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A few months ago I posted my issues with three of my batches having off-flavors of being stale/clove/with a hint of sourness. In a way, it’s like the beer had a very sterile taste. The taste appeared in the fermenter where I hoped time would solve the taste after it was bottled and kegged. It...

Well, I don’t know where to begin or how to explain it. I had a great run of brewing pretty awesome beers this past fall/winter. But now I’ve brewed three beers this summer and they have all ended up with the same issue – Taste hint of sour upfront (reminds me of bret), turns to clove-like...

Background: Recently moved to a new house where we have well water running thru a water softener. The well water fluctuates between high nitrates and "normal" level of nitrates at the tap, so I've been shying away from brewing solely with this water. Mineral content is unknown. I've been...

I'm brewing up a duvel clone for a colleague and have a question surrounding the secondary process. Most if not all sources for a belgian strong indicate that there is a batch of yeast thrown into the secondary or to add 1/2 pound of sugar solution into the secondary in liue of the yeast? Is...

All - I just noticed there is a Gluten Free thread under the Recipe section of HomeBrewTalk. Maybe its been there a while, i'm not sure. I just started doing gluten free brewing for my wife and in-laws who are staving off gluten voluntarily. Would it be possible to start importing recipes...

I had a huge issue with Ubuntu 11.10 and only resolution was to install the new version, 12.04 (or re-install 11.10). I did a backup of important docs and a few files, but not sure if I included my brew target recipes/notes, etc. Where is the default brew target directory in Ubuntu? I'm...

One of the longest and worst chore for me after brewing all-grain is cleaning the mash tun. All that loose grain to pick up or dump, then wash out, then wipe down to make sure no loose grain bits are sticking around. Has anyone just dumped their grain bill into large nylon bags (5 gal paint...

Due to increasing time constraints, I was wondering if I could break up my regular brewing day into two days. I presume I would extract the wort from the Mash and instead of immediately boiling, I would store in a container or in the brew pot overnight. I would then brew the following night...

Always kegged and only issues I've had with sour/vinegar beer is due to poor fermentation. Since I've corrected those issues, I'm at a loss for this one. Kegged an irish ale and for the first time, I let it naturally carb with 2.5 oz of priming sugar for two weeks. Put it in the kegerator...

I decided that Labor Day was a good day to do my first AG batch. Novel idea, eh?. After reading throughout HBT and the AG sticky, I built myself a mash tun using a rectangular cooler and cpvc for the manifold. Got a big pot and the fun began. One thing I noticed, and should have done a...

Last year, on my 5th batch or so I had a problem with a Kolsch. Tasted very bad and was a sweet, urine/vinegar taste. Dumped it. Attributed to maybe the beer was too warm for fermenting (appeared to have a small krausen ring in the bucket) In December of last year, same thing happened with a...

I racked a pale ale one week ago. I was going to brew a cream ale and toss on the pale ale cake. One week has passed and I haven't brewed the cream ale. The yeast cake is in the fermenting bucket and has about 1/4-1/2 inch of beer on top of it. Fermenter is sealed with lid on top and...

So. Finally got around to making a make-shift stir plate (turned a coffee can upside down...curve on the bottom fits a flask perfectly!) Had all components except the potentiometer which I bought from radio shack. I have a power supply (550 mA) to a computer fan and when I plug it in with the...

Read the sticky on partial mash and thought it would be an easy way to step up from extract instead of going to all grain. Happy medium. This would be my 8th batch. Got the instructions from an AHS kit and matched up the steps from the sticky. Not much difference aside from the sparging...

The title of this post tastes similar to the Kolsch beer I tried earlier this week. Extract kit and this was my 5th batch. Fermented in primary for 4 weeks at 66-67*F. No visible contamination in fermenter. NOTE: OG and FG were spot on to the spec sheet. Racked into a keg, making...

This was my 5th batch and I modified a wheat beer recipe to include blackberry extract. Here's the happenings: After brewing, transferred wort to primary and added enough water on top of the wort to get to the 5 gal mark. Took a sample, then pitched yeast on top of a partial yeast cake...

Hello! Located in Central, IL (known as Southern Illinois to our Chicago friends), around Springfield/Decatur/Jacksonville. First, I'd like to thank a lot of people on here who have helped me successfully brew and keg three batches (brewed 5 batches total: one is completely finished off...

About to keg an Am Wheat beer and have been reading many posts on reusing the yeast left behind (following up with another Am Wheat). Read pros/cons of pitching on top of the cake. Some have stated that using a cup or two of the slurry from the cake works well. Using this slurry, is the wort...

Got a little bit of a dilemma coming up next week. Situation: have 2 kegs, one CO2 tank/line, and I'm a noob. One keg is full of last week's homebrew and hooked up to the CO2. I'm waiting on new regulator and splitter, which won't get to me for another 2 weeks. Next batch of homebrew is due...