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Hey everyone, I'm pretty new to brewing - 5th batch in the fermenter right now. I'm looking to learn how changing techniques and ingredients affects the product. Dave Miller recommends starting with a SMaSH recipe (one type of malt & one type of hop), and repeating it several time until...

Hey everyone, I just took some measurements on the power of my stove, and I did a little reading about BTUs on wikipedia. I wanted to measure the effective BTUs of my kettle & kitchen stove top. Let me know if my calculations are off. Has anyone else taken these measurements? What were the...

Hey guys, almost a silly question: I went the extra distance and got a false bottom for my MLT (5gal Rubbermaid). Would it hurt if I also used a grain bag (ie. problems w/ channeling, efficiency, etc)? The purpose would be so that I can easily remove the grains for disposal. I'm planning...

Lots of the stuff I read recommends a "lager-like" cold storage after primary fermentation for these German ales. I have no problem believing that a kolsch needs to be aged for a period of time, but what's the deal with the low temp? I'm using WhiteLabs WLP029, and WhiteLabs says the yeast...

The next piece of brew equipment on my list is a mash tun. I'm having trouble deciding what size to go with. Are there any guidelines like "a cooler with X volume can hold Y lbs of grain"? I'm assuming 3gal is plenty for a partial mash. Is 5 gal enough for AG? What is the minimum for AG...

So here's the deal. When I siphoned the cooled wort into the fermenter, I got about 3.5 gallons in the fermenter before I ran into some serious trub at the bottom of the kettle. About 2 gallons of wort remained in the kettle that I didn't siphone because it was so inundated with trub...

Since you started brewing, which techniques/equipment/knowledge have yielded the biggest improvement in your beer? Since this is the beginners forum, can we keep it to improvements you made in the 1st 20 batches? Thanks, everyone!

I'm using a closed fermenter - 7.5 gallon bucket. There is a *thick* layer of krausen at the top. Is there anything wrong with opening the fermenter to take temperature readings? Contamination risk? Should I limit the number of temp readings to X per day? If so, what is X? I went ahead...

I spent a lot of time cleaning up some Pilzner Arquel bottles & my damn bottle capper won't cap them. The neck of the bottle is too large; so my bottle can't clamp down on the bottle. My capper is made by ... errr, the handle has "Brev. Italy" stamped on it. I'm pretty sure it's out of the...

I have some very basic questions about mead in general 1) What does mead taste like? Which beverages are most similar to mead? 2) Are there any good commercial meads that I can buy? Would a local liquor store carry mead? 3) For making your own mead, how likely is it that I could...

On my last (first) batch, it took almost an hour to get 5.5 gal. to boil. Then I boiled the wort for an hour. I'm using my kitchen stove (weak gas burners). Is this an indicator that I should be doing a partial boil? Does it matter how long it takes to bring the pot to a boil?

I'm planning to start up my second batch next weekend. The first batch is a brown ale (that I'll be bottling the same weekend). The question is: should I try a different style for the second batch, or use the same recipe? For the purposes of learning, I was thinking it might be good...

Hey everyone - here's what's up: I transfered to secondary fermentation about 3 days ago, and I sampled the beer from the hydrometer beaker. It had a distinctive smokey character - not just a hint of smoke, but fairly blatant. I'm know that the favor is only 1/2 developed so far - still...

I'm about ready to transfer from primary to secondary fermentation. I'm going from a 7.5 gal. bucket (that has a spigot) to a 5 gal glass carboy. Although I could use the spigot to do the transfer, I was thinking that racking might be a better option. My logic is that the cane would be able...

My info: - 2nd day of primary fermentation - top fermenting, english ale yeast - 5 gallon batch, brown ale - vessel: 6gal, plastic bucket, sealed, air lock, etc - my 1st batch ever :rockin: I've learned most of my information thus far from Dave Miller's book (can't remember the...