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California Common - Next week Then a straight up IPA

Hey everyone. It's been a while since I've been around here, but I'm still making beer and I'm about to brew a CA Common. I did a bunch of research and put together a (hopefully) good recipe. I'll be brewing a 3-gallon recipe, BIAB, with NortherBrewer and Cluster hops, and Wyeast 1056. If...

I'm putting together a holiday stout recipe and I'm wondering, should I use allspice instead of a cinnamon stick or in addition to it? I know, I know, very little no matter what. :)

I'm having my gallbladder out next week and I've been told to lay off alcohol completely until at least a month after the procedure. I guess the silver lining is, my existing stash will be well-aged by then.... :(

Well, you can read about the adventures in brewing this recipe here. A pretty big failure. BUT It tastes amazing! The color is perfect. It's a little heavy on the clove, but once it's properly conditioned, this will by my new favorite of my brews. Can't wait to brew it again without...

I cracked one open (albeit very early) and lo and behold it tasted amazing! Now I'm even more pizzed off that the mash was messed up. It's a little heavy on the clove, but once it's properly conditioned, I'll bet it's a winner - even at 2.76 ABV :p

This is most likely what happened. I did a pour-over sparge and I thought I gave it a good stir, but it seems it wasn't good enough. Along with the grains that were NOT double crushed like I normally get, it makes sense that my efficiency suffered. More things to do better next time. Mmmmmm...

That should be fine. No sunlight and no fluorescent lights either. I put mine in an old milk crate and cover it with a towel. I'm sure a tiny bit of light makes it through there, but not enough to sour my hops.

Something's not right then because I put just a tiny bit under 3 gallons into fermenter (3 gallon batch) and left nothing but a few drops. Hops in bags so no sludge there. Either I don't understand how to calculate this stuff (brewer's friend is a big help), or the sugar fairy gets in there...

I lost ten points after the boil. My pre-boil eff. was 74% and my brew-house was 64%? How is that possible. And don't be afraid to explain it like you would to a 5th grader.

Going forward, rinse the @#$! out of them after each pour. It takes 15 seconds and you'll be better off on your next bottling day. I rinse each bottle 4 or 5 times with a few good shakes after each pour. Then I let 'em sit and after a few days, turn 'em over to get the rest of the liquid out...

Filtering can cause oxidation. I sometimes use a metal strainer when transferring to primary because I want that o2. Not so with bottling. Cold crashing will clear your beer right up. And, you'll be surprised at how much clearer your beer will be after 3 weeks conditioning.

I've read that one should condition at room temp, within reason. I have just recently installed a mini-split in my man-cave/xbox room/music studio so that room can accomedate my bottles since it's around 76-ish degrees consistently. It's nice because now I don't have huge boxes of bottles...

Wanted a mash temp of 148-50 and got a mash temp (measured with my old and very accurate thermometer) of between 120-130. The attenuation of the yeast was 77% so it did its job.

Bottled this batch today, and as suspected, it's 2.76% ABV. Sigh. On the plus side, it looks awesome. I love the color and there is a fairly pronounced clove taste. Not so much on the banana, which is fine by me. I absolutely hate that aside from the malfunctioning thermometer I did...

Oxy is also wonderful for getting labels off of bottles. I have a big mouth bubbler which is a snap to clean. I rinse it out with my sink's hose thingy (don't know if it has a name or not), then soak it in PBW. I use hot water to clean everything else - tubing, lid, airlock, test tube for...

I'm not going to say anything about never breaking a bottle in 1 1/2 years of capping with a regular wing capper. I'm bottling tomorrow and I wouldn't want that to come back and bite me in the posterior.

There's a thread up in the beginners forum (where I spend most of my time :) ) that deals with oxidation. When I bottle, I usually fill 3 or 4 bottles, then cap them. Then fill a few more, then cap, and so on... In the few minutes before I cap them, am I letting in too much O2? Should I be...

First thing I thought of when I saw this thread title

I don't, but using a relatively fine metal strainer would aerate the wort before pitching with is a good thing.