature controller from either MoreBeer or AHBS. I've seen people using both fridge's and freezers for this sort of thing. What are the pros and cons of each? I typically have 2 carboys going any any...

Brewing an Imperial IPA this weekend and the LHBS was all sold out of high-alpha hops and the highest alpha they had was 9%. In trying to figure out what I was going to do, I realized I have 4 ounces of Norther Brewer (6.5%) in the fridge that I didn't end up needing a few batches ago. The...

I'm brewing an IPA recipe this weekend that includes 5 lbs of pilsner malt in the grain bill. That works out to about 17% of the total. I've read you're supposed to boil Pilsner malt for 90 minutes to get rid of any DMS. Is that still true if i'm using it in a smaller percentage? I usually boil...

Brewed a 1.093 Barleywine 9 days ago. Target final gravity was 1.025. Pitched two packs of rehydrated Nottingham. Fermentation temps have been a tad on the high side, between 68-72 most of the week. Fermentation has been pretty vigorous, but since it's slowed down considerably the last few days...

I'm fermenting a Bigfoot Barleywine clone which calls for dry hopping. I'm planning on racking to a secondary after fermentation is finished and letting it sit for 1-2 months. I'm going to dry hop in the secondary, but what's the best time? Should I wait till 5-10 days before bottling and dry...

I used Fermcap yesterday for the first time. I didn't need it in the boil, since I had plenty of headspace in my kettle. I ended up with 5.5 gallons in a 6 gallon fermenter, filled it right up to where the carboy starts to curve in. I used pure O2 to aerate, added fermcap, yeast, sloshed the...

Attempting my first parti-gyle brew this weekend, a barleywine and ESB. My grainbill is 33 lbs of grain. I was planning on batch sparging, since I could just drain the first 7 gallons, refill with another 8, stir, short rest, then drain again and be done. Will I get alot less efficiency with...

I'm planning a big parti-gyle brew tomorrow, a barleywine and an ESB. I've got my recipe worked up and it calls for 33 lbs of grain. I've got a converted keg with false bottom and i'm wondering if this grain bill will even fit. My total volume will be 33 lbs of grain, and 11 gallons of strike...

I'm planning on doing my first "big" beer this weekend, a 1.096 Barleywine. My biggest beer so far has been a 1.070 Belgian. What special techniques are necessary to ensure proper fermentation on something this big? Some specific items I'm thinking about are: 1. Mash temp. I brew all-grain...

I'm interested in stashing away beer for years to see how it develops. The problem is that right now I don't have any way of keeping it chilled to optimum "cellaring" temperatures. If I'm storing beer in a dark closet at room temp (65-73 depending on time of year) what sort of results should I...

I've got some PacMan yeast a cultured from a Dead Guy bottle two days ago. It's going along well and it've got quite a bit of yeast in the bottle of a 2L growler. I'm wanting to step up the starter to get a larger quantity of yeast before I move it to the fridge to save for brewing. I'm past the...

I'm sort of new at recipe formulation and generally my process is to take an existing recipe and modfiy it. This is a first attempt at making one from "scratch". I'm looking for feedback about the recipe below that i'm planning on brewing next. Helpful advice is appreciated... All-Grain...

Are you supposed to (or is it necessary to) aerate your beer when racking onto a yeast cake? As i understand it the oxygen it to provide the yeast fuel during the multiplication stage before going into the fermentation stage. If you're racking onto a cake, don't they go straight into fermenting...