Search results

I've been brewing for about 8 years. Been doing gas stove top brewing the entire time and having excellent results. Just bought my first house, and my new kitchen won't have a gas stove (and I refuse to do brewing on an electric stove!). Though I want to convert my kitchen to gas eventually...

Does anyone have any experience with the "Cultures for Health" Kombucha starter? I've read some forums online that suggest this style of SCOBY isn't good. Any experience here?

I've got a BrewJacket (homebrew lager tool) I'm looking to sell. I'm selling the whole thing: the immersion tool, the insulated jacket, the carboy, and the cleaning solution. I've only used it once and it works great. I just realized I don't use it all that often and I'd like to try upgrading a...

First Parish in Brookline (MA) is hosting their second annual homebrew festival on October 17, and homebrewers of all levels are welcome to participate. The registration period is now open. Interested participants should fill out the online registration form to register their beer...

First Parish UU in Brookline, MA is hosting their first ever homebrew festival. Five of the city's best homebrewers will be pouring over ten beers. The event is November 29, from 4-8pm, and the $25 suggested donation helps fund youth scholarships. Besides the beer, there's free food, live...

I have an all-brett beer that's been sitting for about six months in 2ndary. It's pretty close to bottling time. I have read various reports on how to bottle all brett beers, and I'm curious if anyone here has a proven method that consistently carbonates for them. Sounds like some people add...

Last night I racked a black saison into secondary, pitched Brett Lambicus, added oak, and some of my favorite dregs. I thought I had three gallons of beer, but in actuality only had two (don't ask why!) I racked the beer into the only fermenter I had: a three gallon better bottle carboy. But...

I'm curious if anyone has had success in pitching the dregs from various sours, lambics, wild ales, etc into secondary. I'm thinking about pitching some into a dark saison that's about 7%abv. Would this impart any sour flavors and introduce wild yeasts, or would the primary yeast be too strong...

I thought I'd try to culture some yeast off my apple tree in the front yard. It's been four days and I see no yeast activity. I'm curious what I may have done wrong or if I need to just wait longer. I boiled up 1/2 cup DME in 2 cups water for fifteen minutes. I chilled it, and then I added...

I brewed up a Petite Saison which finished fermenting yesterday. Before I threw it in the keg, I pulled aside one gallon and pitched some brett on top of it. I plan on letting it sit in this nasty 101° Boston summer heat for a few months. I was super careful pitching it, even going so far as...

If I'm going to be using some Acid Malt in an upcoming all-grain recipe (about 5%), can I mash it as normal? I seem to recall I'm not supposed to, but now I can't find any sources that say otherwise.

Anyone have a favorite pH meter? With my Gose brewday coming up, I realize I need to pick one up. I saw this one on amazon, and it was cheap. Anyone have any luck (or problems) with it? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002C0A7ZY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

More questions on the Gose I'm going to be brewing. On p. 159 of "Brewing with Wheat," a recipe is given suggesting adding Lactic Acid at the boil. This will be the first time I'm working with anything that isn't ordinary yeast, and I'm wondering: • Is Lactic Acid the same as...

I will be brewing a Gose soon, and I was thinking about throwing in some lemon juice to taste at bottling. My question is how to ensure that there isn't any contamination using fresh lemon juice. How do you sanitize lemon juice? Do I need to boil it? Does that alter the juice any, by boiling off...

Do maple additions to the boil tend to dry the beer or make it sweeter? In other words, does maple function like table sugar?

I have a friend who has a small maple farm, and he's having a banner crop year. He's going to give me about 10+ gallons of maple sap (not syrup), and I'm going to experiment with making a beer using no water: only sap. Considering this may be the only chance I have to ever try it, I wondered...

I'm curious if anyone has ever used frozen fresh hops, and how long they last in the freezer. I found some in the back of my freezer (still vacuum sealed) that are probably two years old. Are they any good? I'm tempted to just brew a simple pale ale just to use them up, but if there's a high...

Has anyone ever fermented with a Kölsch at 53°? I'm doing some lagers, and I'd like a quick turnaround ale to do at the same time. The Wyeast website says the optimum range is 55-65. But I wonder what 2 extra degrees would do?

I'm doing up a bock which I've been fermenting at 53°. I was initially planning on lagering it outside for two months. I live in Boston, so it seemed like that could be a great temp. But then I started having second thoughts. Would the temperature fluctuation have negative effects on the...

I brewed up a porter a couple weeks ago, and though I was estimating an OG of 1.049, I got crazy efficiency and wound up with 1.062. I was using Irish Ale Yeast. It's been fermenting since Oct. 26, but I noticed right away that the airlock wasn't going very strong. It had one day of mild...