Recent content by BlackGoat

There will be plenty of yeast when you bottle. If you're concerned, just allow your siphon to pick up a tiny bit of the yeast/sediment when transferring, but really I don't think its an issue.

definitely would suggest giving it a couple weeks and trashing your instructions. The yeast didn't finish early, it finished exactly when it wanted to... its just the instructions are written at a very general level and don't account for the processes at work with live yeast. I would look into...

Yes, using FWH for this style would work great. No reason not to want to have a smoother hop profile for the bitterness in a more malt-forward style. My experience with FWH is that you won't notice a drastic difference whether you add them early or just do the regular 60 min addition, but...

yes, I've cold crashed prior to getting a ferm fridge. Basically I just froze about 10 water bottles and made giant ice cubes using big plastic cups then put them into the swamp cooler. Its a little bit of a hassle (especially when compared to using a fridge) but I was able to get the temps...

I think that he meant that he wanted to try a bottled beer at 1 week and 2 weeks..etc. Its assumed that he bottled after the gravity had stabilized, he's just wondering how soon can he sample them.

add a touch of caramel/crystal malts, or munich to get you closer to that flavor profile you're after.

you can't tell if its carbonating right, and you shouldn't bother to tell. I was super curious at first too and kept trying to tip them and see if it bubbles, but really you should leave them somewhere dark and let them be for a few weeks. Trust the process and let the yeast do their work...

you should expect a beer with higher alcohol levels than you originally planned, and probably a little more bitterness. Basically you've made an "imperial" version of the beer by including enough malt and hops for 5 gallons, but concentrated into only 4 gallons. Honestly, if everything else...

I would agree with just completely leaving it alone, let it do its thing. If you insist on peaking inside the bucket out of curiosity (and I know you want to see it), fine, but I wouldn't bother with gravity readings or doing anything that would contact it right now for at least a week or more...

+1 on reading Revvy's thread linked above. He nails every point you need to understand. Bottling can suck, but with some of the tips he identifies it can go much smoother and be less painful.

Agree with the comments above, but we've all compromised our beers at some point or another, especially when starting out. I've pushed the stopper and airlock through the carboy and had to leave it to sit in the beer for the duration of the fermentation, among other things. Just relax, if it...

agreed that its not really a big issue but most likely the culprit is that you're diluting it too much with your top of water. Maybe try making a slight adjustment in the amount of water you're using (use less).

yeah, the idea is that whatever method you use, you want to hold the mash at a certain temperature. People use coolers because of their insulating properties. Those of us that BIAB in our kettles use a variety of methods to do this, I don't add heat and will wrap my kettle with some towels to...

another vote for cold crashing, this issue goes away. You can cold crash using ice (frozen water bottles) and a swamp cooler overnight.

Nottingham is known for sometimes spitting out sulphur smells. Check out this post among others: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/nottingham-sulfur-aroma-documenting-my-journey-294600/ Did you use any additives to adjust for PH or anything like that? I'm wondering whether "sweat like taste"...