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I just helped my brother brew a coffee stout kit. I was surpised by the amount of coffee grounds included. The directions said to to rouse the yeast "when ever you feel like it". The stuff looks delicious, but I was wondering when would be the right time to drink such stuff. Breakfast seems a...

I just got through making a batch from a recipe of mine. It is supposed to be a pretty big English Brown ale. After I was done (doh!), I ran the ingredients through a recipe spreadsheet (http://brewery.org/) and what I made was a seriously underhopped Brown. OG of 56 with barely 15 IBU (1/2oz...

Thought I would pass along a simple tip for telling when your bottled batch is ready to drink: Fill 2 or 3 clear glass bottles when bottleing. This way you can monitor the conditioning by looking at the beer. I use Newcastle Brown clear glass bottles as I drink a lot of this stuff. When the beer...

Could some kind soul with some spare time and a fancy computer program check my math on the predicted OG on this recipe? 2 lb British pale 2 row 2 lb Victory malt .5 lb crystal (60) .25 chocolate .25 English Brown 1 oz Black Patent 4 lb LME At 65% efficiency on my mash step into 5...

I'm helping my brother rack from his primary tomorrow and I want to get some of his yeast. The problem is I won't be brewing until the day after. I was thinking of putting about a tablespoon of the trub into a starter, leaving it out all night and pitching the next day. This is an active yeast...

Found a great new gadget for mashing/fermenting today. It is a digital thermometer on a 2 foot long braided steel cable. It has a 12 inch long steel probe which can be inserted into a mash tun (or anything else) and all for only $19 bucks. Not only can you get a remote temp readout, but you can...

I'm trying to dial in a beer of mine and would like to get some ruby red color to the brown. I know you can use Melanoidin Malt to achieve this but I have never used this stuff before and have no idea what kind of taste it is going to contribute or at what amounts for a subtle red coloring...

Probably a tough question to answer, but what is the general rule of thumb of grain to DME to get equivalent fementable sugars? I'm guessing it is around 3:1grain to DME. Figure on a crappy efficiency of 50 to 60%. I suppose it also depends on the type of barley malt, but what about a regular...

I brewed an ESB some weeks back and got the worst chill haze I have ever had. Totally clear in the bottle at cool room temperature, but clouds up at 38 degrees. Now I know that it doesn't have any effect on taste at all, but it disturbs my guests and gets on my nerves. The stuff tastes great...

I'm trying to improve a nut brown ale kit that I have used and gotten good results with in the past. A pretty straight forward recipe for a medium lower gravity beer that goes down smoooooth and easy. However I'm looking for those subtle nutty/toasty notes on the finish which this recipe lacks I...

Just got done with my latest "ESB" and I was trying to explain what an ESB was to my brother when I realized that ESB is not really a strict "style" but a brand type of ale (Fullers and others). I have been unable to locate a strict style interpretation of prototype ESB. Can anyone link to one...

Ok. My brother was skeptical about brewing his own beer, but I talked him into doing it and bought him a high quality extract/mash kit (Porter) for his birthday ($30 bucks) from a reputable supplier that I have used and never had a problem. I said he could use my equipment. So. I go over to...

Quick question: Does everyone just pour all the contents of the cooled wort into the primary or do you "decant" off and leave the solids (grains, spent hops, etc.) from the brew boil behind? I have done it both ways, but I always tried to leave or strain out the hop residue when I used to use...

I wonder how long people wait until they check that new beer in the bottle? Days? Weeks? Months?

This is how I feel sometimes when homebrewing...

I have been struggling with really low temps while fermenting with start and stop fermentations. Below is a picture of a film that has formed on the top of the wort in the secondary. I transferred a little early from my primary to my secondary (4 days). The beer has been in the secondary for 12...

I was thinking the other day while cleaning up after a particularly taxing and messy batch, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a servant come in and take over all the cleaning chores". It would go something like this. My assistant, James, would be a dignified Englishman like somebody from Upstairs...

Reading all these threads on racking and bottling has started my beer paranoia nodes to going. The way I was taught (and it has been awhile) was that you were supposed to get your beer off the trub and into a glass secondary as soon as possible. The reason for this was supposed to be two...

I've noticed an interesting, somewhat disturbing fact that many, if not most of the posters on this forum are men. Don't women do homebrew? I would think that making homebrew would appeal to women who like good food, good times and the finer things in life would be into this fascinating hobby...

My next beer will be a "Nut Brown Ale" using "Samual Smiths Nut Brown Ale" as my target. (If you have not tried this beer or have not had one lately, get in your car, drive to your local beer store right now and buy one. It's so good it might bring tears to your eyes. Check out that finish...