Recent content by orkojoker

Thanks for your opinion. Seems like it should do the trick, but I just wanted to know if I was overlooking something that would foil my plan.

So I under-bittered an ale and, while it's drinkable, it's also quite on the sweet side. I was thinking of picking up an ouce of high-alpha hops and boiling them for an hour in a couple gallons of water to extract some bitterness and then just chilling the bittered water in the fridge. My...

Thanks for the input. That makes a lot of sense. I did end up scaling back the crystal in my recipe to about 7% (at least I think that's what it was). you think that's too low for a mild? My expected FG is 1.006. I don't want it to be uber-thin, but I've already got my grains and I'm...

Howdy folks, Just had a quick couple questions. I'm trying to put together a mild to brew this weekend. I've seen many members here raving about the mild mannered ale, but I noticed the grain bill is almost 20% crystal. In other threads I've read a lot of people were saying 15% is about...

I realize there is a Mr. Beer sticky already, but I don't really have time to browse the 4,000 posts looking for an answer to my question, so I'm just going to throw it out there. I've been brewing 2-gallon batches in my Mr. Beer fermentors for a while, but my next batch is going to be a...

Working up a stout at the moment and trying to be careful about it, as my last attempt was more of a fly-by-the-seat of my pants clusterfudge that turned out practically undrinkable. According to Hopville, this fits the category of Foreign Extra Stout. Looks to be slightly on the...

Thanks for the quick answers. I figured that was how it works, but I thought I'd ask the experts. :)

I was just curious whether batch size has any bearing on the time requirements for any part of the brewing process. For example, does a one-gallon batch ferment any more quickly than a ten-gallon batch, all else being equal? Same question regarding aspects such as dry hopping, etc. Thanks...

Thanks for the advice. I figured once the stuff got settled to the bottom it would stay there. Live and learn. It's been a little over two weeks total. Primary for about 8 days, then we had a power outage and the house was down to about 50 degrees for about 24 hours. Figured that would put...

I've got a two-gallon batch of a pale-ish ale dry hopping in a carboy and I'm looking for a bit of advice on how to proceed. Had it in primary for about 8 days before racking to secondary on top of a half ounce of loose Cascade pellets. It was my first attempt at dry hopping, so I was a little...

Thanks for the advice. Wish me luck.

May have overdone something on my first stout attempt. Took a wee taste a few days into fermentation and the bitterness is off the chain. 8.5 qt batch 3.3 lb Munich LME 4 oz English chocolate 4 oz black malt 4 oz roasted barley about 1.25 - 1.5 oz chinook/simcoe blend at 60 (it's...

My understanding of it, which may not be entirely accurate, is that the mashing process not only extracts the fermentable sugars from the grain but actually converts the starches in the grain into fermentable sugars. Holding the boil at certain temperatures activates enzymes that do the actual...

Thanks for the tips folks! I wouldn't mind the flat rate were I planning to buy a goodly amount of merchandise, but if I only want five or six bucks worth of items, I'd like to avoid doubling the price if possible. Looks like I have some options. If only I didn't live in the middle of nowhere.

I'm looking to purchase some ingredients for my first non-all-extract brew. Unfortunately, my local brew shop is a little skimpy in its selection, and the next nearest shop is an hour and a half away, so I'm looking for a good online vendor. I notice many vendors seem to have a flat shipping...