Recent content by jrabenhorst

So I'm trying to figure out how to dye my beer green for St. Patrick's Day this year. I know this is a homebrew forum, but I'll be using my buddy's favorite commercial lager and I hope you guys can offer some advice. Because I don't have the necessary tools to add it... here's my plan of...

I would definitely begin with an easy malt extract kit. You can probably get a good one from a local homebrew shop. I started with an easy English Ale and things are coming along nicely. Remember to sanitize everthing that comes in contact with your beer after the boil, and most importantly have...

Ah... It all makes so much sense now. Thanks guys. I ask this question because I racked over to a secondary a few days ago. It fermented for a week, then bubbles slowed way down. I took a gravity reading of 1.0100. Then racked. The smell was heavenly. And it didn't taste that bad either. A buddy...

So I have a question about fermenting in the primary. I don't really understand why you have to wait until all fermentation stops before racking to the secondary? I understand why you would want to wait before racking into bottles (exploding bottles), but if you rack into the secondary before...

I'll be transfering to a secondary pretty soon too. I'm also using 6.5 gallon buckets and have a few questions. - When you tranfer, should you take the lid off of the original fermenter, does it matter? -Is it better to syphon the beer out of the fermenter or use the sigot at the bottom? Or...

You might also want to be sure that you have enough water in your airlock. This was my problem. Make sure there is water up to the line on the airlock. Then after you've done that push down on the lid to see if you get some bubbles in the lock, this will ensure that you're bucket is pressurized...

ok... so I'm an idiot. I got home today and checked the beer after 20 hours and still noticed no bubbles. Then I took a temperature reading- 63 degrees. A little cold. So I put it in a warm bath to warm it up to 73 degrees and waited, still no bubbles. Then after a while I examined my air lock...

I'm still waiting on bubbles in my airlock. It's been about 20 hours and no activity. I used a yeast starter to get a good amount of yeast in the fermenter, but to no avail. Also, there has been a thick layer of foam forming at the surface, a kraeusen, indicating that the yeast are doing their...

The kit I was referring to was an all extract kit. However, my next beer, an American Amber does have some grains. Maybe another advantage to a full boil might be that you don't have to worry about keeping the additional water you would place in a partial boil sterile? What do you think?

So I'm getting mixed advice here. Next time should I boil all 5 gallons with the extract, or should I only do 2.5 gallons, then top off to 5 gallons. Or does it matter. Thanks for all the help guys.

Thanks for the help guys. As we were brewing a friend of mine asked why I didn't add the top off water to the boil (a full boil) I didn't know why, that's just the way the instructions listed it. But next time I'll try a full boil. I took the gravity reading at 70 degrees and adjusted it .001 as...

Hey everyone... I just brewed my first batch of beer last night, an American Light Ale- I know a pansy beer, but I wanted to start easy and cheap to make sure I understood the process before I got to the good stuff. I have a few questions... While boiling the wort should you keep the lid on...

I'm a first time brewer... Can I use a wheat malt extract as effectively? I'm making a basic American Light beer

Quick question. I'm brewing for the first time tonight and am questioning whether or not to use a secondary fermenter. If I'm making a basic amber or light ale, would one week be sufficient for primary fermentation, then another for secondary? Also, I've read a few websites on seconary...

Thanks anthrobe