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Has anyone come up with a modular brew structure which breaks down into separate components? I was thinking about how traditional brew structures need to be either really tall or really long or both to accommodate keggles or 10-15 gallon brew pots. It would seem advantageous for those of us...

Er... dunno how many of you have been watching the Olympics and have noticed the spring-like weather we've been having up here in Vancouver but my hops certainly have. I potted some transplanted Cascades at the end of the fall and they've already sent three shoots skyward at 5,4 and 3 inches...

I'm sure this has happened to many of you so I come to you in the hopes that you can give me some practical advice on how to handle this problem I have with a friend. My friend, we'll call him Bob, found out that I was a brewer and took a keen interest in the process. He wanted to get in on...

I have some unidentified black bugs on my hops. They are six legged with a long abdomen. I'm not sure if they are hurting the hops and they seem to be up high on the leaves rather than at the bottom of the bine like Spider mites. They certainly don't look like any aphid or mite that I've been...

The more people I meet who find out I brew and are interested in coming over to partake and learn from a brew session the more I realize that most people are only interested in the idea of brewing. It seems that every time someone finds out about me brewing they become super keen to get in on...

Take a look at this crush and let me know if you think it is too fine or not. Looks to me like the husks are torn in half a lot so maybe I should back it off a notch. At the same time, there seems to be a nice range of small to medium pieces of grain.

Heating the mash before sparging and really making sure it was up near 170F before lautering really made a difference in my efficiency today. I have been plagued with low efficiency (68%) in the past and have attributed it to the crush etc. I have a direct fire MLT so this time through I hit...

Is a high first runnings gravity but a low overall efficiency the sign of a poor crush? I have failed to achieve anything over 65% with my false bottomed keg MLT. I do conversion checks with Iodine, hit and hold my mash temps, stir my mash on a regular basis, calibrate my thermometers and...

I sweat welded up a hop strainer because the ball valve in my keggle was essentially useless even with whirlpooling. I used a male adaptor to a 5 3/8" length of copper pipe to a 90 Degree elbow down to a tee with two more 3" capped lengths in it. I drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom side of...

Necessity,or rather laziness in my case is the mother of all inventions. You see, I left my carboys with cleaning solution in them for two weeks and they just sat there festering in my brew shed uncleaned, unseen and unloved. Today I bucked up and went to clean them but that yeast line from the...

While making pasta with my pasta roller thingy: it occured to me that it may very well serve as a grain mill. Sure, it might not have a hopper and may not have large knurled rollers but it may work, right? If one were to hack off the crank handle so that it could be attached to a...

I hadn't calculated my brewhouse efficiency in a long time and had completely neglected it until my last 10 gallon batch. My LHBS proprietor always states what he thinks would should have to hit your Target OG (and it always seems a little high) and I've taken his word for it up till now and now...

Today I got up extra early and started my brew session after I had a coffee. My goal today was not only to brew a tasty 10 gallon batch of Pale Ale but to do so with minimal water waste having listened to the Basic Brewing Podcast on greening up your brew sessions. I filled my keg with water to...

Fly sparged keeping the level a couple of inches above the grain bed. I collected 6.5 gallons in my main kettle at 1.048 I then kept the sparge partying going by starting the main kettle boil and letting the rest of the wort lauter into my small kettle. I collected another...

Hit the hot break and kept on boiling for a good 15 minutes before adding any hops. Once the hops were all in, the additional wort was added and the boil was complete I cooled it all down to room temp in under 15 minutes with my immersion chiller. ... and I'm now happy to say...

I just read someone's comment of surprise in another post when the OP stated that they planned on mashing for a starter. I'd just like to give my account of doing this in this post so as not to hijack the other. I mashed for a starter for the first time two weeks ago. To date I had always...

I seem to recall someone on here saying they cut out the top of their keg with a Dremel. I tried to take the top off the other day with a cutting blade on my angle-grinder and gave up after fifteen minutes of not getting through it. What exactly did you use and how long did it take? I'm...

I've noticed something with all grain versus extract and steeped grain and that is that it seems to take longer to mature. Fermentation and bottle carbonation is the same but the beer getting to that perfectly mellowed and blended flavour seems to take twice as long (2 months - 2 weeks primary...

Can anyone tell me where I can find the part to connect the Weld-B-Gone Weldless Deluxe Plus ( http://www.northernbrewer.com/weldless.html part #7583 ) with a Sanke False bottom (http://www.northernbrewer.com/allgrain.html part #7524)? I know, I need a threaded fitting to screw into the...

For those of you who have installed your own plumbing on your Stainless steel mash tuns and kettles, what combination of fittings did you use? Here's what I was thinking: Mash tun SS ball valve w/ hose barb -> Through wall bulkhead (Northern Brewer #7589) with compression fitting end...