Recent content by mendlerr

So, after a hiatus from brewing (moving, cost, space) I finally decided to find a homebrew shop in Charlotte and buy myself a partial kit. Belligerent SOB. I'm going to track the progress of this brew, but my last two brews didn't go so well.. (infection, maybe... over-carb'd bottle bombs)...

definitely infection now! May have already said that earlier but I kept a couple just to see how they progress over time, its been a few more weeks since then. The carbonation has calmed down, ALOT! which is good. I can actually pour a beer and it looks like a beer! now the beer smells...

I just feel like the same off flavors in 2 different styles of beer must be from a common variable. the water. not much else was used in both recipes. its probably going to take me awhile to get a water test. my house is in the middle of nowhere. we are 50 minutes away from any...

I do all that though. I built wort chillers, a fermentation chamber. I maintain temperatures and I definitely sanitize everything as well as I can (probably too much). The only thing I did not do it make a starter for the liquid yeast, but I had some pretty serious fermentation within 24...

Well I have concluded that the batch is ruined. I degassed and recapped all the bottles, let them sit for a week and they are WAY worse then before. This must be an infection. I had some bottle bombs before I recapped and now I have some more bottle bombs after recapping. I am going to...

I say we all get a bulk discount and all order kegging kits!

Good news everyone! I just tried the third bottle and after degassing it for a bit it doesn't taste half bad. Not half good but not half bad either. I have definitely lost alot of the hoppy flavors and aroma's but it doesnt have a sourish off flavor either.! Maybe all hope is not lost! Or...

the head also lacks any texture or richness. it seems just like, dawn dish soap foam I guess. I will continue brewing 5 gallons for sure. For now though the cost and space constraints dictate one gallon batches. Flight school is expensive and time consuming

Something else I think I may have confused everyone about in my original post and its my mistake. When I crack a cap, yes it makes a loud hiss like its heavily carbonated but it does not start foaming over. I watched a video of that, I have a different problem. As soon as I try to pour it...

I fermented at exactly 68 degrees in my fermentation chamber. I thought following the instructions was what your suppose to do! :drunk: I probably will not use honey again, it adds too much headache to the process when dextrose is pre packed. Also, 1 gallons batches will allow me to...

On another point, I was very leary of using the honey so I started searching and dumb old me found an article where they said heating honey over 100% would damage the sugars necessary for carbonation and could damage the yeast when its mixed. They recommended only heating it to 100F

I should have just stuck with dextrose from the local brew shop. I'm not sure what you guys are paying per recipe but it is getting very expensive for me to make a mistake. In fact I am going to start brewing in 1 gallon batches. I just got a truck full of used 1 gallon and 1/2 gallon...

Oh and next time I am going to skip the secondary, too much work for too little benefit in my opinion. Single stage fermentation has always worked for me. I only bottled 3 12oz bottles. I usually only use 22oz'ers but I wanted to sample some smaller bottles while the others finished aging...

My OG was 1.050. The FG was around 1.010 but I only checked it once. Should have given it a few extra days and checked it multiple times. It's just hard to do with my equipment. (turkey baster) Well seems like the general consensus is way to much honey. I highly doubt infection, I am...

So I brewed this 5 Gallon IPA on the 2nd of July. I had full fermentation the next day. Everything went well, temps were kept exact with my new restaraunt thermometers. Wyeast California Ale Liquid Yeast was used. On the 13th (2 weeks later) I racked to my secondary just for the hell of...