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The ambient temp. in my apartment is generally around 75 degrees. The optimal temp. of the yeast I use to brew my ales is 70 - 74 degrees. In the past, I have covered the carboy with a wet towel and used an ice tray to bring the temp down 2 or 3 degrees. The beers have been fairly good, but the...

I need tips for cooling my wort. I just brewed a 3 gallon batch with a 1/2 gallon boil added to 2 1/2 gallons of cool water, and I could not get the temp down to 78 degrees to pitch the ale yeast. After an hour in a cold water bath I just gave up and pitched the ale yeast at 85 degrees and...

Did some bottling last night, but added way too much DME for priming. I was making a 2 gallon batch to finish off some spare DME I has left over from a previous batch. I had planned on using just under 1/2 cup of DME for priming, but I added 2/3 cup instead (too many homebrews before I...

I'm brewing an ordinary bitter. The recipe I used has an OG of 1.036, but my OG was 1.050! (Yes, I adjusted the SG according to the wort temperature). I added a little more DME than the recipe called for. Will the higher OG have any negative effect on my beer's taste? Do I need a longer...

Vodka or water - which should I use in the airlock? Do I need to user a sanitizer in the airlock water, or can I simple boil the water for 10 minutes? I've brewed three batches to date, and I've been using tap water in the airlock without adding any sanitizer to the water. So far, my beer...

Hi, I don't have the space for 5 gallon carboy in my new apartment, so I plan to use a 1 gallon glass carboy now. How do I convert a 5 gallon recipe for a 1 gallon batch? Do I simple divide the ingredients by 5? Will this work for the hops? Are there any other factors that I need to...