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So my next beer is going to be something a little weird. I want to do a sour saison, but am wondering what souring method I want to use. I want it to be a "quick" sour, so the usual methods of funk are out. So my options are doing a sour mash, or adding some unmashed grain to the fermenter...

Ok, so my wild bugs have been chewing through gravity like Pac-Man chews through little white dots. In two and a half months I've dropped from 1.018 to 1.008. The hydro sample tastes phenomenal, too. Is the addition of fruit dependent on gravity, or on timeline? If this follows the trend I am...

I'm just curious what a refractometer accomplishes that a hydrometer does not. It seems that you need to use a set of tables to correct a refractometer for alcohol content, which is another step in what is already a very simple process. I'm just curious what is better about them.

Ok, so I had bought a smack pack of Brett L for my first funk, but decided to only use my spontaneous slurry. I also have some 3711 in bottle dregs of the last saison I brewed. The smack pack was a little slushy when I brought it inside from my mailbox, so I need to make a starter to get the...

I have some great second year nuggets and second year upstate NY feral hops. Anyone up for trading off something a little less common? I'm really trying to get my hands on strisselspalts. Challengers, saaz, sterling and santiam are on the short list, too.

I wanted to brew up a brown ale with molasses for some reason, no idea exactly why. I thought the oakey quality cited for WL013 would mesh well with it, and used northern brewers for their woody quality as well. I was trying for something you could get at a Fleet Street pub back in the mid...

So I'm brewing my first funky beer later this week. After reading some stuff over at The Mad Fermentationist I'm going to use BM45 wine yeast to develop the jam flavors and leave a good amount of residual sugar for the bugs to use. I'm going so let that run until primary fermentation is wrapping...

So I for some reason bought a tube of 013 and find myself needing to brew something yummy and English. I figured a brown ale can never go wrong, and my previous experience with molasses in a sour ale were very promising. Here's the recipe: 9 lbs Pale Ale malt 1 lb flaked wheat 1 lb flaked oats...

Been a while since I posted, but I figured I'd put this one up and see what the consensus is. It's a catch-all recipe to use up some random bits I had to make a kind of pale ale base beer. I hopped it moderately and added ginger, orange zest and lemon zest. Something spicy and citrusy to chase...

I am just curious why so many pre-order and order from places like northern brewer and midwest supplies. It just seems to me that it would be better in every conceivable way to order direct from a farm. Do the homebrew suppliers offer something extra that ordering direct from a farm doesn't?

It seems to me that if you are bottle conditioning, then cold crashing before bottling would be pointless. I figured since the beer will cloud back up during the carbonating fermentation, it would be easier and make more sense just to chill your bottles of beer a couple days before drinking. Is...

I don't know what it is, but I just can't bring myself to use pelletized hops. It rubs me the wrong way, much like the thought of brewing anything but starter wort with extract. Is there any real benefit to using pellet hops besides the ability to have some semblance of aroma left after over a...

I just picked up a lb of NBs and a lb of Willamettes from HopsDirect, and have never used either of them. What other hops play well with NB and Wilamette? What styles are NB known for besides California Common?

I am getting a 50lb sack of Munich in a couple weeks, and am planning on brewing a SMaSH to see what it can do. I figure I'll use Crystals since they are the most noble hop in the stable right now. The question is, what yeast should I use? My basement is holding a steady 46 on the concrete right...

So I have a big grain order coming soon, so of course I am low on almost everything. I had a need to brew today, so took inventory of what base grains I had... Not much. I had seen the Longshot winner Cranberry Wit, and figured I had enough to make an attempt. I ran to the grocery store and...

Anyone know what commercial strain is closest to Ommegang's strain?

If a mash and resulting wort are never brought above 160 degrees, will the diastatic enzymes ever denature? Will they continue to slowly chew through dextrines and unfermentables until there is nothing left to chew through over the course of weeks or months?

So I let a Berliner run for 3 weeks in primary and just bottled it two days ago. Is there going to be any issue with it carbing up in the bottles with the yeast sitting at such a low pH for an extended period? The beer was delightfully sour, like a glass of fresh lemonade.

So my father lucked into a spool of flexible gas line by happy accident. It's ribbed stainless with a yellow plastic wrapper, 3/8" ID, and all of .010" thick. It doesn't hold a wide bend very well since it is so thin, so I had to use copper wire to tie it to itself as I wrapped it. It's 1/2" OD...

Has anyone done a lactobacillus fermentation with anything besides a Berliner Weisse? It makes a sour beer without the level of commitment that the rest of the bugs require. I'm curious why I only read about it being used in Berliner...