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This is an odd one... I am a PhD student in Biology and my professor teaches Microbial ecology. He asked me to track down affordable fermentation buckets, hydrometers, cappers, kits etc. for a fermentation lab his class will be doing. Easy enough right? Not exactly. The University is private...

Just moved from NM to TX for my PhD. Now I have to figure out how to brew in my little grad student apartment. Moving from a big house with a dedicated brew room and closet to this tiny place... This should be interesting.

So I have a banana wine (my first banana wine) that I am prepping to bottle this morning. After transferring to the bottling bucket, I took a sip and it is strongly sour. It is not really like an infected sour just very sour. Its been in the secondary for 6 months. To be honest I don't really...

I am trying to cut back on the beer but still wanted a quick turnaround brew so I had something to drink every few weeks while all my big batches age etc. yada yada yada. I picked up 10 of those cheap fruit punch concentrates from the store and did a 5 gallon batch using some brown sugar and...

I am currently drinking my first (and maybe last?) braggot. The idea of a beer/honeywine hybrid really appealed to me at the time of creation but I am really not a fan so far. Granted it is only 6 months old and I know that is young but the general idea of the taste is there I would imagine. I...

I used to love going to a Spanish recreation festival we have nearby locally when I was a kid. I recently have gotten into collecting swords and making mead. Both fairly medieval activities. I also learned that there is a Ren Faire coming up in September and I really want to attend. I want to...

Or even an unabashed open nerd? I have always been into things like computer games and reading fantasy novels. Heck I built an 88/8 pc back in the 90s when i was like 10 for those of you who know what that is and have been building things like that ever since. Growing up, I was always able to...

My wife made me promise to make her a riesling. The one she apparently likes is "cupcake" I guess (Yeah I know... she must have cheap tastes but oh well). Thing is, I don't seem to have access to any riesling grapes or juice. Heck, the LHBS doesn't even have a riesling kit. Anyone have any...

I recently finished a hefe that provided me with a nice big blowoff. Fortunately I had a 1/2 inch blow off tube set up on it. I am having a dickens of a time getting everything out of the tube now though. I soaked it in starsan for a week to no avail. There is still a bunch of gunk in there...

I am currently pursuing a PhD so I have had very little social contact in the last year and a half or so. I guess all my social prowess went out the window during this time. This last weekend we were invited to a get together with some long time friends of ours. Very educated, articulate...

I am sitting on two different meads right now that have skinned (as in they still have the skin not they have been de-skinned.... wow this is getting confusing) fruit in them. Both have lemons and oranges in them that I left the thick, porous skin on. Yes, I realize the possible consequences...

I have never been a big fan of IPAs. It has been so long since I had one though and IPAs are all anyone I talk to seems to be able to talk about that I got suckered back into trying one and I am again disappointed. I don't buy beer anymore. I love the beer that I brew but beer isn't something...

Seriously... its bad. It isn't infected and it doesn't really have any "off" flavors. It just tastes like super alcoholic watered down apple juice. After the first pint I didn't mind the taste so much because I was already buzzing. After the second pint I was done for... Hopefully the flavor...

I have been sitting on some leftover this and some leftover that for a while now, so I am gonna do something with it. I say "something" because I am not quite sure what this beast will turn out. Going to make two 1 gallon batches with: ~2#s breiss special dark LME 1 can organic pumpkin...

I was making a mini batch of berry wine this morning and had extra yeast (EC1118) to pitch so I started looking around the kitchen for potential fermentables. I came across a 10# bag of organic carrots that we had and thought... "What the hell?" Juiced ~3#s carrots and added a couple pounds...

Hello All, I am a biology student at a university (Second career. I am in my 30's) and I want to get into a particular bio lab of a microbiology professor that I would love to study for my PhD starting next year. Anyway, I do not have any direct lab experience (I have done HR for the last 7...

Hey all. Please help me out with a simple, quick Hefeweizen recipe. I want to give one a whirl. I searched the site but most everything I found was all-grain. I don't have a mash tun and so my comfort level is steeping grains and using LME/DME etc. Anyways based on what I did find, I am...

To date I have only ever brewed 5 gallon batches. I am currently making a 5 gall cider though and the cider came in nice 1 gallon glass "carboys" for lack of a better word. I decided to make a bunch of mini batches of various brews in them with classy balloon airlocks (never used those either)...

Just started my first 5 gallon cider last weekend. 5 gallons organic pure cider, no additives, yadda yadda yadda. EC1118 yeast, green tea for tannins. Anyway, the cider came in awesome 1 gallon jugs so I started 5 different mini-meads (with balloon airlocks) in the empty jugs ( I always...

I have fought it since the beginning of time. I refused to get a "smart" phone. A plain old phone phone has always been good enough for me. Anyway, with going back to school, I got tired of always having to whip out my laptop on campus to check grades and emails and stuff and I got a little...