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Oh crap. My bad. Apparently I read it all except the very last line. Either way, I think it's time to start using my hydrometer float thing again. The pain of using it is minimal compared to the embarassment and loss from overcarbonated beer.

Overall, I'm leaning towards too little time in the primary. My theory: 1)There's heavy yeast action, a feeding frenzy 2)I see the action settles down and things get quiet. 3)I bottle 4)Things look quiet, but only when compared to the peak activity. Sugar is still left 5)Said sugar is...

I actually have the tools to measure OG and FG. I just never use them because it seems like a lot of extra work. I'll start using them to see if I can find the problem. I assumed it was an unnecessary step, as the beer tells me when it's done fermenting when it clears and the yeast drop to the...

Well, I thought my bottle bombs were in my past. But my latest batch is all bombers. Maybe you guys can help. My first bottle bombers were an amber, from a dry yeast packet. I noted that the yeast cake and movement took a while to settle, and the beer never fully cleared as usual. After they...

Sorry for the off topic noob question, but how did you you get from the 30 minute steep picture to the final product wort? My all grain mashes always stay like that first picture, they never get thick and sweet. I must be missing something, but I followed all the instructions.

I'm still learning the difference in hops, I guess. Any recommendations for learning quickly? It seems like I'd have to make the same recipe several times with different hops, to compare the difference. But, at 5gal a batch, I'd have to be quite the alcoholic or stockpile massive quantities of...

My recipe came out closer to an IPA than a Pilsner, despite only 30 IBU. Any suggestions on why? Is it related to trying to "stretch" my hops and get more IBU's per oz by boiling longer? -------------------------------- Basic recipe: 4.6gal, 1.5gal boil 60% eff 3.9% ABV, FG 1.01 SRM 6...

A good point. Regular yeast seems to take 24 hours before visibly fermenting, and that's with millions introduced in visible amounts. A few microscopic yeasts shouldn't be able to reach a population that shows activity for much longer. The temperature change is self explanatory, but can you...

I'm making a basic Pilsner for the summer. Since I finally got myself a house, and it came with an extra fridge, I decided to try a cold fermenting lager. I prepared the wort and added tap water to top it off at 5 gallons. I then set it aside at 70 degrees for a few days while I prepared the...

The tester batch was cold, but only 8 hours in the fridge cold. I usually do 48+ hours. Hopefully the rest won't be an issue. it was crazy how the sediment/yeast rose right up and shot to the surface. I thought it'd stay in the bottle and I could just pour out the clean top.

I have 24 bottles downstairs of a tasty brew. Well, at least the part that didn't cover the ceiling and my entire body. You see, it was a high sugar beer from my first attempts, and I naively bottled after only 2 weeks. Tons of sugar farting out C02. My tester bottles from the bottom of the...

Keep in mind your first beer. The first time we every had ANY beer, at age 14, 15,16...21, it was pretty terrible. Beer itself is an acquired taste. Most of us just drank it to get the job done. It's not until later years where you had a terrible day at work and just say "F this , I need a beer"...

Experimentation, mainly. I don't want 5 gallons of the same thing. I split it into 3 sub-brews. One is plain, the other is peel/coriander, and the third is a darker attempt with molasses and candi sugar, then some fruit spices. It's a gluten free attempt for my friend. I wanted to see if it...

It looks like my question answered itself. At 4 days later, I noticed the other two secondaries (with no added sugars) had a healthy froth up top. This tells me two things: 1) I switched to secondary too early. I should wait for the primary fermentation to clean up first. 2) I transferred...

I brewed in a 6 gallon carboy, and waited 2 weeks for it to ferment. It appeared to have stopped. At that point, I siphoned it into 3 smaller containers, to add flavors and make 3 distinct beers. I was careful not to include any of the bottom sludge or top yeast mess. One of the secondaries, I...

Sorry for the tease. No, not 10 gluten free beers. Regular ones. I'm not GF, my friend is. I'm just making one batch for him. The secondaries should be foaming/fermenting, right? Two of them are, but that dark one hasn't done a thing yet. I tried skimming some yeast from the others to get it...

I'm on it. I'm bottling 24 gallons of beer this month, but probably only drank 24oz. I gotta get back on the right side of the table. I have about 10 varieties of local small brews from different manufacturers, to see what kind of brews I like, and to get flavor ideas. Maybe your suggestion...

So, everything seems perfect except the molasses/dark portion. The molasses performed an optical illusion while pouring and I ended up doing 8 instead of 4 oz. It ended up 1/4oz Clementine peel, 8oz molasses, 1/4 lb dark candy sugar. How can I correct this? It's way too thick and sweet. I know...

So, here are my plans for tomorrow, we're at week 1, gonna split into 2 sub-batches: Primary (1 week, 5 gal) 1 pkt Wyeast (forget the variety, have to check notes) 1 can 3.Xlb white Sorghum 1 cup honey .75lb raw sugar Mt. Rainier hops Dividing tomorrow into: Secondary A, Dark (2-3weeks...

Sadly, I'm seeing it the same way, and I wrote it. I don't know much about homebrewing yet, but I'd highly recommend against salvaging underpants. Especially if there was an infection or uncontrolled yeast growth.