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I bought what I thought was stainless steel ball bearings for dry hopping. Unfortunately the ball bearings have formed a dark gray corrosion on the outside. I was under the impression stainless steel does not corrode. It has a sulfury burnt smell to it. I will probably throw out the beer but...

The cooler is designed to hold heat so the loss should be minimal. I've brewed in colder weather than that with no ill effect. I do agree with Grizz though, preheat your mash tun for best results.

All grain is not that bad if you start out with batch sparging. I still think it may be a good idea to ease into it though. Get the equipment needed to do a full boil with your extract beers (I assume you use the method where you add water in the end). Try out a partial mash maybe. Its always a...

I would start using Maris Otter as your base malt. It is fully modified (though now a days most malts are) so you don't have to worry about a protein rest and it has very good efficiency.

This is actually how some German brewers used to (and probably still do in some areas) lower the pH of the mash for making beers where the water was too hard for lighter beers. They would combine a small portion of the sour mash would be combined with the regular mash to get the right pH. Now a...

Nottingham is another good dry ale yeast for lower temperatures.

A bit of irish moss in the end of the boil will help keep the beer nice and clear.

I'm a big fan of putting buffer 5.2 in my beers. When I started doing ag, I had a bit of bitter astringency in my beers. The 5.2 seemed to help, also made my efficiency better. Have you tried going back to extract/partial mash since going all grain? It could be a coincidence that you are getting...

Any flavor you add will take away from the starchiness but it will still taste a tad thick since it did not convert all the way. You may also want to try blending the beer with a really dry beer to bring the gravity down. You may even get away with diluting it with water if you want a low...

How long do you keep them in the primary and secondary? Too short in either can prevent the yeast from falling out of suspension. Also, when you pour a homebrew, it helps to try to keep as much sediment in the bottle as possible. Different yeasts can taste more or less yeasty? Did you use the...

You should be fine. Warm beer will not keep as long but a doppelbock is probably strong enough that it does not matter. I hear chilling and than warming up beer repeatedly is bad but doing it once should be fine.

I think you just roused the yeast a bit. Stirring it around caused some of the stuff at the bottom to kick back into life.

Did the packet inflate? You may just have a slow starter. Leaving it out for 3-4 hours is harmless, it's when you leave it out for a week or so when it becomes harmfull.

Soda generally has preservatives in it. I doubt you will get anywhere by fermenting it. If you used your own soda syrups you could probably make something. It won't be as sweet though but you may get something good.

Hey guys, I was wondering what would make a good fridge for a kegerator. I tried doing a search but all the models listed seem to be discontinued. Every fridge I find at the store seems to have the stupid freezer thing in it. Any suggestions? Thijs

This may be old new, but at least it's good news. Beer Examiner: FINALLY - Utah legalizes home beer making

When it first started the bubbles where a bit bigger than I've seen (but to be honest I don't open the primary buckets often) and had a green color to them (I assume this is hop pellet residue). The best way to describe it would be the same fruit smell from an ale but much much stronger (and...

What exactly is "brett funk"? I was under the impression that brett caused a horse like smell. I don't know how horses smell like :(.

So I'm brewing a sour brown using Roselare yeast. Generally I enjoy the smell of fermenting beer but right now my room smells a tad funky. Is this normal? I've never done a lambic or sour brown before.

Yeast will settle given enough time. Cold crashing speeds up the process. Where cold crashing helps the most is getting chill hazing proteins to settle. I also find it helps improve the taste a bit. Don't cold crash too soon though, you want the yeast to break apart some of the off flavors in...