Recent content by medic20

Alright then, thanks! Looks like I'll stick to the bucket til I decide to upgrade to a bigger carboy.

Alright, I'm getting ready to head into my second batch, it'll be an Oatmeal Stout. I think this time around I want to ferment in the glass carboy that came with my kit instead of the brew bucket, since advice has led me to forgo two stage fermentation. It's only a 5 gallon carboy, so I'm...

Cracked my first homebrew just now, an American Amber. It was DELICIOUS! Can't wait to drink the rest and get started on my next batch. Thanks for everyone that helped answer all of my silly new guy questions, I'm sure there will be more to come!

Alright this isn't the first time I've been told not to go to secondary, but no one ever mentioned that its really just necessary for adding fruit or dry hopping. I was initially thinking that I'd do it for clarity, but if letting everything settle with get the same results then I'll just leave...

Alright, we've been in the primary for a week now, just took a FG (went from 1.050-1.010, also smells great) and it looks like I'm right where I want to be. I'm thinking about moving to secondary in a couple days if I have constant FG readings. I noticed a lot of sediment stuck to the sides of...

Just the mention of of bottle bombs due to moving to soon is enough to make me leave it in for an extra week. Considering that I'm using my bedroom closet as my brew closet, the last thing I need is a giant beercano mess on clothing and/or the carpeted floor.

Thanks for the advice. I'm working with a plastic Ale Pale for my primary, so I'm thinking a glass secondary would be a good idea, but what do I know, I'm a noobie. Any insight there would be appreciated as well.

Alright, my Amber Ale has been in the primary since Sunday evening. I had vigorous airlock bubbling yesterday, Monday, morning lasting all day. I'm now looking at a dramatically slower rate, almost less than one a minute. I was planning on racking into the secondary on Friday anyway, I guess...

It's Brewers Best American Amber Ale, and its an Ale Yeast by Lallemand (sp?) if that helps at all.

OK, I know I've seen people talk about temperature rising during fermentation due to that activity in there, but I figure I should ask anyway: The airlock's been bubbling for a little less than a day, and the temp reading is at 73 after starting at 68, should I be concerned? There isn't much...

Thanks Murph!

Alright its brew day, I'm in the middle of my boil, and I have a question about adding the yeast. Should I activate it using water beforehand, or just sprinkle it into the wort? The directions given to me in the kit say to sprinkle, but the package of yeast has a (very vague) picture...

I'm seeing a lot of different questions about filtering the hops/sediment out of your wort, and I've seen some video's using strainers or funnels with strainers in the bottom. My question is when to do so. Should I strain before going into the primary, secondary, or bottling bucket, or all...

That was another question I had, can I use regular dish soap for cleaning? I know this is in the FAQs section, but some clarification would be good.

Already e-mailed the company to request a cancellation so I can change my order to Star-San :rockin: . Now I keep seeing everyone saying not to let it dry, this seems really confusing to me. Wouldn't leftover sanitizer effect any aspect of the brewing process?