Recent content by NorthStarBrewer

I love this view. I was explaining the situation to my wife, and noted that I might have more wort than I can fit in the fermenter. She said "well, you don't have to use all of the wort, do you?"...and she's right, but that just feels like the wrong thing to do, haha.

Let's say you measured wrong, or you entered a much longer than intended boil time on your calculator, or more water than necessary is somehow added to the mash/boil. What do you usually do? Spend extra time boiling off liquid until you reach the targeted final volume going into the fermenter...

Has anyone encountered an issue where the first several draws of a fully-carbed, kegged beer have a nice healthy head...but after a while, each new pour has poorer head retention? The beer in question is a helles that was brewed about three months ago. I carbonated it to about 2.5 volumes, let...

It's about 40 degrees in the keezer. I used the Fermentis cider yeast; would they still be active at 40 degrees? Thanks for the replies. I took the keg out and shook it like it owed me money. Seems to have helped!

When backsweetening cider, is there a technique to ensure that the sweetener mixes well with the fermented juice? I just kegged my first cider, which I made by fermenting 4.5 gallons of Kirkland juice, backsweetened with another .5 gallons of juice. I racked the fermented juice into the keg...

Do you think it'd be better to just pry the rubber off in one whole piece? Not sure how easy it'd be to re-adhere, if it's even possible.

What is going on here? A 5-gallon Firestone keg has a leak somewhere beneath the rubber "cap"/handles. Before I go about removing the rubber, what can I expect to find underneath it that might be the source of the leak? Is there a welded seam that, somehow, opened up just a hair?