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For me the main consideration with every choice in brewing in sanitation - nothing will ruin your beer as fast as the wrong organism. I went the IC route simply because maintaining sanitised conditions is so much easier - you just plonk the IC in 15 mins before flame out and that's it. With a...

I think the long running debate over racking to secondary basically shows that any benefits are minor to non-existent. If it really made beer that much better then everyone would be in agreement that you should do it. Personally, I think that any benefits from secondary fermentation are...

Top product - turns grains into perfect grist with just a bit of elbow grease. Price Payed: $175.00 Recommended? Yes

Top product - turns grains into perfect grist with just a bit of elbow grease. Price Payed: $175.00 Recommended? Yes

The thing is, this doesn't apply with CO2 tanks because the CO2 liquifies under pressure. If the CO2 was obeying ideal gas laws then a typical 2.6 litre cylinder containing 2 kg of CO2 would be under around 770 bar or 11,000psi of pressure. Far more than those things could stand. But, as the CO2...

How well kilned is the 2-row? I would normally expect APA to be entirely Pale Malt (which is basically just another name for Vienna) plus a little crystal. If you're sticking significant Munich in I'd go with pilsner to balance it out a bit.

Dang, even that worries me - I can buy weed and magic mushrooms in my local shopping centre - damn, I love Holland. Still prefer the stuff I can make at home though - just like with beer.

In cervisia veritas... never give up on a batch until you've bottled and aged it first!

Have you ever seen a similar film floating on a glass of beer? If so it's probably just very fine CO2 bubbles.

Well, you have my advice for hopping rates above - I wouldn't dry hop the pilsner until you've tried it in an ale first and are sure you like it. The whole .88oz of Cascade in the pale ale for a couple of weeks should give you a strong citrusy flavour - certainly stronger than something like...

I'd second those choices though personally I don't mind dry hopping with pellets - if you put them in at the end of the primary fermentation (after about 5 days) most of the junk will get trapped in the trub and yeast at the bottom. Whole hops are a better choice though. As for use, I'd be...

The three most important points are: sufficient yeast, sufficient aeration and sufficient nutrients. Get these three right plus hold the right temperature and your fermentation will work 99% of the time. For aeration shaking the fermenter, using a stirrer on an electric drill or a fish tank...

Getting all the wort into the boiler and firing up both elements is normally my time to crack open a homebrew. Given my usual brewday this tends to be about 1pm which is quite early enough :)

The bitterness will certainly gradually mellow over time. The sweetness might be more of a problem. Did you use an Activator or Propagator pack of yeast? and if a Propagator, did you make a starter? I've generally been happy with #1084 but it does need a good pitch rate - probably not the best...

Hmm, buying cheap often tends to work out very expensive. I originally had a cheap digital probe which had a tendency to go wild on occasions (especially if a drop of water got on it) and has screwed up a mash and a pitching for me. In the end I invested in a high quality fully waterproof and...

The problem isn't conditioning the yeast to sugar; the problem is that sugar/glucose solutions contain no vitamins and minerals - the yeast can feed but is forced to undergo it's lifecycle without access to the substances it needs. Hardly surprising that it doesn't tend to breed very heathily...

No problem. You could take it out a day before if you wanted.

Looks fine to me. Some cold break floating around on top and loads of flocculated yeast at the bottom - that's the stuff you don't put in the bottles! Here is one of mine - probably the best batch I've made so far: ..and here's the junk I didn't bottle - this is normal - RDWHAHB

If they've been recently manufactured they should be good for at least a year - probably two or more. Even liquid yeasts are fine if refrigerated for six months or so, provided you make a starter.

I've taken to using a campden no-rinse sanitizer. I just make up a few litres of solution with 1.5g campden per litre plus a capful of vinigar. I then just sanitise my bottle tree with this solution, then for each bottle, put some solution in, swirl it around, empty out and put bottle straight...