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I'm pissed at myself for making all efforts to make my first barley wine a good one, with extra attention to my yeast starter, filtered water, sanitation, and I thought if this one went well I could move onto all-grain. But then in the end I got careless when adding water and I missed my OG...

Hey All, I made my first starter last night and this morning still no activity other than a trace of foam on the surface that I think might be from stirring. I planned on brewing my barleywine tomorrow. Is it typical to have so little activity 12 hours after pitching? If not typical I...

First starter is in the flask but what to do with a nearly full bag of leftover DME? How long can it be stored?

Magic Hat Hicu cucumber flavored beer. This was the first time I ever dumped a beer down the drain because it was 100% disgusting and totally undrinkable. But I do I like the other Magic Hat beers.

I'm finding this to be a bit odd that after 5 weeks my Kolsch is still fermenting. Last Sunday my FG was 1.018 and no signs of fermentation; I was going to bottle but decided to wait until following Saturday because I just had knee surgery and wasn't really in the mood to bottle. Then Wednesday...

Hey all, I have a Saison and Kolsch fermenting and ready to bottle, and it's time to begin another batch. I want my next brew to be fast and easy. Minimum primary and bottle conditioning time. A light colored beer with a good bit of hops flavor. ABV low - average. I'm looking for...

Palmer's maple syrup recommendation is to add 1 gallon of grade b syrup to 5 gallons of beer. This seems like a lot to me but it is what he recommends for a noticeable maple flavor. Also he recommends to add it after the primary. If I do add it after primary about how long should I do a...

So my Brewers Best Saison has been in the primary for nearly three weeks, I took a gravity reading tonight and was a bit surprised that I'm missing the recommended FG and ABV by quite a few points. Recommended OG - 1.048-1.052 My OG - 1.052 Recommended FG - 1.011-1.015 Tonight's Gravity...

Hey all, While I have two beers in primary I've run out of fermenters, so I thought I'd like to break out my Mr Beer fermenter and do an experiment. I want to do a vanilla bean porter using the Mr Beer American Porter refill. I plan to brew the beer according to directions but add some...

I see a lot of comments about dry beer, but I have no idea what dry beer actually means. What causes dry beer and what does it taste like? How do you know if your beer is dry and is it necessarily a bad thing? Are certain styles more susceptible to this? I'm such a newbie! :o

Hey All, I have a saison in the primary for a week now and still bubbling. The first few days it was in a cool room at about 65-70 degrees. Yesterday I moved it to the warmest room in the house which has a pellet stove, so the temperature fluctuates from about 67-80 degrees several times a...

hey all, This was a red ale extract kit and my ABV turned out at around 3.5 but should have been around 5.1. I have some questions. I believe I could have screwed up my OG reading because I forgot to factor temperature into the reading, but what other issues could affect this? I read on...

Hey all, Do you guys think these food grade buckets from Lowes are good for brewing? A 5 gallon bucket is only $3.97. http://www.lowes.com/pd_356492-1152-51640_0__

Hey All, I'm thinking of brewing a kolsch for my next brew. Northern Brewer has a few options. Does anyone have opinions of the Kolsch extract and Honey Kolsch extract. If you tried then both which one do you like best and for what reasons? Kolsch Extract Honey Kolsch extract -DZ

Hey all, Today I did my first homebrew that was not a MR Beer kit, and it was the first time I took OG readings and actually had to rack my beer with the racking cane. Interesting day. Anyhow, my recommended OG was 1.048-1.042, but the reading I got was 1.042. What ramifications could...

I had my first saison last night, or at least it was the first time I chose a saison on purpose and knew what I was drinking. It was Slyfox saison and it was awesome. A kind of an experience if you know what I mean, and now I understand why this is such a popular spring/summer beer. I liked...

Hey all, I'm brewing my first red ale this weekend and like other newbies I'm anxious to experiment a little. I'm interested in splitting the batch and doing something a bit different with a portion of the brew. I just saw a post from someone who was adding oak chips or cubes to his red ale...

Most of the friends I have are Coors Light / Miller Lite drinkers who always drink from the can, think hoppy beers are skunky, and can't stand black beers because they taste too much like coffee. I'd like to brew a beer one day that changes the minds of those commercial beer lovers and makes...

I'm looking into scotch ale and discovered there are different categories. According to Wikipedia, in Scotland the scotch ale categories used to go like this - Light - under 3.5% abv Heavy - between 3.5% and 4.0% abv Export - between 4.0% and 5.5% abv Wee heavy - over 6.0% abv So how are...

Hi Folks, Over the past month I have done two brews with my MR Beer kit, a pale ale and winter ale, the pale ale turned out fine, the winter ale is still fermenting but I believe it's going to be fine. But I thought it's time to move onto something more advanced like all-grain, so I'll be...