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After what I thought was going to be a failure to end all failures, my dubbel actually fermented and didn't get infected. I tasted it and it tastes good but not quite as much belgian character as I wanted. I plan to add some amber candy syrup (homemade, of course) tonight to finish it up...

How do you guys brew in the winter and most specifically how do you cool your wort in the winter? Our hose will be shut off in the next two weeks but I don't want to shelve the hobby for 5 months. Is there a way to hook up an IC to a sink, or do you winter brewers just plunk it in the snow and...

Great info. But unfortunately everything that could have gone wrong tonight brewing did and I think ended up with my first real failure (live and learn!). Everything was going ok until it was time to chill. Went to hook up my IC to our neighbors hose (tight college space, we have to share) and...

So we put our strike water on the burner to get going and walked down the street to get a sandwich. When we came back, I was way over my desired 168 degrees so we let it cool. Finally when it got down we doughed in, but I never considered that a quarter of the water would have evaporated! The...

I cooked up a recipe for a dubbel this weekend and am planning on brewing this week and pitching onto my cake from a belgian IPA but am confused when to add the candy sugar. I plan on making my own but don't know whether to add it during the boil or straight into the fermenter. I've heard that...

I know I know I'm a pansy for even suggesting I re-cork it. That being said, its probably good to post before I take down the whole bottle. I'll give the yeast a shot, and if it's not what I'm looking for I'll chalk it up to experience.

Does anyone know if Trois Pistoles uses their regular yeast to carbonate or if they have a separate conditioning yeast? Just picked up a bottle and wanted to use the yeast for a dubbel I plan on brewing. Also, this is the first time I've bought a 750 ml bottle. Do I have to drink this all at...

I posted earlier in the week about a hefe that ended up with a much higher ABV than I intended. My question is about how long (if ever) does it take for these flavors to mellow out? I'm torn because I know that hefes are meant to be drank young but I don't want to drink this early (mostly...

Just out of curiosity, how many batches did it take before your all grain batches started tasting good. And I'm talking about "I hope you bought 12 of these " good, not just acceptable. I've brewed 5 and am just drinking the first 2 now. They're definitely good to me, and my buddies like them...

6 Months away from economics / political science BS from Northwestern University. All you engineers are giving me serious nerd envy.

I brewed a hefe a couple weeks back and accidently used a 6 gallon grainbill for 5 gallons, then proceeded to boil off more than I thought. What I got now is a beer that's about 6.2 percent abv. Just opened up and tried the first one. Can't say its particularly pleasant really. Alcohol-y...

Ahhh I'm at work. I'll hustle home to put those towels on. Don't want all that work to go to waste!

I just moved and don't have the new basement set up to store my fermenting beer so I've been storing it in the living room near a moderately bright window. My question is will this have an adverse effect on the beer if its there for a few more days? One of them is a cleared out, 2 month old...

I've seen it mentioned before that you can use generic iodine as a sanitizer. If I were in a pinch, how much would I want to dilute it by?

I had heard of this happening to people, but it had to happen to me until today. Bee Cave Porter blew the airlock right off my carboy 5 feet into the ceiling leaving a nice krauseny crime scene behind. It looked like an outtake from a tarantino movie or something. I guess I had to learn my...

I don't know to be honest - that's why I'm doing it. I haven't really experimented much and I'm willing to try even if I get something funky at the end.

White Labs Hefe, not Hefe IV or whatever the other one is.

Ooh that's great news. I'm going to mix strains. I'm putting a Belgian IPA on a Hefe Yeast cake then pitching fresh Abbey Ale yeast too.

So I was going to bottle today and rack onto the yeast cake, but turns out my friend tossed my StarSan while he was cleaning our place. Instead of risking it using bleach, i was going to try and go pick up some more tomorrow. The problem is I was going to mix the yeast cake with some Wyeast in...

I'm re-using the hefe yeast, so hop levels shouldn't be a problem. I've never mixed yeast strains and figured that a non-traditional beer like a Belgian IPA would lend itself to experimentation anyway.