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I had some beers cellaring for a while at room temperature, but about a year ago someone put my beers in an extra fridge. Will it wreck them if I return them to the cellar, since they've been so cold for so long?

I'm planning to add sugar (10-20% of fermentables) to my fermenter, but it's nearly a week in there. Seems like I should be able to add without problems, but I'm wondering if there might be any issues adding so late in the game. Also, I let my temperatures ramp up after the initial...

I built another mash tun but the hardware store didn't have the nipple size that matches my tubing. I can easily buy the right sized vinyl tubing there, but I'm curious if it will be acceptable for lautering mash temp wort. My HBS says the vinyl I bought from them is fine, and I assume the HW...

I'm a few days after brew day and I was planning to add some sugar (~20% of total fermentables) now that the main fermentation thrust is over. I'm planning to yeast wash and re-use on this batch, as well. Two related questions: (1) Knowing that sugar can alter the "eating habits" of the...

I'm building a mash tun on a coleman xtreme 70qt cooler. Most of the directions call for a stainless steel washer on the inside in order for a tight seal. It is widely known that the 1/2" nipple will not fit through the SS washers (though the zinc ones will fit). I tried to get around this by...

I have a sack of 2row grains (uncrushed). It was not vacuum sealed nor is it particularly air tight. The sack is now about 2 years old. It's about 20 lbs left and I would prefer not to waste it if it's still viable. Can I still use the grains?

Moved to a new area last year and started brewing with new equipment. My process is a bit crappier than usual and have to make do with sub-par equipment (e.g., I use a coffee grinder to rip the grains). I bought a 50lb grain bag and have been using it all year. My first batch was great...

I want to brew tomorrow but have a lunch appointment that will cut the day up. Can't fit a whole brew session before or after, unfortunately. I was thinking of mashing before lunch, running, then returning for a boil after lunch. Any problem with letting the runnings cool before the boil...

I had success with my first use of Bretts and I would like to continue using them. I wonder about whether the common concerns of Bretts are more paranoia. For example, it is commonly advised to use separate equipment and not mix. I don't really want to invest in new equipment at the time...

I live in Belgium and there's an abbey near my home with wild hops growing around it (yes I know it sounds so Belgian). I have a batch fermenting and thought about siphoning off a bit into secondary while dry-hopping with these wild hops. The problem is I have no idea what variant of hops...

I have access to some candi syrup bottles. I'm not sure what the conversion from pure sugar is. Is there a handy way to calculate fermentability (e.g., counting grams of sugar)? I'd like to do it right, rather than just pour a bottle or two.

I racked off my yeast cake last Sunday but kept an inch of beer on top of it. I had planned to pitch on top of the cake right away, but I've been delayed a week. Will it still be good, or is the spoilage risk too strong?

I've been a California Ale fan for a while but thought I'd give the Duvel yeast a try. I split one of my usual all grain recipes into two fermenters and inoculated one with CA (Wyeast 1056) and one with Duvel (Wyeast 1388). Like an idiot, I forgot to label which was which. After 3 weeks in...

I recently tried a bottled homebrew that has been conditioning for 2 weeks. I refrigerated it for a few hours. Both the "youngness" and the short cooling time lead me to believe that a lot of yeast was in suspension. A lot of yeast was visible on the bottom of the bottle. The beer tasted...

I have a slightly smaller kettle than I'd like. It's the bottleneck of my process, that ultimately dictates my batch size. The actual volume of the kettle is OK, but of course, after an hour boil of evaporation and shrinkage, it gets smaller. I was thinking of solving this problem by...

Is there any reason not to fill a bottle under its capacity? For example, filling a 12oz with only 4oz of beer. Will it be too much oxygen?

I forgot to add gypsum to my brew during boil. Currently it's bubbling away. I thought about adding it to the sugar solution I add before bottling. Seems like theoretically it doesn't matter when salts are added (at least, after mash, where PH matters). Any thoughts or experience on this?

The coolers here suck, but I finally found one large enough for all-grain (~6G). Due to a lack of DME, I tried making an all-grain starter. I did this by basically scaling a normal all-grain, hop-less beer to the size of my starter (around 1 QT). What I noticed, and is probably obvious to...

I'm in a different country for some time, trying to keep my all-grain brewing active. In the US, I had a converted cooler with a stainless steal braid and copper tubing where the water spigot was. I brought my braid because it was a pain to make, but I have found that none of the coolers here...

I forgot to order DME for a yeast starter and my local "store" does not carry ANY extracts (only kits). I was hoping to do an all-grain batch this weekend, and my yeast is only the propagator packs. I had some ideas: 1) do an all sugar starter. I know this may select or modify the yeast...