Recent content by NJames

Still no clue why BeerTools quotes a much higher IBU. But, at least I know I didn't massacre my beer with IBUs.

It was a 5 gallon batch, with a 3 gallon boil. All malt extract was added and returned to a boil before adding hops and starting the timer. I used pellet hops. Palmer's book says that the human palate can only discern increments of about 5 IBUs so any of the popular bitterness equations will be...

I've got a beer in the fermenter now that I calculated at ~37 IBUs using Palmer's nomographs in How To Brew. When I put it into BeerTools I was shocked to see 60 IBUS! Why do I get wildly different IBU figures? Which one is correct? my recipe: 3 gal boil 6 lbs. Briess Gold LME .5 lbs...

I just started a 1 quart batch! I made a 2-liter carboy out of a soda bottle. I have it inside my regular fermenting bucket along with a 2-liter of homemade root beer. Both bottles are partially submerged in about 1 1/2 gallons of cool water.

Has anyone tried building a fermentor pail with a built-in hydrometer? I was thinking about a pail with a tube fixed to the outside which would fill with beer to the level the pail is filled. I have seen tubes like this on other opaque containers to indicate how full it is. In this case, we...

Any suggestions to avoid exploding bottles with this current batch? open the bottles, perhaps pouring some off?

I'm working on my first batch of beer and I'd like some reassurance that I'm not making bottle bombs! I bottled 8 days ago and haven't had any trouble, but I was really shocked at the huge amount of CO2 blown off of a bottle I just opened. details of the brew: Boiled 3.3 lbs dark LME in 1...

Thanks revvy (and others) for strongly recommending the hydrometer. Would you perhaps share why you would wait another week before checking the gravity?

My understanding is that 65-75 was a good range for the yeast to ferment. I don't have a heater in the water and instead I am merely adding some hot water from time to time. So, I wanted the water at the upper end of the range, since it will cool down from that point before I add more hot...

Hi folks, I started brewing my first bucket of beer tuesday night and it seemed to have quite fermenting by wednesday night/thursday morning. I made my wort from 3.3 lbs dark malt extract, boiled in 1 gallon of water- probably 3 quarts left after boiling. Mixed it in the fermenter with 1.5...