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Water adjustments to the mash are part of my brew day to achieve correct pH and residual alkalinity but not sure about additional get to kettle

I frequently cool my wort prior to pitching in my pool since tap water in Texas can be in eighties and pool gets down to pitching temperature in about 4 hours. I also do it in cold weather to save water. Anyway, I have had zero issues with infection but wonder if my ten minute prior to knock out...

i repitched lager yeast and decided to ferment warmer at around 61 degrees it is finished and tastes good but smells like rotten eggs. Will keg today and am hoping it will go away during lagering. yeast is 34/70 Thoughts?

I am getting okay efficiency but want to tweak my process. I realize that efficiency does not equal good beer but again, just want to fine tune Assuming a decent crush, proper conversion that is checked and water treatment: 1 My mast tun is a large cooler. I batch sparge and tip it to...

My water is 9.0 pH and alkalinity is high (live in Dallas). I batch sparge and am thinking about tweaking my process to see if I can increase my yield and get a better wort A couple of ideas: 1 Add the same salts that are added to the mash to acidify the sparge water? 2 Or, add some...

My water is soft with a ph of 9. I am thinking about adding some lactic acid to the sparge water to see if this will help boost my efficiency and get a better wort. Has anyone tried this?

Has anyone had luck culturing from the bottom of your keg? I was thinking that the bottom has active yeast that can be pitched to a starter and then re-pitched into a new batch. This saves putting in mason jars, decanting etc.

Racked and kegged today. After sanitizing keg, realized that I did not sanitize hose. Instead, opened spigot of plastic bucket and racked into the keg. Needed to blow off foam three times. Palmer says this will cause oxidation and staling in two weeks. Am I up the creek?

We have several posts regarding pitching on yeast cakes and washing yeast. Is there a definitive way to keep one yeast going for a long period of time? An idea to start this off: 1. Maintain yeast for 3 or so batches by either pitching on a partial cake or washing in between. 2. After...

I have had two infections this year which are the only two in my 10 years of brewing. Both times I harvested some of the yeast cake and poured the yeast into sanitized mason jars. On both occasions I decanted the liquid off and pitched. These were probably an average of 2.5 months old. Each time...

I have a side by side fridge/freezer. If I purchase the Johnson or similar plug in temperature control system, will it adjust the Refrigerator side only and not the freezer side? We have meats etc in the freezer and don't want to lose them

I am new to BIAB but not to all grain and think I will give it a try. Everything I read has the grains and bag being put in the kettle at a strike temperature typically higher than the more traditional methods due to the high water to grain ratio. Can anyone comment on why you can't add the...

I have had two separate infections this year where the beer tastes like horse hair. Both were re-pitched from sanitized mason jars, but I did not create a starter. Rather, I just decanted the top liquid and pitched. On both batches, there was a 12-18 hour lag and fermentation was rather fast...

I have never cleaned the lines on my cobra tap and most recent IPA tasted like an infection (horse or leather sweat). I almost dumped it but tried without the hose and it tasted good. Is this possible? What is best solution for the lines. Run boiling water through them or a sanitizing solution?

I am sure this is basic and I am missing something but it appears to me that Palmer's book and the Sticky conflict. When harvesting, Palmer says to swish around the yeast with boiled and cooled water and then leave the sediment and decant off the liquid to use. The sticky says to keep the...

What differences will I see with a step mash of 30 minutes at 140F and another 30 minutes at 158F, versus a single infusion for 60 minutes at 152F-154F? I note that Charlie P uses the 140 to 158 schedule and am wondering

After reading Kai's site, one of the keys that he mentions is obtaining complete conversion. I do an iodine test and get around 75% consistently which is acceptable to me doing a one step infusion. However, I am wondering if I can tweak my process and obtain better results by mashing thicker at...

I am fermenting a lager at 50 degrees right now. When is the diacetyl rest best performed. I think answer is right at the end of fermentation around the end of the 3rd week

Two questions: I am doing a lager this weekend using the following recipe: 5.0 lbs US 2 Row, 4.5 lbs Munich Malt & 0.5 lbs Cara Munich II. The thing is that I have a pound of Willamette and am thinking about doing a SMASH with it. Perhaps 1oz at 60 min and 1oz at 30...

I've been brewing since 1990, but took a long kid related hiatus and got back into the hobby about two years ago. The following are some reflections from my last 12 AG batches over the last 2 years and is posted as a thank you to all forum members and hopefully will serve to assist my fellow...