Recent content by guitarguy6

Giving something inspired by this a go later today. 5lb 2-row, 3lb wheat malt, 8oz flaked barley and flaked oats, 4oz Crystal 15. Same hop bill but will be using cryo hops in the dry hop.

Very interesting, I've never come across an article recommending GoFerm for rehydrating dry beer yeast. I've seen it recommended for wine yeast when making mead. Anyone else use this for beer?

Dry yeast lasts a really long time, liquid yeast loses around %20 viability per month past production. It's the liquid yeast that people recommend making a starter for.

It depends how old your liquid yeast pack is as they lose about %20 viability per month. I always recommend my friends to make a starter since it doesn't cost much or take much time. A lot of them would argue with me that it's not necessary until they started entering competitions. Some of...

I've done a bunch of smash beers with extract with pretty good results. I've found that you typically want to use 4-5 ounces per 5 gallons. I typically target 30-40IBU and a 30 minute boil. I'll put around 1oz at 30min, 1oz 10min, 1oz flameout, 1oz dry hop. Most light lme is 2-row and...

There are many reasons why Mr Beer or Coopers kits get a bad rap. In my opinion the 3 main reasons are: #1: People adding a bunch of dextrose in with the kit. This really makes the beer have no body and to me tastes like apple cider or something. #2. Fermenting to hot and not long enough. A...

It does but I never use it. Since I don't have a pump I never felt safe using the ball valve on my kettle. I chill to pitching temps and use an auto siphon. I tossed all my airlocks and bungs, replaced all plastic equipment and tubing, and soaked all my glass fermenters in bleach and then...

Just realized I haven't replaced any bungs or airlocks..... They're all gonna burn in hell tomorrow!!!

My method for adding yeast through the years hasn't changed. All of these latest batches were dry yeast that was rehydrated. I rehydrate in a clean glass that has been dunked in star san, I put a piece of paper towel dunked in star san over the top of the glass to prevent anything from falling...

Don't use an oxygen or aeration stone. I use an immersion chiller that gets cleaned after every use. I also add it with 15min left in the boil. I'm starting to think it's either the star san bucket, my old auto siphon, or the spoon I use when I mix the priming sugar when I bottle carb instead...

This batch could have possibly been the bottles. They were mostly glass with some plastic. I spray them out with a bottle blaster, then if there's any gunk or crap at the bottom after that I put them in recycling and don't use them. The rest get put into a pbw or diversol bath overnight, I...

Yes, purchased new auto siphon with hose same day as bottling bucket.

So after years of brewing without any infections I've had 2 in a row. Earlier today I went to check on a brown ale I bottled last week and although the sample I had at bottling was delicious there is a white film on top of the beer in every bottle. I've replaced pretty much everything that is...

I started stirring my mash for about 1min ever 15-20min during my 60min mash. It increased my efficiency and doesn't require much effort so I've continued doing that. I can't recall if it was Gordon Strong or Randy Mosher who recommended stirring the mash a few times in a recent podcast I was...

What do they recommend? I pretty much only use a primary unless it's a lager or beer I will age for a while. I'll keep an eye on the fermentation. When there's no air lock activity and the beer has cleared up a bit I'll take a gravity reading. If it's at or near my expected FG I'll wait...