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I have 1 cup of 1469 slurry that’s about 6 weeks old. I figure I should do a starter, but I’m all out of DME. Would it be better to just pitch the slurry as is, or to try a starter using only sugar? I know they say not to use sugar, but would it really matter? The beer I’m thinking of making is...

It’s common for folks to make hop teas in order to learn about a new hop or to train their palate. I’ve recently started doing the same thing for yeast to learn more about what flavors the yeast brings to the party. When I cold crash my yeast starter and decant off the liquid, I drink it! Since...

I want to try no-boil brewing to shorten my brew day for days when I don’t have a lot of time. From what I’ve read, you don’t really need to boil to eliminate dms unless you are using Pilsen. So that just leaves bittering hops as the main reason for a 60 min boil. The plan: a day or two before...

I’ve made beer and cider but I have never made wine. I grew enough Concord grapes this year that I could possibly do a gallon batch. I hadn’t planned on making wine, so I boiled the grapes to get the juice. I now have 3-4 quarts of this. Is that a non-starter? The plan: add enough sugar to get...

I bought a stir plate with a heater, since I build my starters in the basement. Sometimes it gets too cold, and because I step up from slants, I don’t want the whole process to take forever. Well, it turns out the existing temp adjustment is pretty worthless. It goes from 0 to 11 with hardly any...

I got a marzen extract kit for cheap on AIH, but it looks like it won’t be dry enough. The kit is 7lb Munich LME, 1lb Vienna and 0.5lb caramunich. I plan to use 34/70, since I don’t have a temp controlled fridge. Any recommendations on how I can dry this out a bit? Would adding some sugar be an...

What was your all time, best brew ever? Rules: must be something that could conceivably be brewed again — no shaggy dog stories about that one time you found some mystery hops in the back of the freezer and it turned out to be incredible

My basement is sitting right around 72F, and I have no temperature control. I’m aware that all it takes is some ice in a bucket or a wet t-shirt to cool down a ferment, but there’s also something to be said for going with the flow. What would you brew at 72?

What is your favorite brand? I’ve mostly brewed kits so far, which means I have a hard time differentiating between brands of extract - different recipes and all. Anybody brew the same recipe with a few different brands?

It seems like one of the advantages of AG brewing over extract or partial mash is that an AG brewer can tailor the mash temp to adjust fermentability. So if I do a partial mash, I can have some impact over the 1-2 lbs of grain, but I’m still adding a lot of extract that I can’t adjust for...

Anybody ever try to make hop ice cream? It must be attempted.

Will a standard size 6 gallon bucket fit inside a 10G Igloo cooler? I’m looking for a cheap and low-clutter temp controlled DIY fermenter solution. As I see it, you need some good insulation to minimize how much cooling power you need. And it better be air tight if you don’t like...

I ferment in buckets and want to dry hop without opening the lid. My idea is to make a large syringe into a hop pellet holder that can mount air tight to the bucket lid — maybe using a rubber stopper. When it’s time to dry hop, I’ll mash the plunger down, releasing the pellets. Obviously need to...

I’m a homebrew noob learning to be a yeast rancher. I followed the instructions on inoculating slants from the sticky thread in this forum - so far so good. It looks like the usual way to create a starter from said slants is to use the entire slant. First question: what is a good assumption for...