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Hi everyone, I used to brew fairly regularly and still have all my equipment including my kegs which I use for carbonated water right now. I have just been too busy raising kids and running a business the last few years that I just have not had the time to do it in a while. I now have a more...

So I am trying to make a starter for brewing Thursday but the yeast smack pack I got was about 90 days old so the viability from the brewers friend calculator is only 37% or 37 billion cells. Using the Brewers friend calculator I found that I could get a proper pitch for the 10 gallon batch if I...

Hi, I am looking for a yeast with lots of estery fruit character but I'm not really a fan of beers with lots of phenol spice like flavors. I'm thinking of making a white ipa like beer similar but not exactly like chain breaker. I'd like to go with similar or more fruit character than chain...

Hi. I am heading to Austin, TX tomorrow for the weekend to go to a wedding. I was wondering if anyone could recommend some great Texas beers that are relatively easy to find in 22oz bottles that I should try while I am there. It needs to be bottled beer where I don't have to go to a specialty...

Hi, I have a small bag with about 4-5 lbs of two-row pale malt that is about 2-3 years old. I wouldn't want to use it as is because last time I used old malt it tasted overly malty and homebrewey. However, I was wondering if I could try to home roast it into something similar to chocolate malt...

I brewed my first sour beer, a Flanders red in early July of 2012 so it has been aging about 14 months now. Of course I did what most first time flanders brewers have done and followed Jamil's advice of fermenting it with a clean ale yeast first before pitching the bugs from white labs belgian...

I made this for my own use so I don't have to calculate how much of each water agent I need every time I brew. I thought it may be helpful to other Portland brewers so I am posting it. Its designed for a 5 gallon batch at about 6% ABV using 11 lbs of grain and 8.8 total mash and sparge water. If...

Don't get me, wrong I think SMaSH beers can be great, I just brewed one up this weekend. Sometimes though a single malt and single hop can just be to simple and limiting in terms of the styles you can brew. However, allowing yourself 2 malts and 2 hops opens you up to a whole slew of new...

Hi. I am planning on getting a homebrew pump and realized I was going to want to get some disconnect fittings. I figured I would need to get 5 disconnects total, 2 females for each end of the pump and 3 males for the HLT, Mash tun and brewpot. The $60 total cost of the SS quick disconnects at...

So I've always transferred to a secondary fermenter after a week or two because thats what used to be recommended. I know that now the recommendation is to leave in primary for at least 2 weeks and then go strait from primary to the keg (or bottling bucket). So my question is that after about a...

Hi. I brewed a flanders red ale last July. I followed jamil's directions of fermenting with a clean ale yeast first which I now have come to find out some people don't agree with. Anyway after fermenting with the ale yeast I pitched a vial of white labs Belgian sour (but the vial exploded on me...

Hi. I have some flexwatt I plan on making a DIY fermwrap with and I have one of the cheap ebay thermostats the Willhi wh7016c to control the temperature. I don't know a whole lot about electrical wiring but I have done a DIY stir plate before so I am somewhat capable. I just want to make sure I...

So I have a fermentation temperature dilemma. I recently moved into a new house that really has no closet space for fermenting my beer and my wife definitely does not like having the carboys sitting in the living room with towels over them to keep the light out. The house does have a basement...

I brewed a batch on Friday and decided to measure the amount of water it took to chill a 10 gallon batch with my homemade counter flow chiller with 25ft of coiled tubing. It ended up at about 60 gallons of water! I hate to be wasteful so during the summer I normally water my garden with the...

I just finished a homemade computer fan stir plate in a cigar box and I had a few questions about making starters with it. 1st question: How far in advance should I make the starter, is it still 24 hours before pitching? 2nd question: How big of a starter do I need for 10 gallons? I have a...

Hi. I am thinking about making a stir plate to improve yeast cell count before pitching. Most of the directions I am seeing are talking about 1 liter starters. However, I brew 10 gallon batches so I was wondering if I should be making 2 liter starters instead? If i'm making 2L starters should I...

I have been looking into outfitting the BG12 burner into my burner stand. It is the same burner that is used in the bayou classic SQ14 burner and stand. I was wondering if anyone uses this burner for 10 gallon batches and if so approximately how long does it take to boil? Thanks.

So after a discussion in a previous thread I've decided its time to upgrade from my cheapo turkey fryer burner to a banjo style burner. This is to help eliminate the problem of soot on the bottom of the pot and also because I've heard the banjos are more efficient and use less propane. I see...

Hi...I have a pretty cheap burner that came in a turkey fryer kit and it is creating a thick black soot on the bottom of my brew kettle. My guess is that it is because it is a cheapo burner. I was looking into retrofitting a better burner into the stand that came with the cheap burner. Right now...

Hi, I made a starter with the dregs of a bottle of Deschutes Chainbreaker White IPA about a month ago and have continued to feed it to build up to the point where I now think I have enough yeast to pitch. So besides the obvious (Chainbreaker clone or a white ale) what sorts of beers might I...