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Good catch! It wasn't much sweat to dump it, but there may have been some tears. Mark

Again, great beer can be made with many different techniques. However, yeast today is the same living organism for millions of years, and they all behave the same way. Yeast will become autolysized yeast which happens when the yeast runs out of sugar and starts decomposing. While the quality...

Instead of using just Oxyclean, try a mixture of 3 parts Oxyclean to one part TSP/90. This is very close to Powdered Brewery Wash which works very well, but is very expensive. Mark

Well, I’m not going to disagree with anyone. I just want to give my opinion. As for your question, I would not put the beer in a secondary because of the style. However, I use a secondary for most of my beers, and even use a third fermenter at times (wood chips, dry hopping.) The...

I just want to give my two cents here (maybe it’s only worth a penny.) I do not believe that I can taste a difference if fresh extract is used. I am mostly all-grain now, but not because extracts have “off” flavors. I like the hobby, and all-grain brewing gives me more to do on brew day...

Expense is relative. However, I do not think that the cost of home brewing is something that I considered when I first started. While home brewing is easy and relatively inexpensive, it is the duty of every home brewer to make it as expensive and complicated as possible. Mark

Success is a poor teacher. A phrase that I live by. While I have been brewing for over 25 years, I still learn from my mistakes. Of the 18 batches (110 gallons) I brewed in 2012, I did dump two five-gallon batches. My first mistake was a Czech Pilsner. This beer had a foul smell and...

All beer can benefit from lagering. I read a book on Altbier by Horist Dornbucsh and he recommends lagering for about one to three months. The longer, of course, the clearer and 'smoother' the beer gets. I lagered a cream ale for three months and it was one of the clearest ales I ever made...

No,none of us could smell or taste any smoke at all. I tried the malt before I milled it and it was VERY smokey. Actually, we all joked that I should put some out in a bowl on my bar! But sadly, the final product had no indication that any smoked malt was used. About four or five months...

I brewed a smoke Habanera beer, called Peppers Away, on September 9. For 10 Gallons: 18 lbs 2-row 2 lbs smoked malt 0.5 lbs carmel 60L 1 lb carmel 40L 0.5 lbs Carafoam 1 lb biscuit malt 2 oz Palisade 7.60% at 60 mins 1 oz Palisade 7.60% at 30 mins 2 oz Palisade 7.60% at 15 mins 10 Habaneros...

My Thoughts on Home Brewing Over The Past 25 Years Today was going to be brew day. I had plans to make 10 gallons of Baltic Porter. But, as luck would have it, it is raining, cold, and windy. So I’m sitting here in my favorite chair in my sunroom looking at the rain and the trees blowing...

I think it had enough "bite". But it is, after all, an IPA. More "bite" may be better!

When a car is made from left over parts in a garage, it is commonly called a “Rat Racer”. I often do this with grains left over from other recipes and call them “Rat Beers”. That is really a fun thing to do! There are a lot of free websites out there to help develop your recipe. However, I...

For what it is worth, I made the recipe found at the top of this thread June 23, and just finished the keg last week. I reduced the first hop addition because my Citra was at 13.90%. The beer was GREAT. Very close to 3 Floyds, but it has been months since any of us had the original. The most...

Thanks for your replies. I was thinking what you said acidrain23. The habaneros are fruity. I have a lot of cascade and sterling left over from my hop plants last years and will be getting a new harvest in a week, so I will use the cascades. Here is my plan for 10 gallons: 18 lbs pale...

I’m planning on brewing a beer with habanero peppers this weekend. My thought is about 16 to 18 lbs pale 2 row and two to three lbs smoked malt for 10 gallons. I plan on adding eight peppers in the last 10 minutes of the boil. My question I have is what hops should I use? I’m sure that I...

I did the same thing recently and it turned out fine. However, cleaning the carboy was a bit of a mess. My next dry hopping attempt was with pellets and they worked better because they all were wet (soaked up the beer), where as the cones were still dry on the top. The pellet attempt was much...

While I considered many different designs, I needed to make sure that my wife was not upset. After all, my home brewing hobby has always pushed the limits of what a reasonable wife can handle. So my design is subdued, but functional. I put it in our four season room so I have easy access from...