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I’ve used medium roasted oak chips, with amazing results, for a Porter. I bought 4 lbs of cherrywood smoked malt (because it was $1 / lb), but have never used smoked grains. In my smoked Porter, the 2oz of medium roasted Oak chips, 7 days in fermentation, added a truly awesome smokiness. Others...

I have 7 days left of fermentation and have been on the fence about dry hopping for 5 days or 7. Five gallon batch, fermenting for two weeks, no secondary. I plan to dry hop with 2 oz Simcoe. What differences have you noticed between dry hopping 5 and 7 days?, or between dry hopping the full two...

I have only my second Porter fermenting. Been brewing for two years now (I always make IPA’s) My first Porter was surprisingly outstanding! I’d love to hear from anyone who has ever used Oak chips in their beer. From what I’ve found from other brewers, I plan to add 2 oz of oak chips (5 gallon...

This is going to sound dumb, but what if I used MORE gelatin finings than the recommended 1/2 teaspoon per 5 gallons? How much? Well, what about a full TABLESPOON? Anyone ever used more than prescribed?

I always brew IPA’s. So my standard fermentation is 14 days. I may decide to cold-crash on day 12, and there have been times when I was impatient and didn’t feel like buying commercial beer, so I started the cold crash on day 10. I brew for Me, not trying to win a trophy. And I’ve never noticed...

Never planned on making a cider before. Until I tried a friend’s. Now I’m planning on it. From what I understand, I need to get Pasteurized, not from concentrate. Do I also need to get one that’s NO PRESERVATIVES? Because that can inhibit fermentation? Thanks for the help. Additional info: I’m a...

I freeze spent grain (sometimes), and dry grain (sometimes) and I’ve made granola bars several times now THAT’S HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! And recently dried a bunch of grain, turned it into flour using a coffee grinder and used it in frying chicken.

I wasn’t thinking when I put my carboy in the kegerator with a blowoff tube, into sanitizer. I opened the kegerator to pull the carboy out, and probably 1/2 gallon of sanitizer went into my beer! SMH. The sanitizer stayed on top of the beer. So I decided I wasn’t going to dump all 5 gallons, I...

I'm going to go with it anyway (still pitch the yeast and carry on)... I brewed on Friday, didn't pitch the yeast yet. Today is Monday. It's literally been 3 full days. I'm getting my yeast ready for pitching. Note: this is a ten gallon batch, plot into two fermenters. One fermenter has been...

Realized that I have a packet of Dualfine (two stage clearing agent). And I wondered if it makes a difference if I add that to my beer, AND cold crash? Or do I need to let Dualfine run it's two day course before cold crashing? (Didn't know if the cold temp inhibits the clearing agent)

Haven't had a batch go bad yet "fingers crossed". Now fermenting I think batch numbers 6&7. I worry about each batch, and feel like I don't really know for sure until I pull the tap handle and take a swig. Can you tell if a batch got contaminated before that point? By visual or smell? Or taste...

I've only done 4 or 5 batches before. I would let them ferment for 2 weeks. Sometimes I take a FG reading, sometimes I don't. One of my two batches fermenting now is on day 11. What do you think if I take a reading, and IF it's down to 1.010 (that's a big "IF") just call it "done", cold crash...

I read the thread by Woodlandbrew "Simple yeast storage" and now I don't know if I may just want to pitch the stored slurry, or wash it first. I did a couple yeast washings before, just for practice (don't still have that yeast). I tossed it after it was in the fridge for a few weeks because I...

I love beers with a citrus finish. I have one batch that's almost halfway through fermentation, and another batch that's on it's first day of fermentation. I plan to dry hop Citra for 5-7 days probably, and I wanted to get other Brewers' opinions on how much Citra do you dry hop?

My most favorite IPA of all time. I've only got 4 all-grain batches under my belt, so I'm still a little new. Has anyone ever figured this one out? I've seen the ingredients listed on Sierra Nevada's website and used the same grain bill, yeast, "finishing hops", but I used Warrior hops for...

I brewed what I hope will be an IPA. 10 gallon batch. It's been fermenting for a week now, split between two fermentation buckets. I only added 1oz of Simcoe, as soon as the beer went into fermenters (split that one ounce between the two buckets). So that will be in for a total of 14 days. I do...

This is only my 4th batch of beer. With my previous 3 batches, I had really good airlock activity for 12-14 days, so I was surprised to find it nearly stopped at day 5 this time. So I'm tempted to start doing daily gravity readings, since I don't know where it's at. Post boil was 1.064. I did 10...

First batch, fermentation day 13. Five gallons in a 7.9 gal fermentation bucket. It's killing me to have to wait longer than 2 weeks, and it's still SLOWLY fermenting. The airlock hasn't equalized yet, so I don't really want to bother taking the lid off yet to do gravity readings. I'm assuming...

My first beer is only on day 5 of fermentation (all grain IPA). I've been seeing a lot of "age 4 weeks" after secondary fermentation. Being my first batch, of course, I'm going to be anxious. Can anyone share their experiences with taste differences after aging vs not aging your beer? And if I...

I love IPA's. What I really mean is: I don't drink anything else. So as my first batch is just passed it's first day of fermentation, I wonder if someone can break down the difference between the two for me. Would you mash one at a lower / higher temp than the other? More bittering hops or...