Search results

Folks, I've been brewing for a few years, but I have to admit I'm at a total loss when it comes to electric systems. It just so happens, though, that I've come into possession of a system, and I could use some help identifying what I have, as well as what I don't have. This is a two-tier stand...

A few months ago I brewed a dark belgian-style beer with the intention of pulling off a gallon-pre hops for a malt vinegar experiment. The recipe: 60% pilsner malt 16% Vienna 7% Munich 5.5% Special B 3.6% each Caramunich, Belgian aromatic, and pale wheat I boiled until I had a gallon...

For a while I've been keenly interested in using wine as a blending component, but I haven't seen much online about the practice. I know it's legally touchy for commercial brewers, but for homebrewers, I'd think this would be a great way to add special flavor components to sour beer. So...

I have a Flanders red-ish beer going right now in a 6.5 gallon carboy with about a gallon of headspace. It's been in primary for 6 months. I've done a beer like this before for 10 months without any ill effects, but I'm thinking about topping this one off to protect against oxygen exposure and...

I've been thinking lately that it would be fun to branch out from the Belgian and German style sours I've always done and try something more off the beaten path. So I'm thinking a dark mild will be my next funky beer. I'm wondering a couple of things before I dive in, and I how the community...

Looking for some reassurance. I've always just co-pitched my bugs, brett, whatever into primary for sours and wild ales I've made. First time I've experimented with secondary. A week ago I bottled a gallon and a half of experimental saison, using a wild yeast isolate from a local brewery. I...

I guess it's about time I risked squandering any good will I might have accumulated in this place, so here goes... A friend of a friend gave me some Mr. Beer refills he'd put away in a closet a while back, and I have some duplicates. Assuming these are still good (can they spoil?), has anyone...

I have a sour beer that's been in the carboy for about 5 months. Saturday I finally pulled a sample to check gravity and give it a taste. Gravity is at 1.010. Aroma is very nice. It has ample sourness, but there's a strong off-flavor that I'm calling smoke, for lack of a better description...

I brewed up a big saison on Sunday night: 5.25 gallons into the carboy 7.5 lbs 2-Row 3.25 lbs White Wheat 1 lb Oats 0.25 lbs Light Munich 1 oz Cascade @ 10 mins Mixed culture, harvested from this beer, consisting of Belle Saison, Crooked Stave and Orval dregs, and house wild sour culture...

Anybody harvesting and storing their own house mixed cultures? I've done this with single strains and with sacc blends, but I wonder if anyone here is putting away mixed cultures of sacc/brett/bacteria for future use. I have a Berliner weisse fermenting right now, with house-grown lacto and...

I brewed this recipe Sunday, according to his specifications. My yeast pitch isn't quite so precise, but I think I've approximated it with a combination of Belle Saison, wild lacto, and dregs from a couple of Crooked Stave beers. It's a low gravity Saison with no boil hops and a hefty dose of...

A friend and I brewed a beer about three weeks ago. We used about 40% rye, 15% dark wheat, and the rest was 2-row. Bittered with about 3.5 oz of old cheesy ahtanum. On brew day, we pitched an old (very old) pack of Wyeast Lambic Blend, some small amount of S-33, dregs from JP Oro de Calabaza...

Bottled 5 gallons of porter three weeks ago today. Took out a few to chill and found this. <insert sinking feeling>

Inspired by this post, I'm going to start honing a technique for making gose using a sauerkraut brine culture. As of right now, I plan to use 100% wheat lme, and once I've determined the viability of this method, I will adjust first the ratios, to add pilsener extract, and then the method in...

I'm used to cold crashing my pale ales ahead of bottling day, but is there any reason I *need* to cold crash a brown porter?

Or, rather, is 32-36 hours later too soon? I added it yesterday morning, and it's been in the refrigerator since then. I have some time this evening, but should I wait until tomorrow night?

I want to tackle the Old Ale posted this month at BYO. It's a one gallon recipe, but it calls for more than 3 lbs of grain. I think it'll make a good winter beer, but I'm wondering whether, after running off the necessary wort for this beer, there would be enough residual sugar to make a...

I've put together the grain and hops to brew up an amber ale this coming week with a friend of mine. He suggested that he has some homemade caramel he wants to use and wondered about adding it to the recipe. Has anyone experimented with a caramel addition in this style? I recognize that it...

Is anyone on here making their own root beer from scratch? I have a few recipes I've been eyeing, and I think I just about have the ratios I want to give this a try. Being on the east coast, sassafras grows wild on road sides and fence rows. Dandelion is ubiquitous. Chocolate mint (no...

Glad to have finally joined the forum after lurking for a while. I first came across HBT while searching for better methods for making apple cider, which I'm still in search of. However, I've recently started to dabble in home brewing. I've more experience in food fermentation than in making...