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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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Two questions - First, if I'm going to pitch directly onto a yeastcake, what kind of timing do I need? Does it have to be immediately after I rack the beer from the carboy? Second, I'm thinking about racking a belgian IPA onto a Hefeweizen yeast cake and adding belgian abbey yeast too. Anyone...

So I made a starter intending to brew today before I left for a 2 week break. Turns out I had more things to do than I had planned, and won't have time to brew today. The starter is still going, what can I do with it? Is it wasted? I would hate to let 7 bucks of yeast just go down the tubes...

I can't seem to get my efficiency up. I got about 67% today and don't think it was because of the mill (got it from brewmasters). Could it be that I'm draining my runnings too quickly? I usually vorlauf then let it do its thing at full throttle. Also, I made a hefeweizen today and my mash was...

Anyone tried this combination? I did it unknowingly and am awaiting the results, wanted to know if there were some concrete results that people had under their belt. I'm worried I may not get the flavor profile I want.

I place dan order for malt, hops, and yeast but due to an unexpectedly low stock, I had to backorder the malt. The problem is, I now have two vials of yeast that I intended to use the day after i received them but will now likely have to store them for a week or two. Should I just fridge em...

How would I go about converting a commercial kegerator for homebrew use? Is there any way to use the existing CO2 line or would I need a new corny CO2 setup?

I'm thinking about getting a kegging system and starting to keg my beer. The problem is I don't currently have a dedicated fridge or kegerator to keep them in. If i were to chill the keg when I drank it and then allow it to warm up between uses, would the beer inside be adversely affected...