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Hello, I'm planning on making a massive stout (1.135 OG) and I'm a bit confused on the water chemistry when it comes to sparging. Since my water here is no good for brewing, I've been building up distilled water for my brews. A typical amount of sparge water for me is usually around 5 gal but...

I've been using 5.2 stabilizer in my beers for maybe the last 3 or 4 years. Only recently I caught wind that the product might not do what it claims to. Also, lately I've been getting more into water chemistry and pH. I got a pH meter last month and, after calibrating it, I used it for the...

I've been reading some older threads on here that talk about aerating a big beer a second time at approximately 12 hours after pitching the yeast. Everything makes sense to me but those threads generally discuss injecting O2. Since I don't have an injection system, I was wondering if it would...

I'm stumped. I brewed an all grain milk stout on 1/17/16. It's OG was 1.088 but the current gravity is 1.032. Originally I pitched two packets of US-05 after aerating the cooled wort. I fermented at 67 initially and the fermentation started fast and was done after about 3-4 days. After a...

I'm getting ready to brew a milk stout that will use cacao nibs in the secondary. In the past I've soaked the nibs in some vodka to sanitize and extract flavors. I was wondering if there would be any added benefit to using Dekuyper's Creme De Cocoa Dark Chocolate Liqueur instead of vodka...

I decided to try brewing the w00tstout recipe on Northern Brewer's website. Since I was in a hurry to get grains, I bought everything from my LHBS instead. I had to make a lot of substitutions due to the recipe's malts not being available here (particularly Thomas Fawcett's Crystal Rye). That...

I had an idea today and I'm not sure if anyone has done this or if anyone would have any insight on it. I was thinking about taking similar grain bills for two stout recipes and putting them into two separate mash tuns. I'd then take the first runnings from both mash tuns and combine them to...

I'm hoping to get some feedback on an IPA recipe I designed. I had made one before with so-so results. What I'm going for this time is a clean pale orange color that really lets the hops shine through. I was thinking I should keep the grain bill simple. Any advice is appreciated. Here's...

After making several all grain batches from other people's recipes, I've decided to give making my own recipe a try. I'm going with an IPA. I've done a bit of reading but most of this is just guess work; especially with the hops. Feel free to make any suggestions. Here's what I came up with...

I have a noob question here. I realise that I've made a few mistakes on how I'm fermenting my beer and what I want to know is what's the best course of action moving forward. I've got a IIPA in my primary right now. It's been in there 12 days. Due to not having a free carboy, on day 9 I...

I just brewed my 3rd all-grain beer this past weekend. From what I could tell on my hydrometer, I missed my OG by about 12 points (1.040 instead of 1.052). Beersmith estimated my brewhouse efficiency at about 54%. One positive is that I nailed my water volumes. I'm now just trying to...

I've run into a recipe that calls for the first wort hopping and I've been trying to visualize how I'd do it with my setup. Forgive me if this is no-brainer. I currently use my boil kettle to heat up all my sparge water. When I batch sparge I collect all of the runnings in my bottling...

Yesterday I attempted to make this recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/bells-two-hearted-ale-clone-close-they-come-91488/ I've had success with the extract brewing so I thought this would be a simple enough recipe to try as my first all grain batch. It was also the first time I actually...

I just brewed a Brewer's Best Milk Stout kit. I did a full boil using about 6.25 gallons of water and ending up with a little more than 5 gallons. Before pitching the yeast, I put some cooled wort in the test cylinder. Target OG should be 1.057 - 1.061. My reading was around 1.090, maybe...

I recently received Stone's Vertical Epic 12.12.12 in a beer club 6 pack. My first son happened to be born on that date so I had already bought one before (and drank it) to save the bottle for whatever reason. Now, since I've got this 2nd bottle, I was thinking about maybe saving it until he's...

I'm planning to make a Brewer's Best Milk Stout kit using a full boil. It calls for 3.3lbs Special Dark LME, 3.3lbs Pilsen LME, .5lb lactose, and .5lb maltodextrin. Like all of their recipes, they call for all of these ingredients to be added at the beginning of the boil in 2-2.5 gallons of...