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Hey guys, I'm in the process of building an ESB recipe and i'd like some feedback from people who have bewed good ESB's in the past. FYI im shooting for the end of the spectrum with regards to OG and ABV. Thanks 10 Gals: 20 lbs Maris Otter 1 lb Crystal 60 1 lb Carapils...

Hi guys. I designed an IPA recipe which came out really well except for the body/mouth feel aspect. The head retention was really good though. Actually too good. The initial foam was out of control. This may be because I added too much conditioning sugar though. Anyway, I had a trained...

Hi I am in the market for a good scale to use for weighing minerals to add to my tap water. I have one that I use for weighing hop pellets, but it doesnt do well weighing small amounts under a few grams. Can anyone recommend a scale for this that doesnt cost a fortune? Thanks

Hi, I am planning on brewing a session IPA pretty soon. I have brewed IPA's successfuly in the past and I altered my water chemistry by changing each the strike water and sparge water to the desired mineral levels separately based on their volumes using beersmith. It has worked fine so far but...

I am working on creating my own cream ale recipe using beersmith in preparation for a spring brew. I like cream ales, but I have only brewed one once before. It was a kit from midwest. It was ok but like most kits I felt it was low on hops. This is what I have so far for a 10.5 gallon...

I recently brewed an IPA that came out amazing, but I stupidly didn't record the water chemistry changes I made. I found the profile online, but now of course I can't find it. Can anybody recommend a water profile for a nice, hoppy American IPA? This is not an imperial. OG is 1.060 Thanks

I own 4 ball lock corny kegs and I have in the past just poured sanitizer in through the ball lock valves to clean/sanitize them. I am wondering if it is possible and perhaps a better idea to remove the valves temporarily from the kegs to sanitize them. Thanks

I just upgraded my mashtun to a 15 gallon Boilermaker (with false bottom and Blichmann burner) from a 10 gallon igloo cooler. I wanted to be able to add heat as I've had the problem of maintaining temps in the past. Unfortunately I had a very hard time getting to my target mash temp with the...

Hey guys, I brewed an IPA over a week ago (1/4). It had an OG of 1.063. I used white labs yeast and made a starter. I aerated the wort by shaking. Same with the starter which I did 2 days prior and shook that periodically until I pitched. The fermentation took almost 24 hrs to start and it...

Hey guys, I'm brewing a double IPA with an estimated OG of 1.078. I am going to ferment with Wyeast 1099. Beersmith is telling me that with a 1 liter starter I will only have 30 billion cells, but I need 317 billion so it will take 22 packages. Can this be right? What should I do? Thanks...

Hi, I am beginning to brew higher gravity beers and I am wondering if my usual method of shaking the carboy will be enough to oxygenate the wort. I really dont want to get invloved with renting an O2 tank and that whole bit. Does anybody have any alternative methods they can recommend? Thanks...

I have a boilermaker kettle with a dip tube. I use a wort chiller. When I'm done chilling and transfer to Carboys the dip tube initially picks up the cold break trub off the bottom. I usually dump this but I'd like strain it so I don't dump any precious wort. I'm looking for a cheap...

Hey I'm wondering if there is anybody from Long Island NY monitoring this thread. I'm looking for a water report or some advice on how much gypsum to add to my HLT. I have been having trouble with low body, low head retention beers and wondering if the chemistry is the cause. Thanks

I have been brewing for a couple years. I have recently switched to all grain and I have been brewing mainly kits and copied recipes. I would like to start focusing mainly on brewing IPA's because I love them so much. I'd like to start attempting to formulate my own recipe of an American IPA...

I have been using a GE carbon filter to filter out chlorine from my tap water. Around the same time I have been noticing my brews coming out with a light body and very little head retention. Can this be related? Thanks

I brewed the octane IPA kit from Midwest. The brew came out as a watery pale ale. It has absolutely no head and no hop quality of any kind. Believe it or not it is not bad it's just not what it should be. This was an all grain brew done with single infusion mash. We followed the...

I'm selling my motorcycle and hopefully getting around $2000 for it. I want to spend the money on a homebrew system. As it is now I have a basic all-grain set up for 5 gal batches. The brew goes way too fast so I'd like to move up to a 10 gal batch capability. I'm thinking of a 2 burner...

I recently bought a refractometer, calibrated it and calculated my brix correction factor. I am looking to eliminate the need for a hydrometer or at least minimize it. Can anybody tell me if I can use the refractometer to get an FG? I have read many different things and cant get a direct...

hey guys, do any of you know the minimum inside kegerator dimensions i need to hold 3 cornelius kegs? (not including the co2 bottle. I can keep that on the outside) thanks

My friend and I would like to eventually start brewing recipes as opposed to kits. I'm just wondering if you have to use only grain to do this or can you use extract as well. Mashing grain is something we'd like to eventually get into, but for now we are making baby steps and keeping it...