Recent content by EricBrew

Hi there I'm looking to upgrade my mash tun. Right now I'm using the bucket in another bucket trick. I'm considering using a steel pot with a false bottom and spigot. My concern is that heat retention will be difficult in this setup. Is there any problem in using this technique while...

The recipe I used is linked below: http://www.tastybrew.com/newrcp/detail/490 I did hit the OG and FG, but the beer tastes a little thin. Also, it has a nice head when poured, but disappears almost immediately. I use a perforated bucket inside another bucket as a mash tun, so the mash...

So I've made a couple of AG beers, and none have been great. I feel as though they're low in flavour and I'm looking to adjust my mash. I've read that some people don't mash their specialty malts, and that they simply steep them in the mash at the sparging stage. Is this what most people do...

Can Munich or Melanoidin malts be used completely as a base malt? How about Maris Otter? The malt flavour is exactly what's missing come to think of it. It's lightly hopped as a stout, and the roasted malts can be tasted, but that's it.

So I brewed an all-grain oatmeal stout. It was fermented for 3 weeks, and bottle carbonated for 2 weeks. Overall, I'm quite pleased with it for my second attempt at home brewing. However, I found the flavour to be a little thin on the front end. It's got a great roasted oats/coffee flavour...

I've been reading various recipes for my next batch. Can someone tell me what the difference is between boil volume and batch volume?

This is a dumb question. I'm preparing to brew an oatmeal stout. When they refer to rolled oats in the grain bill, can I simply use regular breakfast Quaker oats? Is it simply added to the mash with the crushed malts?

Can you bottle the beer immediately after it's added to the sugar water?

So I'm currently fermenting a hoppy IPA in a primary fermenter carboy. There used to be a brown foam at the top of the brew, but it has since levelled out. I'm going to leave it for another 10 days, and then rack it to a secondary fermenter and dry hop it with fresh chinook leaves. I'm...

Dumb question here: What do people mean when they say the wort is aerated? How does this happen?

Thanks Bob & Fid for the advice. Since we're on the topic, should I add water to my wort next time to increase the volume? I didn't add any water to my steeped grain this time.

Thanks for the tips. It's my first batch of homebrew, so I'm sure that my efficiency isn't great. I steeped the grains around a temperature of 150 for an hour, and then batch sparged for another 15 minutes around the same temperature. I ended up with about 3.5 gallons of wort. I think I didn't...

I made an IPA, and I used 10 pounds of 2 row pale malt, and half a pound each of carapils and crystal 40. It was then hopped with Centennial and Chinook, and the yeast is WL California Ale 5. If I'm not mistaken, I thought I saw elsewhere that it's not a good idea to shake the fermenter. I knew...

So I brewed my first all-grain batch yesterday and my beer is now fermenting. The problem is, I forgot to add corn sugar to my boil, and my OG is only 1.04. Is there any way for me to increase the gravity now? I also noticed that a thick layer of foam has started at the top of my beer in...