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Hi, For a long time now I've brewed with grain, but I'd like to do a few extract batches again. Is there a consensus on where one can find the best malt extract. I'm mostly interested in the flavor, but if it's cheap too I won't complain. ;) I'd much appreciate anyone's input. Thanks, Monk

I bought a FerMonster a while back and decided I'd like to add a spigot. It has a nice little target on it already. Has anyone punched a hole in their FerMonster? How did it work out? Did you drill it? It kinda looks like you could use a red hot poker of some sort... Thnaks

Hi Guys, I am planning on doing a couple Fuller's brews in the near future. To prepare for them, I'm sipping LP and ESB and I've noticed these two taste almost salty. I plan to use maris otter LME from NB ,but I think I should probably add some serious gypsum or something to the water...

Hey yo, Anybody seen a sparkler attachment for a picnic tap, or any other, for that matter? Just curious. I have a delicious bitter that I'm 4 deep into now and was dreaming of pouring it with a sparkler. franks, Monk

Jello Homebrewtalkers... I have 5 corny kegs and have used them gleefully for a while. Just recently I noticed that two of the empties have a ring of white residue around the inside, about half way up. It looks almonst like an abrasive ring. You can scrub it with a brush but it doesn't...

I've used a thermostat controlled freezer to ferment for years, but I always set it at ~62F. I want to be on the safe side, knowing that the fermentation will increase the temp of the liquid. I've not had any problems with that technique, but I don't know exactly what temp I'm fermenting at...

Okay, for real: do any of you clean your BB with a brush or other tool? And have you noticed any scratches? I'm having a terrible time getting the krausen ring off after each brew, even after soaking with PBW and swirling/shaking and putting a rag inside. I used to always soak my glass...

Hello, I've got an old carboy that I'm trying to clean up. It has a strange crustiness inside, particularly on the sides and bottom--almost looks granular and clear, like sugar crystals coating the inside surface. I've soaked it in water, also in bleach water (right now), and brushed it a...

My wife's Kitchenaid Standing mixer appears to have an optional grain mill. Has anyone tried to use one of these for milling base for an AG batch? It kinda looks like it might take forever to mill 10-12# of grain, but it's hard to tell from the picture. It would be great to hear from someone...

Hi guys, Building a keezer here. I've made my collar out of redwood and I'm ready to mount it on the freezer, but I have a question for those in the know: should I treat the wood with some kind of sealer, or just let the wood's natural defenses deal with the moisture. There's always a...

Craigslist $280 obo http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/for/1686278379.html

Yello, I just picked up a 3-tap brass tower at the swap meet for $20! Holy smokes! But it's kinda grimy. To get off the crap, should I soak in PBW? I also have the LLC stuff by Five Star. Once I get it clean, I'm going to hit it with the Brasso for some shine. Thanks in advance. Monk

Hi Guys, I'm thinking of buying a bunch of DME from an online place. I'll be using it for the majority of the fermentables in my batches. My question to you all is, do you think there is much difference in flavor between, say, Briess light dme and munton's light dme? I know there is a...

I just discovered, after some troubleshooting, that I have a stupid digital thermometer that measures about 5-6F higher than is correct. That means my last mash was only ~145-146F. I'm going back to using my old floating dairy thermometer. Anyone else had this experience? (Incidentally...

I've got a case of empties that I rinsed out a while back, but I've noticed they all have rings around the inside. Some seem to have a little residue all over the inside. Does this mean the previous beer was infected? Should I not reuse these bottles? TIA guys, monk

I've come to realize that one of the problems with my all-grain technique is that I'm not able to accurately measure the temp of the mash after I've mashed in. I never seem to hit the right temp, then I screw with it for a while and often end up with it being too hot or too cold. I use a...

I batch sparge and usually try to collect a preboil volume of about 7 gallons because most of my recipes are around 10 lbs grist. But I was wondering, if you are doing a very light beer, like an ordinary bitter, and the grist is only 7 lbs, would you stop sparging at around 5 gallons or so, and...

I'm not really new to all grain, but I'm still in the stage of learning quite a bit. I have a question regarding sparge volume: I just made a 5 gallon batch and got pretty good efficiency, for me. The grain bill had 9 lbs Maris Otter Pale malt 1 lb. Specialty I mashed in with about...

Hi guys, I just brewed a strong bitter on Saturday and came up with pretty low efficiency. I'll explain my method for anyone who might have some advice on how to improve it. My grain bill: 10 lb. english pale .75 lbs. crystal .375 lbs. Aromatic .2 lbs. Special roast My method...

6 oz. Crystal 60L 2 oz. Chocolate 1.5 lbs. American 2 row 6 lbs. Alexander's Amber LME .5 oz. Centennial (9.4%aa) 60 min .5 oz. Cascade 10 min .5 oz. Centennial 10 min .3 oz. Cascade 0 min .7 oz. Centennial 0 min Steep/mash the grains for 45 minutes at 152F, or so. Sparge with a...