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I've been thinking about upgrading from my immersion chiller to a plate or counter flow chiller to be faster. I'm less concerned about the time it takes to chill my wort, and more concerned about the total time it consumes on brew day. It only takes a few minutes to drain and wash the immersion...

Just want to plug the new home brew store in Lafayette, Colorado. The owner, George, is a nice guy with a good inventory, especially for just opening up. I got tired of one of the other stores in the area always being out of something I needed, and I've been able to get my last four recipes from...

Colorado may be on fire, the air may smell like a camp fire, and this hot & dry year has been lousy for staying cool, but I have never harvested hops this early! I cut down my Zeus (middle pot), and I think I'll harvest the Willamette (left pot) this weekend or next. I'm very excited about the...

I feel a little guilty just throwing away all those cuttings I have trimmed from my hops, so I put some in water. They all shot out roots and now I have a bunch of little hops that have roots and leaves and no place to grow:( I know it's a little late in the season, but if anyone in the...

My hops are about two and a half feet tall right now (second year in planters.) They each have close to 25 shoots coming off of them, some taller than others. When should I chop off the extra shoots and how many should I train up the twine for each plant?

I really liked my Super Colona Capper until I broke it about 10 minutes ago. I'm about ten bottles into bottling a batch, and I sheared off the gear that pushes down the shaft off of the handle. (It's a bench capper if that helps anyone visualize it.) I don't think any amount of duct-tape is...

On Sunday I made a starter for some washed WLP004 that was stored in my fridge. I shook the heck out of it for a day (I need a stir plate:() and pitched it on Tuesday. It did a great job in the starter with a nice high krausen line and the batch of beer was going like mad when I checked on it...

I've been incredibly lazy and brewed very little beer this summer. So I'm that much more excited that I get to brew my first batch with my homegrown hops tomorrow! I'll be using my Zeus for bittering in my Red Pumpkin Spice Ale. I know there's no way of knowing the exact AA%, but the unknown...

I can't seem to find a post that actually spells out how dry hops should be before freezing. Should they crumble apart when squeezed? Should the still be squishy but paper-like? Should I be able to break apart the leaves of the cones, or should they be pliable enough to fold over without...

I had signs of bugs eating my hops leaves, and I used a little bit of dish soap diluted in a spray bottle on the leaves to discourage the bugs. Now I have small brown spots on the oldest leaves of my plants. The younger lighter green leaves got the same treatment but don't seem to be affected...

My Zeus plant is growing up the twine in a very orderly fashion, and is now taller than my willamette. My willamette that started faster has slowed it's upward growth. It is putting off a lot of side growth on the main bine. Should I pinch off some of the side growth to encourage it to put...

I have some 20-30-20 fertilizer that I on using when my hops start to grow, and I know the dilution to use, but obviously if I use two gallons at the proper dilution, that is twice as much fertilizer into my planter than if I were to use one gallon. So how much do I use or is that not an issue...

I rent so I don't have the luxury of turning half of my back yard into a hop garden, but I am willing to try the container hops growing method in the last issue of BYO magazine. As long as I'm not too late to find them, I am thinking of one Cascade and one Magnum or a Mt. Hood. I think these...

I really need to figure this out quickly since I'm brewing tonight, and brewing AND bottling tomorrow, so thanks to anyone who reads all this and offers any help. My IPA that I made in December and Bottled in January turned into a foamy mess after 6 weeks in bottles, and I think that the Pale...

I've played with the search function enough: One post said as much as 2.5 lbs of ginger (not a typo), and others say 5 oz is plenty. I only have one shot at this to have it ready in time for SWMBO's graduation party, otherwise I would happily play with iterations until I got a good recipe...

Some friends of mine created Bacon Day five years ago, a celebration of most glorious swine that occurs the Saturday before Labor Day. As the name would imply, it is a day to enjoy dishes with bacon. We have had everything from bacon benedicts (with bacon fat in the holandaise sauce) to bacon...

I have an IPA that has been in bottles for about two months now, and ever since it had been in bottles for two weeks it has been FAR too carbonated. I get a glass full of foam before pouring half a bottle of it. It was in primary for 28 days and then dry hopped in a secondary for 6 days...

I bought a magazine package subscription a long time ago for a ridiculously low price, and I've been receiving a bunch of magazines for what seems like forever, one of them being Maxim. I've thought it's been going downhill for a while now. It used to be a bunch of dumb humor with pictures...

Since I don't have any other good equipment for it, I want to use a half gallon mason jar to make a starter in. I got six of then to use when washing yeast, to store priming sugar, and DME for starters. They work great! I feel like the jar lid would seal better than foil, but still allow CO2...

I do partial boil extract recipes and I'm trying to figure out how to make an IPA with a lot of hops. I've read a lot of the other threads on partial boils and maximum IBUs, and I have a good grasp on how high you can go. I have been playing around with Beersmith, and the IBU calculator is...