Recent content by NUCC98

Orfy's got it right. Think of it like cooking. No one starts out making the fancy Food Network dishes. You get a base knowledge of your basic brew genres. Once those are borderline perfected, add a pinch of something here, dash of something there. All of your brews must start with a base...

I like the lines DC was thinking on....whenever I have to go down the lager road, I try to get some SF Lager yeast. You can get away with fermenting at a bit warmer temps, and the yeast will maintain the characteristics of normal lager yeast.

Depending on the style, 1.021 isn't that much off the chart, especially considering the amount of malt that went into it. I would look at the attenuation of your yeast, first. Also, what temp did you ferment at? If you wanted to cover the sweetness, rack to a secondary, and dry hop with a...

OK, so my regular HBS was unexpectedly closed yesterday and today, and my brew day is tonight after work. This other place didn't carry White Labs, like my normal HBS, so it was either Wyeast or powdered. So, I grabbed a smack pack of Irish Ale, and asked the owner what the deal was with them...

Fill up a sink with warm water tonight, drop in one scoop of OxyClean...the labels will be floating on the surface by the next morning....I was sceptical of this until I tried it myself...it's amazing!

Hahahaha...you and your practicality!!! ;) :D Actually, there's an idea a firend of mine's working on using a cheap digital scale in the fridge. Snipping the battery wires, so that you can hook up a battery as need to take a measurement...

Mine does it with just about every brew...no worries!

Has anyone ever used one of these? Do they work? If you don't use one, how do most of you tell how much is left in your kegs...or do you even care? :D

I tanked my attempt at a Sam Adams Winter Lager clone...under-carbonated, over-spiced, and watered-down....I sucked down ever last drop of it as a reminder of what NOT to do...it worked, too. My last batch, Dry Irish Stout, is nothing short of AMAZING!

Well...according to the Almighty Beer Recipator, that should come out to roughly 39 SRMs...dark brown, but still not too bad. The patent actually should make it darker, if anything.

I'm tempted to try a Dead Guy Clone, as it is by far one of my favorite brews. However, I don't want to be let down in my attempt. Thing is, the first thing I noticed, and what kept me hooked on it, was this really unique aftertaste of Dead Guy. Is that attributed to the hops (and if so...

You might need to split your batch...I'm guessing two 5-gal. batches. Split your hop bill in half, and just do 2 boils. It's extra time, but I think that's the...um...cleanest way to do it.

I think the longest I've ever let a beer sit in the primary was 5 days. Once your airlock stops chirpin'...like maybe down to 1 every 3 seconds or so...I rack to the secondary the next day. You don't want your beer to sit in the primary for too long, because it'll sit on the dead yeast and...

Well...I'm thinking my Stout will be ready end of Feb. I'm brewing again at the end of Jan....hopefully keeping up with the monthly schedule I've set for myself. Next will probably be my "120 Days" IPA...ready for March. Feb. will be my "Wild Irish Rose" Red Ale...ready for April. Mar. will...

So…it’s been quite a while since I have posted here. There are a LOT of newer posters, actually, since I was on…..so….figure I’d re-introduce myself. I’ve been a homebrewer since Nov. ’04. Started out using extracts w/ specialty grains from kits mostly. Once I formulated my first recipe, a...