Search results

Hi all Once upon a time I was a homebrewer who stored his grain in 5 gal buckets with gamma screw lids. 3 plus years later and two kids I am wondering what I should do with this 3 year old grain. Just dump it in the yard, trash, or brew with it. Anyone have experience with old grain or grain...

Hi all, Sadly over the past two years I realize I have no time for the hobby now that we have started a family. I am looking to sell all my all grain and miscellaneous brewing gear. I am wondering if it's best to try and sell the whole set or piece it out. Hopefully I will get back into the...

Hey is there any reason why I can't use 1/4" copper tubing with a cap as a temp thermawell in my fermenter? It fits beautifully in the carboy hood/caps. I bought a hood with thermawell from morebeer but it doesn't fit my probe. Thanks for your in put.

and I wasn't even drinking, just not thinking. This was a chocolate milk stout and I lost track of what I was doing and before I knew it I had already run about 2.5 gallons of my stout through my cooler and into the carboy only to realize I never emptied the gallon or so of star san out. I guess...

Hi all, I thought I would share. I attempted my first self designed recipe a few months back and finally got it on tap this past week. I will post the recipe below. 7 lbs 2-row 2 lbs Black Barley 2 lbs Chyrstal 80L 2 lbs Flaked Oats 1 lbs Roasted Barley 2 oz East Kent Goldings 2 Packs of...

Hi All, I recently brewed a stout and its more bitter than I would like due to the roasted barley I added. Could I balance this by adding raspberry puree or a few vanilla beans during secondary fermentation? It's going to be drinkable but I want it to be be less bitter. My Stout recipe as...

Hi all, I have been all grain brewing with precrushed grain up until now and have always been very close to the suggested SG. However yesterday I milled my own grain for the first time with a Corona mill. The recipe suggested a SG of 1.065 but I hit 1.050 (water temps and volume were all spot...

Hi all, I found this morning that a newly filled keg carbing under 10psi in my 68 degree basement was leaking through the beer out post. This is a used Challenger 5 keg and when I received it it held pressure. Upon receiving it I took all the post and gaskets out and cleaned them then...

So after moving to all grain and full boils I found my copper IC didn't exactly fit well in my keggle and this made chilling the wort to yeast pitching temps long and tedious. So I finally made the plunge and bought some soldering equipment and converted my IC to a CFC. Wow what a difference. I...

Hi all, I have three brews all fermenting away. One a stout had a pre-pitch gravity of 1.059 and fermented down to 1.033 and there it has sat. Should I repitch new yeast to see if it will go down lower? It has been a month in primary. I pitched a yeast starter so I know the yeast was good and...

Hi all, Has anyone ever converted to a counter flow from an immersion chiller? I know you can make your own but wonder if the copper will stand up to be bent out of a coil and then back into a coil. I am very interested in converting since my IC doesn't cool wort nearly as fast in my keggle...

Hi Folks, I have John Palmers book How To Brew and just completed by second all grain batch. I am interested in figuring out my efficiency but I am unsure how to calculate it. Do I need software to be able to know the potential of my grain bill? I had a preboil gravity reading of 1.034 with...

Very excited to try this method of homebrewing. I will be doing a Black IPA from NB. Until this point I have always done partial/mini-mash. I am curious as to the process. A bit worried about all the math necessary to get my final boil volume but I guess practice makes perfect. Cheers to any and...

Hi All, So rather than go to my LHBS I was thinking about using a yeast cake from a red ale I have ready to go to secondary. Any experience with using a different yeast strain for different beer? I have the san francisco lager yeast in a starter and it just doesn't look alive after 24 hours. My...

Hi Folks, I work at a small private school that depends not only on tuition dollars but fundraisers to help pay the bills. Each year our parents association puts on a big auction. I was thinking about offering up a day of brewing and the beer that results as an item but am not sure if this is...

Hi All, I was working on installing the ball valve and 10" false bottom from HomeBrewStuff.com. I drilled my spigot hole a tad high and now I need to re-bend the diptube to make it through the hole in the false bottom. Any suggestions on how to do this. It appears a standard metal bender by...

I brew exclusively through kits (AHS, NB, MW, and local HBSS) and up until now have always done partial boils with my partial mash kits. But I want to do a full boil since I have the capacity and I hear the beer tastes better. Here is my question, why can't I just mash with more water to get...

Hey all, I brewed a partial mash recipe yesterday from MW supplies for a Dubbel. I used my new DIY mash tun for the first time and although I was a bit low on my strike temps I still came out with a SG of 1.060. I don't think this is a bad thing but what could have contributed to this? My water...

Hi all, I have a co2 cylinder bracket at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230561339150&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123#ht_500wt_1156 at the ebay listing above. I wanted to HBT community to be aware in case someone is looking to pick one up cheap. I bought it but couldn't use it.

Hello all, Well this hobby of homebrewing has taking rapid control of my nervous system. I wanted to here your thoughts on conical fermenters vs carboy. If you take money out of the equation, what are the benefits of CF vs carboy and what are the drawbacks. I have seen some great deals on CF...