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For the past few months I've been having trouble with my Barley Crusher. The slave roller will slip or fail to turn at all, making it very difficult to crush grain. I just spent an hour hand cranking through 12 lbs of grain 1 cup at a time. :mad: I've taken it apart twice in the last 2 months...

Muntons Maris Otter, 80% Crisp brown malt 65L, 8% Briess crystal 40L, 8% Simpsons coffee malt 150L, 4% Mash at 152 for 45 minutes, mash-out at 168 for 15 minutes. Pilgrim (9.1% AA), 0.78 ounces for 60 minutes Ferment with Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale at 60-62 degrees for 3 weeks, then...

I brewed what I am calling a Northern English Brown Ale that has a subtle but unmistakable flavor and aroma of pipe tobacco. I didn't intend to get this character in the beer, but it's there, and I like it. Every once in a while I see a thread about adding tobacco to a brew, which is a really...

Soon, I will be upgrading my kegerator to a newer refrigerator. The bottom shelf in the new fridge (shown below) is made of tempered glass in a metal frame over two drawers. My question is, will this shelf be strong enough to support 4 kegs and a 10# CO2 tank? Because of my brewing schedule...

Heating water for the mash.

I started a wine kit on Saturday using Red Star Premier Cuvee, which was provided with the kit. It is sitting at 78 degrees in my basement, and fermentation has just kicked off pretty good today. As a rule, I prefer to ferment things on the cool side, and 78 seems a bit warm. I'd like to move...

Next weekend I'm smoking a Boston butt, as some family are coming to visit for Halloween. Yesterday I was looking in the freezer for something else, and I found it there, frozen like a rock. I appreciate that my wife wanted to help me out with the shopping, but I'm irritated that she froze the...

So, I've been brewing for over 4 years. Done almost 70 batches, most of them all-grain. The last several months I just haven't been able to muster any energy or enthusiasm for brewing at all. It took me 6 weeks to get around to kegging a wheat beer, for Pete's sake! I don't think I'm going to...

I normally mashout and do 1 batch sparge, getting between 80 and 85 percent efficiency depending on the recipe. I'd like to start doing true single infusion mashing. That is, no mashout infusion and no sparge. Just collect all your wort in one running. Anybody do this? What kind of...

It's so easy. All you have to do is listen to them when they talk, and then ask them questions about themselves. And try not to talk about yourself too much. I went (was sent :rolleyes:) to a training on how to be a good manager, and there was a segment on developing listening and empathy...

Just started kegging, and I have a few empty cornies sitting around now. How should I store them? Should I do the full oxyclean+starsan flush and then seal them with CO2? Or is it ok to simply clean them and leave them sitting open until I need to use them, then sanitize them? This is what I...

Woot! :ban: It's not pretty, but it's mine. The fridge was free from a friend, and the kegging hardware is from kegconnection.com. First Keg. An American Wheat, just in time for summer.

...and rockin' Led Zeppelin. No better way to blow off the steam from a ****ty day at work. :rockin:

It's been a long time since I posted any brew day pics, so I thought I would take some of my latest. I brewed an IPA on Saturday, April 4 in honor of the birth of a friend's son. This is the second time I have brewed this recipe, tweaking the grain bill slightly from the first time. I really...

I just started another batch of cider using Cote des Blancs and I'm getting a terrible sulfur smell. Truly rank. What causes this? I've used this yeast in two previous batches but never had a smell like this. I pitched 10 grams of rehydrated yeast with 3 tsp. of Fermaid K into 5 gallons of...

About two months ago a buddy of mine upgraded his kegerator setup and gave me his old upright fridge. I don't have it set up as a kegerator yet (waiting on the tax refund), but I have stuffed it full of my bottled beer. I've noticed that cold conditioning homebrew for a few weeks or more really...

I've been experimenting with a restricted calorie diet for the past month or so. I eat about 1700 calories a day 6 days a week, and nothing at all 1 day a week. On the days I fast and the day afterward, I have a noticeable burst of energy and optimism. I really like it, and I'll probably...

I'm planning an English style IPA for the brew after next, and I have two packets of Safale T-58 I need to use up before they expire. Will this yeast work well in an EIPA, or should I go with my old standby S-04?

An Edge in the Kitchen, written by HBTs very own Chad, made Slate's list of Best Books of 2008. Way to go Chad! :mug:

What happened to my robust porter? Brewed on 3/29, bottled on 5/4. At first it was great, very three dimensional, sharp, and alive. I considered it one of the best beers I'd brewed to date. The last few bottles have just been 'blah'. Merely a shadow of its former self. It's not infected...