Search results

As discussed in this thread, I recently botched several batches of beer due to poor temperature control during fermentation. One is not yet bottled and is still in the fermenter. It is a Patersbier kit from Northern Brewer and I hate to waste it. It's not gross, it just has a funk to it that...

A few months ago I finally pushed my wife past her beer tolerance when I got a pinhole leak in a Party Pig seal and it sprayed her half of the closet where I kept my beer stuff. This wasn't the first time I'd had a mishap so I can't really get too upset that I've been banished outdoors. I've...

I had back surgery a year ago and it was so successful I rapidly fell back (no pun intended) into my old bad habits. These include lifting and moving around full brew pots and mash tuns. As you may have guessed I ended up in the ER this past weekend and had emergency surgery! I'm OK, but I...

Got my ThinkGeek newsletter today and they have this item for sale: http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/c908/ I use bottle conditioning and I'm not really interested in the keg method but occasionally it would be nice to have immediate gratification for parties, tailgating, etc...

A buddy and I were brainstorming way to add hop goodness to bad beer. Not necessarily bad beer, but beer that needs hops. Picture this: You're at a bar with your buddies and they order a pitcher of Bud Light. You don't want to be rude and decline the offer of free beer even if it does suck...

I made a yeast starter on Thursday from a White Labs Abbey Ale, 2.7 quarts of water, and 9 ounces of DME. Temps have been between 70-76 the whole time. Not sure of the date on the yeast vial since the ink was smudged, but I bought it from my LBHS the same day I made the starter. Since then...

Late last year I made Northern Brewer's Belgian Dubbel extract kit and it was fantastic. People liked it so much that they asked me to make another batch and sell them some. Which I did, but they said it was "meh". My buddy made the same thing and I sampled it tonight. Compared to my first...

Two brewing friends use the same LHBS and coincidentally (they thought) had recent batches come in well below the ABV amount they expected. Both used repackaged DME they had bought from the store and that made them suspicious that they had been shorted. One of them went to the LHBS last week...

I'm hosting a beer tasting one week from today and I made a Belgian Dubbel for it. The Dubbel tastes wonderful. But there's a problem - it's flat! I think I put priming sugar in the bottling bucket but there's a possibility I just forgot. I've tried two bottles so far and this combination of...

My oldest kid gets his driver's license today which means less money in my pocket each month (insurance, gas, new car for me :D ). I'm an extract brewer and it's generally cheaper for me to buy kits from AHS or Northern than to buy the ingredients outright from my LHBS. That said, I want him...

This past Saturday I got all set up on my back porch to brew my new Belgian Dubbel extract kit. I had everything sanitized and was ready to boil the water when I decided to check my smack pack one last time. It was steadfastly refusing to swell so I decided to wait one more day just to be...

Tropical Storm Fay made its way through my city over the past few days and I'm happy to say all my hops made it safely through. My setup consists of metal conduit that's 10 feet high and approx. 8 feet across. It's not anchored, just pounded into the ground. I did, however, tie it off to a...

Last my wife and I had a beer tasting party as a fund raiser for her church group (Catholics, of course). It was a fantastic success and we're doing it again this year. We selected 5 countries and had 3 samples from each (a mix of homebrew and commercial). This year I've added Belgium to the...

I know it's not really a quality beer, but I love Fosters Special Bitter oil cans. 99% of it is probably the novelty and tactile sensation of sipping from that big ass can, but a guilty pleasure can't be denied! That said, does anyone have a reasonably close clone recipe? It can definitely be...

I have two dozen barely used flip tops (Grolsch-style) that I bought new from my local brew shop. I've subsequently switched to capping, but I hate to let those expensive bottles sit in the closet. The problem is they do not have a good seal and most of the beer that I've conditioned in them...