Search results

I am brewing 5 gallons of North German pilsner (malt extract). When is the best time to move it to refrigeration?

Do forum members think using distilled water makes a big difference or not? Reason for asking - I've been brewing with distilled water but the additional cost makes home brew as much as buying beer at Costco. Cost of making 5 gallons: Malt Extract kit $35 Gas or shipping $5 Distilled...

New problem - the exploding beer that yesterday I transferred after being in the primary for a week, has cracked the 6.5 gallon secondary carboy! This is with only 2.5 gallons of the stuff in there with an airlock. DieBartDie

The laundry room is back in action as a fermentation room. There's no other alternative besides a garage that has major temperature swings between day and night-time. I think it's bucket fermentation for me for a while. I bought a beer kit weeks ago and assumed this contained 2 x 5 gallon...

You just said two magic words - Burton Union in the context of home brew. My favorite beer of all is Marstons Pedigree which is brewed using the Burton Union method (involving complex condensing surely?)- are you suggesting a home brewer can pull off a Burton Union Beer, or does this require...

I also managed a good lager in a non-temperature controlled fridge at 40F. Turned out fine.

I'm going with leaving it in the primary (5 gal carboy) for the week. It's $30 for a larger carboy and I think I'll pass on that for now. Then I plan to follow the recipe (2ndary for 3 weeks, bottle for ~30 days, if I can wait that long before starting drinking it). WB - excellent suggestion...

Does anyone have a 5 gallon extract Marzen recipe? (I haven't graduated to all grain brewing yet). Ideally I'd like to brew something as close as possible to Gordon Biersch Marzen with the copper color and Melanoidan Malt sweetness referenced here...

Excellent feedback, and greatly appeciated. The wort continues to bubble (a bubble comes out every second through the airlock). Think I'll wait the full 6 days and transfer. Think there may be 3 gallons left so it's probably worth saving. Die Bart DIe

So now I have 2 1/2 gallons left in the 5 gallon primary carboy (the source of the explosion). The inside top of the carboy is encrusted with dried hops/residue. The recipe says I shouldn't transfer to the secondary for 6 days. Do I: a) Transfer to the secondary 5 gallon carboy now (only 1...

Last night I cooked up an English bitter and for the first time used a glass carboy for the primary (with the usual one way valve). I read in places that serious beer makers "brew primary in glass". I filled the 5 gallon carboy up to the point just before it starts to narrow and put on a...

So secondary for lagering can be done at 34F. If this is true then I don't need a temperature controller for my fridge and my first batch of lager has a chance of working. Woohoo!

Used 2 packets of dry lager yeast. Got a decent size fridge (free - Craigslist). The "lager" was in the primary for 1 week, not refrigerated (I will refrigerate primary next time). Tasted real good when siphoning. Still very cloudy. I have a fermenetation temperature sticker on the side...

Bobby, I'm keen to get it right next time I brew lager. The instructions I was following from the brew store suggested only to lager during secondary fermentation. What's the correct procedure? You seem to imply the primary fermentation should also be chilled. Die Bart Die

Is it better to ferment a batch of lager at room temperature (72F) and pass on lagering or get a fridge without a temperature controller? Rapid advice appreciated - I'm planning on picking up a fridge on Craigslist shortly. Just moved my lager from primary to secondary. Surprised to find...

When transferring beer from the primary to secondary fermentation should you transfer the sediment? I just did this transfer via siphoning but did not transfer the sediment - hopefully this was the right thing to do. Advice from experts to this brewing novice appreciated. DieBart Die