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Lately I've noticed a severe deterioration in my mash efficiency when I brew high-gravity (>7% ABV) beers. It seems to have gotten worse within the past year. Once I get up over 14 pounds of malt in the mash tun (for a 5-gallon brew), efficiency seems to take a nosedive. To give an example...

In cleaning out my basement I ran across a package of M&F ale yeast with a best by date of May 1998. Must've been from my father's homebrewing days. I'm sorely tempted to try brewing with it, just for the heck of it. Has anyone tried brewing with yeast that old?

I'm currently in my second year of growing hops, with two Magnums and two Mt. Hood. My Magnum rhizomes were larger and stronger, and threw up tons of shoots this year. I trimmed back to about six per plant, and they grew pretty quickly to about six feet. Now they've stagnated for over a month...

I tried making my first mead last night, using Lalvin 71B (Narbonne) dry yeast. I followed the instructions for rehydrating the yeast, but after 15 minutes it didn't look like any of the granules had taken up any water. I stirred it and there was no slurry. So I figured screw it, and dumped...

I brewed my first barleywine at the beginning of April, starting gravity was a little low at 1.087, and the yeast was S-23. I bottled on July 2nd, finishing gravity was 1.017. After a month in the bottle I opened the first one and was treated to a completely flat beer. So I moved the bottles...

For the last couple of brews, I have been having major problems hitting my target OG. Today I was attempting to brew a Tripel. Recipe was: 11 lbs Gambrinus Pale 0.5 lbs Rahr wheat 0.5 lbs Briess Bonlander 1 lb raw orange blossom honey According to Qbrew, for a 5-gallon recipe this...

One of the bines on my first-year Magnum hops stopped growing over a week ago. It's about 6" tall now and it looks like there's no longer a shoot coming up out of the center. There are also some lesions near the base. Is it okay to cut this and throw it away? The rhizome has one climbing...

I'm having trouble with my barley crusher. It started during my last brew where it would periodically stop crushing, but now it won't crush at all. I ground 4 pounds of grain this afternoon, then went to put in an additional 5 of base malt and nothing happened. The main roller will spin but...