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It's in a converted chest freezer, snoozing comfortably at 68 degrees. Also.... at risk of derailing my own thread... the sonofagun is indeed still bubbling once a minute or so. After FIVE WEEKS. I'm using WLP 500 Trappist yeast, and there was plenty in the Coke bottle I had it stored in from...

Long story short, I'm brewing with honey for the first time (2.5 lbs. of it along with 7.5 lbs. DME in a 6-gallon batch, been 5 weeks now), and wanted to make certain it was fermented out before bottling. So I gently stirred it up with a sanitized spoon. How long should I wait for the yeast...

I have no idea what's in Munton's. I actually don't use them anymore; went back to plain old table sugar just because it's cheaper and more convenient. There's a ring of yeast sediment in each bottle. I just turned each bottle a couple of times to stir things up, and saw tiny flakes of the...

Yes, they've been stored above 70 degrees. They've been sitting in the corner of my bedroom for six months. No, there isn't a lot of yeast sediment, but there is a *little.* I can see it on the bottom. So... if I put carb tabs or sugar, either one, into already-carbed beer it'll start foaming...

Almost-freeze the yeast...? Won't that kill the little buggers? What constitutes a 'boilover' in a 22 ounce bottle? I'm sorry, but I'm having trouble deciphering your advice.

I laid down a batch of Trippel back in February, and have sampling a bottle a month as a sort of special treat to myself. It is really starting to come into its own now -- smooth and rich and plummy and delicious, with no trace of alcohol heat that was evident earlier. I think I'll make an...

2nd update: Part of the problem was a leaky lid. I spent a whole three bucks and got a new one yesterday, sterilized the hell out of everything, and stuck it on... and within a minute the waterlock was gurgling merrily. The krausen was gratifyingly high as well -- great big thick sudsy thing...

Update: Bumped the temp up to 68 last night and just now took a peek. Water in the waterlock was at half-mast.... no active bubbling so far as I could see, but there *was* a nice healthy krausen. I guess it took off overnight. Thanks for the help, gents.

Didn't know that. Did I kill my yeasties....?

Just got a scratch n' dent chest freezer set up with a digital thermostat, and thought a good way to break it in would be with a good cool-fermenting ale. Got the wort cooled, pitched my yeast... let it sit out for a couple-three hours, and the vial felt room-temp to the touch... same as I've...

Yes, I am sure it is from the temp. The last couple weeks I couldn't see the temp on the stick-on thermometer, so it was sitting there at 80+ degrees. The first few days I know I kept it in the low-mid 70's. I'll do as you say and stick it in the closet and forget about it until around...

Long story short, we had a hot spell recently while I had 5 gallons of English bitters perking away in the garage. I put it in a plastic tubby with ice and (tried) to keep it cool, but the SWMBO objected to me constantly depleting our precious ice supply, so it got preeeeetty warm the last...

My thanks. Now all I need to do is unearth the instructions on how to splice a computer fan into the innards of a chest freezer....

I have a fine deal pending on an old chest freezer, and with the thermostat installed I was figuring on just setting it at about 58 degrees and using it as my all-purpose miniature root cellar. Plenty of room for two buckets of lager or kolsch ale, plus some sausages or hams hanging, plus a...

5 lbs. pilsen DME 2.5 lbs. white wheat .25 lbs. Special B 1 oz. Hallertau White Labs WLP400 Belgian Wit 4 lbs. pulverized Granny Smiths in secondary Carb with a full cup of table sugar. This is one of the earliest beers I made -- and it started out as an accident. I wanted to make a...

Started a batch of Belgian Saison a few days ago. After several days of battling the NorCal heat with wet towels, ice water, etc. I gave up and brought it inside. As I did so, some water splashed on the lid. After I put the bucket down, I kept an eye on it. Sure enough, there is a ring of...

/raises hand None of the 19th century sources I've found mention *boiling* the molasses -- just draining your wort on it while it's still hot. A modern brewer would simply heat up the molasses a bit to make it runny, dump it in the bucket, and drain the cooled wort on it. Same effect. Doesn't...

There's a good several inches of head space in my brew bucket, but this WLP400 Belgian Wit yeast is so potent that it's blowing half-fermented beer up into the first elbow of the water lock. Half the water has been blown out all over the lid of the bucket, and what remains is a sort of light...

Now why the h*ll didn't I think of that...? Thanks for the tip, man. If it ever so happens again I get stuck making brew indoors, I'll remember that.

I actually tried this once, a few months back when the weather was crappy and I couldn't make brew outside. I did it on the stovetop and dumped a solid block of ice from 7-11 in the wort to chill it, along with about a gallon of ice water the ice'd been sitting in. I reasoned this would replace...