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It was lots of fun, but with so many barrel-aged beers with about 10% alcohol, how could it not be?

Yesterday I went to Portland's 15th Annual Holiday Ale Festival for the first time. Wow they had some interesting stuff, and it was almost all high alcohol, oaked, and spiced. http://www.beerbrewingchronicles.com/Site/Portlandholidayale.html

I corrected my post, I must have misread something from a textbook (never fermented like that myself).

Perfect until the part about warming the fermented wort. After the primary, vigrorous fermentation at about 65F, traditional ale breweries cool it to 59F quickly to get the yeast to flocculate out, then hold it at 59 for a few days for the diacetyl rest. Of course the diacetyl rest occurs during...

Unfortunately it isn't an acceptable method because volatiles must be boiled off during the boil. However, some breweries use low pressure boiling to boil at lower temperatures and save some energy, but they still can't go too low on the temp.

I'd try the first. The yeast will generate some metabolic heat during active fermentation, so it'll probably be a little warmer than ambient air temps. To insulate it from getting too cold wrap a blanket around it at night. And keep one of those sticker thermometers stuck onto the fermenter to...

I'm so lucky being in my area (near Portland)! 50# sacks of great western 2-row and pale are only $30, sometimes a couple dollars less! And no sales tax! I don't know what shipping is but you could try my LHBS, mainbrew.com.

Yep there's kits with little bottles of the flavor compounds. You mix a tiny amount in rather flavorless beer, but as far as I remember you just smell it, but maybe you can drink some, but make sure it's OK first! Most "flavors" are actually smelled, not tasted on the tongue. When I did sensory...

The sanyo/kenmore fridge that I used supposedly works with towers. There's other articles online about that (somewhere!)

I just finished making a detailed, illustrated article about how to build a homebrew kegerator. http://www.beerbrewingchronicles.com/Site/homebrewkegerator.html

Or like what I did, but you might want to use a smaller bucket (people make fun of my big bucket with the little pump): http://www.beerbrewingchronicles.com/Site/Brute.html

That setup looks pretty good. There's no doubt that I went overboard, but I've got just about everything hooked up with triclovers. I guess that's the problem with triclovers, they only fit triclovers!

The best way I know of is to give the mash a stir before taking the temp, then stick the thermometer in at least a few inches, and maybe halfway between the centerpoint of the pot and the wall. The temp really can vary a lot in diff areas if you haven't stirred it.

There's really just iodophor and StarSan. Iodophor needs a 2 or 3 minute contact time and you have to fill vessels with it and wait, but StarSan can just be sprayed on so you need a lot less. I'm guessing some people spray on iodophor but that's really only OK for small parts and when you use a...

OK so I added this description to assure that wort is adequately (more or less) oxygenated: Most of the wort should flow down to the the level of the rising wort without overly contacting the sides of the fermentation vessel from the fantail to induce splashing that will further enhance oxygen...

I actually primarily used this stainless steel version http://www.beerbrewingchronicles.com/Site/stainlessfantailaerator.html And yeah, I've heard about using olive oil, New Belgium apparently does that. But I'm afraid I'll use too much.

This costs more than the pump (or about as much) but works really well and can be broken down for cleaning in seconds. http://www.beerbrewingchronicles.com/Site/triclampmarchrelief.html

Thought this might appeal to beginners since it's cheap and easy to use. I got the idea after reading in the British brewing textbook Brewing: Science and Practice that traditional British ale breweries aerated their wort by passing it over a fantail as it went into the fermenter...

Chill haze is caused when polyphenols and proteins combine at low temperatures. The polyphenols are from the barley and hops, the proteins from the barley. You need to use a fining agent to remove at least the protein or the polyohenols to prevent chill haze. Polyclar removes everything. If you...

This is how I saw Santa Fe Brewing oak in a bourbon barrel that somebody brought in who had been on a long rad trip (minus the rat that I mention). The barrel didn't leak. My question, is it likely that other similar barrels might leak? The barrel used still had a little bourbon in it so wasn't...