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Last night the Chicago Beer Society held its Fall Blind Tasting event. There was lots of good food (It was at Reza's Mediterranean Restaurant near downtown) and 16 different beers from (mostly) local breweries. The tasting was eye-opening to me. Getting to try all the different beers...

Is anybody here going? I am heading up today to drop off beer with a local brewery. It would be neat to meet a fellow home brew talker.

That's right, 500 unique check-ins. It took a couple years to do it, and I'm not sure if I should be happy or scared by that number. Anyone got more?

So I set my mash tun aside a week ago Monday to clean later but I forgot all about it. For a week. I had put it on the back deck with the valve open to finish draining and never got back to it. When I emptied it a week later it was pretty gross. I know it will come clean with some elbow grease...

My daughter made this for me. Anyone else get anything from the kids?

Adventures in Homebrewing has 9 gallon SS brew kettle with ss ball valve and 2.5" dial thermometer on clearance right now for $89.99 with free shipping. Apparently the manufacturer made a mistake on the placement of one of the welds so the thermo is smaller than they wanted...either way it's a...

So, today I bottled a barleywine that has been aging since December. It was aged on whiskey-soaked oak honeycomb for about 1 week before bottling. I didn't have any yeast around, so I added a little extra priming sugar than I normally would have for the style. Details: 2.5 gallons, came in...

Today was the first time I used a yeast starter- a 2L starter of Wyeast 1332 (Northwest Ale). Also the first time I have used Gypsum in the mash. Add in the first time I have used Irish Moss for clearing and I am excited to see how this beer turns out. I have been brewing for over 2 years...

So I want to clear out my inventory in anticipation of a large grain order coming in. I have the following on hand: Maris Otter-1# 2 Row -25# CaraRed-12 oz Chocolate Malt-12 oz English Dark Crystal - 5# Simcoe Summit Zythos Fuggles I already have an ESB and an IPA on tap and a...

Anybody have a good place to find dry ice in the city? My keezer quit working but I have a beer on tap that I want to try to finish up...thinking this might be my best chance to keep it cool for a week or so...

So my keezer decided to quit working today. I can hear a slight sound of running liquids (?) coming from the condenser hump. It literally sounds like water trickling down a pipe. Any ideas what it could be? I have 2 kegs in there now but only one tap. I don't know if the thing can be fixed or...

This weekend I transferred an ESB to keg. I was having some trouble with my auto siphon that led to a lot of bubbles in the line. I tried to correct it but ultimately ended up stopping the flow and trying to restart my siphon. While fidgeting with cursed tool I failed to notice that while...

So I have a pound of each of the following: Simcoe Zythos Summit I am thinking about an IPA (most likely a 5-gallon batch) with them, but I am struggling with the hop combo/schedule...so I was hoping to tap into the great knowledge base here. I have not used Zythos or Summit before so I...

I brewed an English BW last weekend with Maris otter and wyeast 1024. I made 2.5 gallons and put it in a 5 gallon carboy expecting explosive fermentation. It only developed about 6 inches of krausen and didn't even reach the blow off tube. Has anyone else seen this? Should I be concerned or is...

I am thinking about doing an English barley wine and then a bitter out of the later runnings of the same mash. Has anyone tried to use Beersmith for such a brew? If so, how did you calculate everything in the software?

I have a 15 gallon aluminum kettle without lid that I would love to swap for a 10 or so gallon (preferably with lid). I am in Chicago, on the north side.

I mean truly tired of it? I have spent the past 10 years or so chasing beer. I have spent all of my energy, time, and money putting notches on my figurative bedpost. I have brewed a ton of beer and drank way too much probably. My best estimate is that I have drank at least 600-800 unique...

I was at the Gingerman Tavern by Wrigley Field after the Tigers/Cubs game (I am a displaced Detroit native) and he was at the bar. He was super friendly and was talking shop with my friend who is brewer/part owner of Finch's Beer Co. here in Chicago. Apparently he has season tickets to the Cubs...

So, I brewed a Southern English Brown Ale this past Saturday. I had some harvested Wyeast 1968 that I wanted to use, so I was limited in my styles to make with this yeast. Anyway the brew went well and I overshot my gravity by a bunch somehow. I usually get 66% eff. but I got more this time...

Okay, maybe not awesome for some of you, but I hit 75% efficiency today. I actually had to add some water pre-boil because I didn't want a 7% amber ale. The only thing I really changed was I stopped spargin about halfway through (I fly-sparge) and stirred the bejeezus out of the mash, then...