Recent content by Makita

No votes at all for Saaz?

It doesn't sound good, but Sprecher is a respectable brewery, so who knows?

You mean like McEwan's? I certainly wouldn't kick a bottle of McEwan's out of bed for being Scotch.

I've never used a stubby bottle for brewing. Does it have any effect on how much beer needs to be left in the bottle to avoid pouring the yeast? I can convince myself both ways. Yeah, St. Peter's actually is good. I was reluctant to get one at first because I thought it was probably a...

This is the bottle washer I have. http://www.antonco.com/jetcarboy/

!!!!!!! I haven't seen a Winter Welcome in years! I assumed Samuel Smith's stopped making them. Liquid cocaine. My mouth is watering.

Some of my favorites. These aren't my images, so I'll include the links. EDIT: I'm sorry, I thought the images would actually show up. I'll work on that. http://www.flickr.com/photos/claypole/451049077/ Gotta' love the St. Peter's bottles. They remind me of the small antique novelty bottles...

So, when bottling directly out of the primary, do you guys try to put a hop bag over the siphon (as a make-shift filter) when it goes into the carboy? My current beer has been in the primary for just over a week, and isn't even close to being clear. Even if it does clear up, won't the...

I've been away from making beer for about a year...and now I'm hearing that the secondary fermentation isn't really necessary! Very surprising. I always read that leaving the beer on the spent yeast bed gave the beer off-flavors, but I'm certainly willing to skip that racking step if that's...

Fits your avatar very well, doesn't it? :D @Evan! and FlyGuy.........good, I was worried about the acid. I sampled some of my beer after this and it was sour (the pH was 4.5), but it could have been that my sampling kit (turkey baster and KFC mega-cup) were still drenched with StarSan...

Last night I was transferring to the secondary. I had the siphon hose filled with diluted StarSan solution and accidentally let about half of it fall down into the primary. Has this ever happened to anyone here? How did the beer taste in the end? Will I be... Dissapointed in the...

I assume the results are in....?

Nope, haven't brewed yet. But, nothing wrong with the starter? I would have expected it to kick into high gear by now. Although, I've never made a starter, just going by what I've heard.

Last night I made my first starter, using DME and a 250 ml Activator pack. The airlock has been going at more or less 1-4 bubbles/minute since then. But 22 hours later, there isn't really any krausen in the starter...just a small bit of foam (I can still see most of the surface). Is it...

I just wanted to add that the only gusher I've had was from bacteria. In my case, there was absolutely no question that it tasted bad. It tasted like mega-fizzy lemonade. Two weeks later, it was straight lemon juice. It was literally not drinkable. So, in my limited experience, I would...