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I brewed for the first time in just about forever today. I packed up my equipment, went to my friend's house, and we drove to his girlfriend's dad's house, and I helped them brew a vanilla porter. (Well, I'm bad at giving directions and asking for help, so I may have hogged a good bit of the...

First beer in over a year! Biermuncher's Centennial Blonde is home in its fermenter right now. Yeah, yeah, way too long; there were other factors at play. After pulling myself out of a funk, working my butt off for a job search, and some upgrades to my mash tun last month and this week, I...

I'm brewing this right now, and I'm halfway through the boil. It's the first time in quite a while that I've brewed anything, and it smells delicious! Thanks, Biermuncher!

A couple possibilities come to mind: * Are you topping up in the fermenter and relying on its markings? Those aren't the most accurate in the world. * If you're starting with 5 gallons in the kettle, by the time you leave kettle trub behind, transfer to the fermenter, and leave the trub and...

Even though the cap has a liner, you're still risking interaction between the beer and the metal in the cap if the integrity of the liner isn't perfect. Or at least, that's the explanation that I've read before. The yeast/clarity issue is another one for bottle-conditioned beer.

Yes. The total heat of the water + grain will remain the same, but the temperature will be somewhere in between the two, same as if you mixed a cup of hot water and a cup of room temperature water together. There's a formula available here under "Initial Infusion Equation", or this page has a...

The 1.25 qts/lb is what I usually use. I really second the idea to have hot and cold water handy. I boil a teakettle of water on the stove before I dough in so that it's not a mad rush if I'm a little low. If it's a little high, a few ice cubes work just fine for me.

Here's one that I brewed a couple years ago: 5 lbs German wheat 3 lbs German pilsner 1 lb Briess wheat DME 0.75 oz Hallerrtau (4.3% AA) (probably at 60 minutes; didn't note it) 1 pkg Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen 90-minute boil (because of the pilsner) Fermented at 62°F (based on Jamil's...

I seem to be rather fond of posting this article which talks about the differences between mashing and steeping, so I'll go ahead and drop the link here.

What doby said. You're primarily wanting to boil off a compound called DMS, which is converted at high temperatures from the SMM (a different compound) in the malt. If you don't boil vigorously and drive it off, or if it condenses on the lid and drips back in, it can impart a cooked vegetable...

Are you planning to use any base malt? You're not going to get many--make that any--fermentables out of that. Neither of those grains has any diastatic power, which means that they will not be able to convert their starches into sugars. I'm at work right now and don't have access to my copy...

Noted. I guess I should have read the whole thread, but I figured I'd just throw that in there while I was posting anyway.

These may be a bit sensationalized, but here are a couple interesting articles: A Short Treatise on Homebrewing & the Meaning of Gruit The Fall of Gruit and the Rise of Brewer's Droop The first site also has several recipes if you don't want to get the book mentioned earlier. It (the book)...

I'm not sure I understand your question. "Foundation water" is just a fancy term for the water occupying the "dead space." In other words, it's the water that remains in the tun and doesn't drain when you open the valve. You need to account for it in your water volumes, but otherwise, you...

I don't have a definitive answer for you, but among homebrewers that raise chickens, I've seen many references to feeding them spent grain. (Also, many commercial breweries sell it to farmers, but I think it mainly goes to cattle.) Based on that alone (and I know that they're a different...

I haven't read the whole thread, but Home Depot and Lowe's both have food-grade buckets, but they're only 5 gallons, in white or black. Also, they do have gamma seal lids, which I just found out about through homebrewfinds.com the other day. The model number on the product page is a hint, but...

Didn't you know? Reddit is SRS BSNSS.

According to this chart, you'd be looking at an increase of about 9 points (i.e., .009) in a five-gallon batch, assuming 85% efficiency. Maybe 8 points for 75% efficiency, depending on which calculator or desktop software you use. And yes, you'd be mashing it.

That looks too fast to me. I've been told that going too fast can damage the yeast cells. You really only need a small dimple on the surface.

If steeping produces fermentables, it's called a mash. :D In all seriousness, you may find this article about the differences between mashing and steeping to be interesting.