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Background: A few weeks back I brewed an ESB with WLP007. For some reason (unrelated to this question) it stalled around 1.020, and I was advised to pitch a pack of dry Nottingham yeast to get it closer to 1.012ish which is what I wanted. The 1.020 sample was a little sweet but otherwise...

So on my last four batches, I abruptly went from getting 75% efficiency (exactly where I want it) to 55-58% every batch which I consider unacceptably low. Been racking my brain but I don't think anything in my process has changed. I have my own pet theory but I wanted to ask for any other...

There's a homebrew competition coming up in my area, and I'm interested in entering a few brews mostly for feedback. One of them is a Dortmunder Export that's pretty tasty but I had a brewday screwup that took it WAY out of style. My wort chiller leaked like an extra gallon of water into the...

Short version: should your sparge water be below 170, or should the grain and water end up below 170 after you stir in the sparge water? Batch sparge method. Long version: I was brewing a 5 gallon all-grain oatmeal stout today on the high end of the style, so a lot of grain. By far the darkest...

Since NASA found life that eats arsenic of all things, my gut tells me the answer is "yes", but I wanted to ask: can beer-spoiling critters live in pure CO2? I'm asking specifically about the hose from my CO2 tank to my kegs. Do you guys periodically sanitize that hose and its fittings? I've...

Anyone on here have the stir plate from William's Brewing? http://www.williamsbrewing.com/STIR_STARTER_P2520.cfm I've been using it with great success for my starters, and it's more than $100 cheaper than any other commercial product I've seen. The other day I somehow cracked my @*!&^%...

I've noticed a common off flavor in hoppier homebrews, both mine and those of a friend, and I'm just wondering what people think could cause it and why. All of them were extract + steeping grains, partial-boil brews. The batches in question used amarillo, centennial and/or cascade. Pellet hops...

I have a slow leak in my keg (only have one keg right now or this would be easier to test) and I was just wondering if anyone has experienced this before I start buying multiple new parts. The leak is on the beverage out side, and only occurs when I attach my quick disconnect and tubing. Ball...

I tried looking at the balancing links in the FAQ sticky, but almost all of them are broken links :( My situation: I just kegged a belgian blonde ale. According to the recipe in Brewing Classic Styles it should be carbed to about 3.5 volumes. My fridge is ~50 F and I set the regulator to 30 PSI...

I recently tried brewing an American pale ale, which I intended to have a big, in your face hop aroma. I'm not sure what went wrong, but the beer ended up being more bitter and less aromatic than I wanted. Obvious answer: "you used high alpha acid hops and/or added them too soon, *******". I'm...