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I've been brewing for a number of years now and recently upgraded to a 20 gl stout tank system. I've used the system 3 times and my Sparge seems to be inefficient. Hoping for some ideas on how to fix it or a suggestion from other Stout tank users. Here are links to the mash tun and sparge arm I...

It's coming up- National Homebrew Day! I am brewing at my LHBS with 5-6 other homebrewers. I just got an upgrade to a 20 gallon system so my plan is to max out the mash tun and pull 5 gallons off for a barley wine to be oaked in an Hungarian 7 GL barrel and partigyle a 10 gl pale ale with the...

Hi all! I asked for a bunch of tools for Christmas and got one of these from my Dad. I am wondering if I can use it on my malt mill or if I'd burn up the motor. If it's not a good 'engine' for my malt mill, I'd love suggestions. I received 2 drills for Christmas and one is going back- so...

I have been layering my dry hop additions- 1 oz just after fermentation and 1 oz a week later. Essentially the first addition is in the fermenter for 2 weeks but I haven't noticed any vegetal flavors in my beer. I am using pelletized Falconer's Flight 7 C's though so maybe that may have...

Sierra Nevada did a tap takeover at a local pub and had something like 70 taps. My wife and I were able to try a lot of beers on tap we had not seen before and found a few styles that we did not think we liked, but absolutely loved. Sierrandipity in particular was an English Bitter. They had 2...

Hi All! I have been suffering from efficiency issues lately and there are only a few things I can think of left to try and change. One of them is transferring the mash to a pot with a false bottom prior to sparging- I know "Why not mash in the pot with the false bottom?" I am going back to it...

Let's say I have a 1.042 wort going into the boil and I know my system boils off about a gallon per hour; How long would I need to boil my wort to get a specific gravity of 1.060?

I have one but figured I would pass this along for those who want to buy hops in bulk and reseal. I love mine and it is pretty handy. I bought one of their cheapest ones a year ago and a couple of rolls. I still have bags and get offers from them all the time for rolls that are inexpensive...

Afternoon! I took a chance on a year old smack pack of cider yeast. I smacked it and it has been on the counter for a few days. The bag never swelled. Is it worth it to make a starter to see if the yeast is still viable or would the smack pack have been enough to tell me there is not any...

I brewed a lager over the weekend and left my sample I took for the OG on the counter for a few days. Yesterday SWMBO pointed out the we had some pretty active fermentaion going on the counter and I didn't pitch the yeast in the sample. There was a nice krausen on top and a ton of activity. I am...

Hi all! I brewed yesterday and my efficiency dropped from 75 % to 54 %. None of my processes changed; mashed at 153 for 60 minutes, fly sparged with 180 degree water, cooled to 68. I checked my hydrometer and it is calibrated. The grain bill was mostly wheat so should I have mashed longer...

Afternoon all! I had a very bad brew day outside a month and a half ago. Long story short; it started raining so I had to move everything inside during my mash on a cold(ish) day. My Mash Temp started to drop and I lit my turkey fryer to bring my temps back. As I moved everything inside, I...

Morning- Heard that Billy Busch is going after AB with Kräftig. Anyone try it yet? Billy Busch taps Anheuser-Busch vets for new beer company - St. Louis Business Journal

Morning all! So it's my daughter's birthday and we traveled from central CA to San Diego to celebrate with family tonight. SWMBO said we could hit one brewery for lunch since we are celebrating our daughter's birthday the rest of the time and I know there are a ton around. Can anyone point us...

Hello all! I tried my hand at an Allagash White clone. I used BeezBrew's all grain as a base and changed it based on what the LHBS had in stock here's the recipe I eded up going with: Fermentables: 6.25 lbs. Pilsener Belgium 1.50 of lbs. Flaked Barley 2.75 lbs. Wheat Malt America...

Hello all! I don't bottle much but I recently enetered the county fair (did pretty good too- 2nd and two 3rd place entries :mug:). During that session I bottled all of my beers after sanitizingin oxiclean then spraying them down with starsan. I used the same solution for everything and let...

Afternoon all! I would like to try my hand at mead making but I am not sure if the recipes I see are calling x # of lbs of honey by weight or by volume. Might seem like a silly question and I hope I don't get flamed for it... But if you think about it, 1 lb of feathers wouldn't fit into a 16...

On my second Lager (Many ales though) I keep the temp by submerging the carboy in about 6 inches of water (just below where I put the thermometer) in a styrofoam ice chest and keep the water cold with ice packs I have accumulated from numerous shipments of yeast from homebrew shops. It worked...

Afternoon all! So I have had many ups and downs with brewing but a buddy of mine suggested that I dump an entire Rogue in my wort after cooling since they naturally carb their beers and I would be able to use their yeast. He said it would take a bit before the yeast took off but it should...

My last 4 batches have attenuated very poorly. Prior to this I was averaging about 75% attenuation. Could be the winter months but I keep my brews in an insulated closet with a space heater set at 65 degrees and the door is insulated as well. My last failure was the best laid plans (however the...