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I'm about to reach to a secondary for dry-hopping, and I noticed some yellow stuff in the krausen. It looks mineraly or crystalline, and I don't believe it's mold or an infection. But I'm curious if anyone knows what this is. Also, I've never had a beer with a yeast cake on top and bottom...

It's been forever since I last brewed a beer... way too long! I had a kit sitting around, so I decided to go ahead and brew it up. It's an extract/specialty grains kit for an Irish stout. But, I wanted to tweak it a bit to really make it interesting. Kit ingredients: 2 containers Briess...

First, for background, I've tried building a stir plate before. I used a simple circuit to control a DC computer fan. That seemed to work fine, but I could never get the stir bar to stir properly. I had used one of the curved hard drive magnets, and it was a pain to really get that thing...

I know, I know... it's too late to be brewing an Oktoberfest beer. But, I love the style, and the first time I made the beer it was fantastic. So, I decided to make it again. I'm going off of the NB ingredient list, but purchasing from my local store. Overall, brew day went well...

It's been way too long since I last brewed a beer... I'd forgotten what it felt like to wrap up a brew day and put the carboy away to ferment and feel content and productive. Oh, how I've missed brewing. I finally have space to brew again, and my wife gave me the lovely gift of a brew kit...

It was time to brew up my second batch of Island 17 "The Strap" blackstrap molasses porter. (Found here.) I enjoyed the molasses flavor, the sweetness, and the body of the beer (nice 'n heavy). But this time around, I'm planning to toss in some bourbon-soaked oak chips. I figured the vanilla...

I'm having an issue with my DIY stir plate. I followed the instructions on Brewiki, however the potentiometer only works if I turn it waaaaaaay down. Otherwise, at least 90% of the range of the pot only has the fan on full blast. What did I do wrong? Is the 1K pot the wrong sized pot...

I decided to see if I can wash and reuse some yeast, and what better time than now to try it? I read up on yeast washing, so I know the general procedure. But I'm hoping for a little guidance and to how it's going. I just racked and bottled some hard cider tonight, and I used Nottingham yeast...

Today's effort was part two in my Christmas brewing adventures. Another all-grain kit from NB: Tallgrass Buffalo Sweat oatmeal cream stout. The recipe is as follows: 7.75lbs Breiss Pale Ale 1lb English Roasted Barley 1lb German Vienna 1/2lb Flaked Oats 1/2lb Breiss Victory 3/8lb...

Today, I began my Christmas-week brewing! I have two beers on my list for this week. It's been a while since I last brewed, so I'm excited to finally brew again. I also had a chance to try out my new Blichmann floor burner. Since SWMBO didn't want me brewing inside the house, this was my...

So my first go-around with making my own BIAB bag didn't go so well. It was a pain in the butt, I had to learn how to use a sewing machine at the same time, and I didn't know jack about stitching seams. So, my seams ended up starting to split open when I first used the bag. Fortunately, I was...

So, my last batch of beer has ended up carbing in a very odd manner. Initially, I just thought it was very under-carbonated, since it was pretty much flat out of the bottle. I had several bottles that were seemingly flat. But I noticed that when I rinsed the sediment from the bottle (fill and...

I just purchased a Blichmann floor burner, along with a natural gas conversion kit. I have a gas line outside where our patio will be (coming in spring 2013!), and figured that would be a convenient location for brewing outside in the summer. Out of curiosity, I looked into the cost of propane...

I'm working on an immersion chiller. I picked up some 1/2" copper tubing, along with some rigid 1/2" pipe and elbows. The fittings and 1/2" rigid pipe is larger than the 1/2" tubing. For those of you who have constructed chillers that use some rigid pipe in the design, how have you...

I just tried Cuvee van de Keizer Blauw (Blue) tonight, and MAN was it good! It's a very sweet beer, but I love sweet stuff and didn't find it overly cloying. It's just a sipping beer. It could even be dessert! But I can't seem to find jack on a recipe that's even in the same realm as this...

I finally got a chance to brew again this past weekend, and decided to give the Island 17 Blackstrap Molasses Porter a try. As with my first, I brewed BIAB-style, and used just a little extra grain in case I didn't get good efficiency. So, I used 9.5lbs of 2-row, instead of 9lbs. I also...

After my last brew, I rinsed out my carboy and filled it to the brim with One-Step to help get some of the crusted-on hops and such off of the glass. Well... about 2-3 weeks later, I finally got around to emptying the carboy. When I did, I noticed that the One-Step seems to have left tiny...

I just threw together my first batch of cider! I'm really excited to see how it comes out, too. I used EdWort's Apfelwein recipe, since it was really simple and everyone seems to love it. Maybe it's technically more an apple wine than a cider, but whatever... close enough for me! Does...

Over the past couple of days, I've come to somewhat of an epiphany. And maybe this is a well-known thing, but I wasn't aware of it, as a new brewer. By storing beer in a refrigerator, obviously it will get too cold, as the average home refrigerator not dedicated to beer is kept somewhere...

It seems that I made a mistake in my last brew, where I used softened water. (Normally, I've filled from the kitchen tap, which is not softened.) How hard is too hard for water? Do most people just cut with R/O water to reduce hardness? I have an R/O system I can use, if I replace the...