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Anyone have a rule of thumb for viability of frozen yeast? I have heard 5% drop per week for active yeast, I would imagine freezing slows the degradation.. Maybe 2% loss per week is reasonable?

When it comes to thawing yeast from a frozen bank, I'm seeing conflicting information... Some say thaw it fast in warm water and pitch into starter ASAP. And some say let it thaw in the fridge for a few days before pitching into a starter. Is one better than the other?

I accidentally ordered the yellow Acid-Resistant Loc-Line instead of the blue and orange Standard hose for mash recirculation/sparging. Why the does the polyester max out at 150°, but has the same operating temp and a higher melting point than the standard? Is this polyester still ok to use for...

I've been playing with splitting 10 gallon batches to make two different beers. But, just using different yeasts and dry hopping isn't giving me a ton of variety in the kegerator. I'm planning on brewing 10 gallons of all base malt (20# Maris otter) about 30ish IBU, and splitting it into two...

First, My city water in Madison supplies my house from two wells, problem is, I never know which one the water is coming from. Seems as the chloride and sulfate levels have the most difference between wells. Is there any treatment I could do that would cover both water profiles? Second...

I've washed a bunch of other batches and have never seen this. This is the first washing from a fresh vial of WLP500. Two of my four jars are nice and smooth on top, the other two look like this. I am wondering if this is ok to thrown into a starter and use, or is that little mountain range...

This may be a dumb question, but I cant find an answer anywhere. I have a couple a three prong twist-lock plugs and receptacles with a rating of 120v 30A. Can each prong handle 120v? Being that there will never be more than 120v in any wire, Can I do 120v-120v-G for a 240v element? Or does...

Almost looks too good to be true. I run single tier three vessel system with one March pump. Its a PITA moving hoses all the time. Looking for something strictly for HLT to MLT transfers...

I scoured the forums and couldn't find any info on this exact method... I want to take a WLP vial (~100billion cells) and split that into 4 sanitized vials (~25 million cells each) and stick them in the fridge. Four days before brew, take one vial, make a 1 L starter to take it back to 100...

Would this work? The plan is mash in a bag in the kettle, pull the bag out and throw it in the funnel, then fly sparge using the ball valve to control water level. No manifolds to clean, no grain to try and clean up, just rinse the funnel and toss the already bagged grain. Thoughts?

My last three brews I've had trouble getting my wort chilled below 78deg with an IC. Is there any risk to pitching Chico at 78deg then putting the carboy into a 60deg ambient ferm chamber right away? Also, setting my ferm chamber to 60deg essentially guarantees my beer cant go below 60deg...

I have a 4500 watt element wired up with a 3 way switch, so it is either 4500 watts at 220v or 1125 watts at 110v. Question is, is this a rigorous of enough boil on the lower setting?

I'm planning on using 10# of fresh cherries in a stout that just finished primary. My plan was to heat the cherries from frozen to about 165*, mash them up in the pot, strain off the juice, and toss that juice into secondary after it cools. The question is, Will the juice alone be enough to...

Just built a temp controller for the keezer using a cheap JLD7100 temp controller. When i run Auto-Tune it seems to work, but when it finishes, it wants to kick the compressor on and off every few seconds. I just cant figure out how to keep it running until it hits a low setting, then shut off...

Its that time of year here in Wisconsin where it was 80deg Sunday and going to be 30deg this weekend. I have a cheap temperature controller that I use for the keezer and it works well, so i bought another one for my fermentation chamber. Since there are huge temperature fluctuations it would...

This pot is about $20 at a local supermarket. That steaming tray sits on the lip about 2" from the bottom, is there anything easy i could do with that tray to make it an effective false bottom? Could I just line it with screen or something? Otherwise its a cheap HLT...

I have been reading these forums for a while before i joined and, you people are the best. I'm new to the brew, have my first amber ale in the fermentor and brewing some wheat tomorrow, I am addicted. This is my new favorite site, and am looking forward to learning alot from everyone.

Is this dark stuff the hops that came up with the yeast? or someting else? It smells like bananas. It has a brownish/green color. Its an Amber Ale extract recipe with Wyeast Activator #1028. It has been fermenting for about 48 hours, first 12 hrs at 75deg and the rest of the time 67deg.

Hey everyone, first post! I've got a couple brews under my belt, but had a question about my next project. I am doing a 5 gal. extract kit of Hefe Weizen. My fiancée loves the Leinenkugels Summer Shandy. Can I split this batch in to 2 carboys for primary fermentation and just split my...