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It's way too early to determine whether there are going to be off flavors. Fermentation always smells funny. The smell has been referred to, on here, as rhino farts. I'd leave it alone for awhile. Isn't four lbs. of honey a lot for a five gallon batch? I'm not criticizing! I've used three lbs...

I found it at Hy-Vee Wine and Spirits. Hy-Vee is a big grocery store chain here and they have a pretty decent liquor section. If you meant what town, I live in Mason City.

After 15 months of brewing and trying to enjoy new styles, I can now appreciate and enjoy IPAs. They used to be too hoppy and bitter. But my tastes have changed enough that the last few weeks I've had Big Sky IPA and Goose Island IPA. Both were pretty good. Now I'm wondering what to brew.

You know, I've read other posts on here about people talking about doing this. I'd really be interested to hear if they did it and how it turned out. Let us know. Personally I've had one experience with the ghost pepper and I'm now scared to death of it. But I do love habaneros.

OK, man. Do it how you want. There have been multiple people in this thread alone that said the blowoff bucket SHOULD BE LOWER. If you elevate the blowoff bucket, you are asking for trouble. And this is MY two cents, which is worth exactly one cent.....;)

You should elevate your carboy above the pot or you could get some of that water sucked back into your beer.

Other than beer, I make meatballs and red spaghetti sauce from scratch. We grow most of our vegetables, and I've begun toying with different salsa recipes. We also made our children...;)

5 gallons of SNPA clone = 8,617.

Perfectly normal. I know that most here will tell you not to use a secondary, but I do and an auto siphon will help you keep that stuff out.

Drinking a homebrew to your speedy recovery revvy. Hope to see you back here soon.

I enjoy the hydro samples.....what I don't like (and this may sound strange because I do like the hydro samples) is the flavor of the beer after bottling up until around four weeks in the bottle. It tastes very green and it makes me more nervous than anything when I drink it. But I usually...

I'm two hours north of you, in Mason City. I get my stuff from Midwest in Minneapolis. BUT I have heard that you have a very good LHBS near you in Des Moines calld Beer Crazy. At least I THINK that was the name. There are a couple of other people on here from your area that have posted about...

A month ago my resolution was to go AG in 2011. I decided against that right now because of the $$$$ to upgrade and the time factor. BUT I have resolved to keep to more of a schedule, to not HAVE to buy beer, and to begin using yeast starters. I won't ask for any tips as I am aware of how to...

^^^+1 on the autosiphon.

My SWMBO also dislikes the smell. That and the fact that I took up too much room in her kitchen were my big selling points on getting the turkey fryer and brewing outside. This could work in your favor.;)

I apologize for the thread hijack here. But twice I have steeped grains from room temp up to 155 and let sit for 30 min. Both beers have ended up with very low FG's and tasted very dry. Could this be the reason? Out of all of the beers I've done those are the only two that I've really...

As for the brew pot, if you plan on doing a full boil (boiling all of the wort at once) you'll want at least a 7-7.5 gallon pot. If you're going to do a partial boil (boiling a smaller volume and topping off at the end) you can use a smaller pot. Just make sure that your pot is bigger than the...

I really wanted to have a pumpkin ale and a good holiday brew ready for fall and winter this year. I broke my foot in late August, had surgery, and didn't walk again until late October. Needless to say, that schedule went out the window. For 2011 I want to do a hoppy pale ale in time for...

1. Autosiphon 2. Propane Burner (full boils) 3. StarSan Tomorrow will be one year to the day of my first batch. Even though I'm still brewing with extract, these three things have made the process a little easier and I'm convinced that better beer has also resulted.

Thanks msa. That's a good point about not needing the HLT if I plan on batch sparging to start. I still have some thinking to do. I really appreciate everyone's views. They are a HUGE help!