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Heya, folks. I have some propane equipment that I would really love to get out of my basement, since I went electric a while ago. I'm in southwestern VT (Shaftsbury, specifically), so if you're in the general area and interested in either of the following items, please let me know. First up is...

One of my Yule gifts was a set of chalkboard tap handles. Unfortunately, the faucets on my tower are too close together to accommodate them. It's not even close; even if I leave the middle off, the two end handles still smack into each other. Does anyone know of any clever gadgetry that might...

I just went to clean up a keg I ordered from Midwest a couple of weeks ago. It's one of the racetrack style where the lid is more of a rounded rectangle than an oval. The posts are different than my other two kegs; there are no O-rings on the dip tubes, the poppets are slightly different, and...

I'm looking for suggestions of hop varieties that have orange flavor notes, as opposed to grapefruit or generic citrus. I'd like to try to put together a chocolate/orange stout with just malt, hops, yeast, and water, if possible. I'm headed out to the SLHBS later today. Pacifica comes to mind...

I'm trying to formulate a mead recipe with just a hint of rum character, so I'm thinking of adding some mole asses. However, I don't want it to be overpowering. Has anyone done this? Any recommendations for an amount to use in a 1 gallon batch?

I just tapped a hopbursted IPA I made recently. SG 1.058, FG 1.005, 59 IBUs, with Galaxy, Pacific Jade, and Pacifica hops. Hop additions were at 15, 5, flameout, and dry hop. It's really, really tasty, but the bitterness is smooth to the point of nonexistence. I expected that to some extent...

I racked an ESB off its yeast cake tonight, and when I went to wash out the bucket, I noticed some black rings underneath the cake. The beer itself tastes fantastic (I think it might just be the cleanest, most balanced beer I've made to date), and it was under the cake, so I'm not terribly...

I tried my hand at a batch of burnt mead on the 27th. I boiled the honey, then mixed in cold distilled water, CaCl, and some yeast nutrient, stirred everything vigorously, and racked it to the carboy. Gravity was 1.101. Once it cooled down to about 70 degrees, I rehydrated and pitched 3...

I just got my scoresheets back from my second competition (Greg Noonan Memorial, South Burlington, VT). I entered a dry stout, and my average score was 33.5, so I'm fairly pleased. It's certainly quite a bit better than my first competition results (mid to low 20s - meh). The main thing...

I've started kegging recently, and I generally love it. However, the one task that gives me some trouble is cleaning the beer line. My process just sucks, and I end up with at least as much cleaner on the kegerator and the floor around it as I get through my line. I know a large part of the...

So this morning, I fired up the burner under my HLT. A few minutes later, I hear it go out. Hmm. Wind gust, maybe? I relit it, and this time it died after about 10 seconds. Ok, this isn't good. I closed the valve for that burner and tried my boil kettle burner. Same thing, gas pressure...

I have a 1.070 preservative-free cider pitched with Danstar Windsor that still has a pretty thick krausen after about 12 days or so. Ambient temperature has been a pretty steady 59 degrees. With beer, I don't bother taking a reading until the krausen has fallen. Does cider foam typically...

Today has been an interesting brew day. I'm in the midst of making a pale ale. When I started, I discovered my HLT thermometer is busted (reads 40 degrees all the time). So I heated my strike water in my boil kettle. Just as I'm mashing in, my mom calls; my dad got a flat tire on his way...

Thanks to my bargain ninja wife, I just scored a Kenmore kegerator with two 5# CO2 tanks on the cheap. It needed some TLC with a sponge, but it's in perfect working order. I think I'll be able to squeeze 3 cornies into it, though at the moment it only has a single tap tower. I can't wait to...

My dad and uncle (2 different people, for the record) are both big fans of cream ale. I can't stand the style, myself, but I'd love to brew up a batch of it for them. Since cream ales aren't my bag, I figured I should run the recipe past you fine folks to make sure I'm on the right track...

I have a barley wine that has been bottled for over two months and is still completely and utterly still. I assume the original yeasties are quite deceased, so I'm going to try pitching in some fresh critters and rebottling. I figure I can probably get away with a packet of Muntons, but how...

I just ordered the angle iron to build a 3 vessel, single-tier brew stand (copying the Wallace design that's floating around in a few threads), but I'm a bit stumped on the burner end of things. My original plan was to grab three of these, but then I decided to do a little more research. I've...

I think I've tracked down a keg to repurpose into a boil kettle (haven't seen it yet, so I don't know what kind of shape it's in). The keg's current owner has had it for so long that he no longer remembers what he paid for it and isn't sure of the value. Since this is the first one I've...

I have a batch of oatmeal stout that's great up front, but has a bit of an acrid, bitter finish. It definitely doesn't taste like hop bitterness. If it's a problem with my recipe, I'd like to correct it before the next time I brew a batch of it. However, I had so much trouble with it on brew...

I've been working on improving the clarity of my beers, and between cold crashing and paying attention to water chemistry and mash pH I've seen a massive improvement. I think I'm about 90% of the way to where I want my beers to be. I picked up some gelatin finings to see if it gives me that...