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I have beer celebrating their first birthday and more. Some things I've noticed that I wonder about. I'm have 50-75 batches experience over 3 years. How long do you keep homebrew beer around? I drink a bunch early on then get stingy with the ones I like and try to hang on to the last few for...

I thought I read once that a taller and more narrow grain column aids/increases efficiency. Do BIABers adhere to that or is it just personal preference for kettle dimensions? I'm thinking/dreaming of going from a 10 gallon pot to a 15 gallon pot. Thanks. -Andy

My current setup is a single vessel BIAB with electric heat and recirculation. I'm 6 brews into this setup (6 of 46). 5 gallon batches are a breeze. The majority of the brews I've done is in the 8-15 pounds. Works great for that much grain. The "all-in-one" pot is a 10 gallon kettle. It...

I haven't seen one yet - a cone shaped boil pot lid with a vent/chimney for steam to vent through. Looking to retain more heat and yet let steam and DMS vent. Thinking of something like the Tin Man's hat. Thoughts?

I soaked oak chips in whiskey for about two weeks. Do I dry them first or toss them in wet? I'm about a month away from being ready for the oak chips and I want to avoid too much whiskey taste.

I'm designing a porter in Brewtoad. I moved the dark malts to late boil addition (black patent, chocolate, roasted barley) from the mash. I don't see an adjustment in SRM in Brewtoad after that move. Shouldn't it? Or am I off base?

Is coffee malt a candidate for the late boil like chocolate or black patent or should it stay in the mash? And for that matter does adding chocolate or black patent in late boil decrease the SRM contributions of those malts (when compared to adding in the mash)?

Will try this soon to see if the coffee malt will add coffee like flavors. I have to resist the strong urge to add more and more different ingredients. 8 lbs maris otter 4 lbs brown malt 2 lbs flaked oats 1 lbs coffee malt .75 lbs black patent .5 lbs chocolate malt 1 oz...

I do chill brewing but I have 6-8 plastic containers filled with water and frozen. When it comes time to chill I sanitize and drop them in the boil kettle. I recirculate the wort from the bottom to the top so the wort is constantly getting cooled by the frozen blocks floating at the top...

Is there any gain to be had from using a false bottom in my boil keggle? I use mostly hop pellets. Anyone do this? The idea appeals to me but I started to wonder if some/much/most of the hop pellet gunk would make it through the false bottom. Thanks. -Andy

One time I left the gate valve open on my mash tun overnight after brewing. Wort dripped overnight. There was about 2 cups the next morning. The wort drippings collected had a higher gravity than I would expect. Is this normal or did I just miss out that much sugar?

Working on a Eye on the Rye clone. thoughts? 2 row rye malt 10 lbs cara rye 1.5 lbs cara red .5 lbs melanoidin .25 lbs ctz hops @ 60 min 1 oz ctz hops @ 30 min 1 oz whirlpool mt hood and cascade 1 oz & 1 oz dry hop @ 4 days mt hood and cascade 1 oz & 1 oz Not sure how I am going...

I'm adding a 1500w 110v heat stick to my HLT. Questions: 1) can I use an infinite switch to adjust temp? Is that hard on the heat stick? 2) if I use a temp controller what ready-made units can handle 1500W and submerged controllers upto 180 ish *F?

I added a pump to let me recirculate from my hot water tank (with burner) to my 10 gallon round cooler with false bottom mash tun and back. Even with the head loss from several 90* elbows and several linear feet of tubing the Mark 2 wort pump can pump faster than the mash tun can drain. The...

Dumped a Hefe batch. All extract kit was nothing but trouble from the start (boil over, fermentation volcano, etc). While not my favorite type of beer the kit tasted like it was missing ingredients. No help from letting it age a bit. Oh well. Time to brew more beer.

Using spare aquarium pieces and a carboy I'm experimenting with a DIY fermentation chiller/heater. I have a plastic widemouth carboy. I drilled a hole in the side and mounted a coolworks ice probe chiller. This unit is usually good for cooling up to 50 gallons a few degrees. Heating is a...

I really like the Extra ESB by Breckenridge but I can't find it. Anyone have a recipe for it? I don't care - extract, biab, AG.

I have a plastic carboy. I'm considering the following Cooling - mounting a coolworks ice probe on my carboy by drilling a hole in the carboy for the probe. The chiller would be mounted around the 3.5 gal mark in the carboy. Heating - seating a titanium aquarium heater inside the carboy...

Brewed a 5 gallon batch using an extract kit yesterday. First time. It was fun. Somethings for the next time 1) it was really helpful and fun to have someone working with me 2) need a better way to cool the wort than ice in the sink. Sink was too big. My boil pot is thin walled. That...

Made up a 1 gallon batch of Old Fashioned Homebrew Orange Soda Pop (soda where I am from). Base plus yeast plus sugar plus water. Gave me a chance to work on cleaning, sterilizing, and patience.