Recent content by QuietKeith

Luckily the mess isn't as bad as it looks. The overflow is happening in slow motion, so I have plenty of time to catch it before it gets onto the floor. The recipies were different - the one that's overflowing is an APA using Wyeast American Ale. The other is Wyeast Irish Ale. Both started out...

I'd give it a few more days. Some yeast takes a while to get started. Most likely everythings OK. What kind of yeast did you use, by the way? And what kind of brew were you creating?

Last weekend I did double-duty and brewed two extract batches in a single afternoon. Having only one growler around, I created a yeast starter for the first batch, and pitched just a smack-pack for the second. The difference in "takeoff" of the two was quite dramatic. The primary with the...

I use a six-gallon plastic fermenter. With 5 1/2 gallons of wort there's about six inches of expansion space. I use a typical three piece airlock, don't have a blow-off setup. When I have a vigorous ferment going with a medium-weight brew, I'll get some foam touching the bottom of the lid, but...

I'm getting ready to start a Belgian Triple, but am concerned about the primary fermentation stalling out. While doing the shopping, I'll pick up an extra smack-pack of yeast (Wyeast Belgian Abbey), and will do a starter to give the yeast a head start. I was planning on pitching both packs...

Sounds like you are on the right track. For my Raspberry I started with a basic American Pale Ale recipie. Once the primary fermentation slowed down, I cooked three pounds of frozen raspberries in a sauce pan with just a little tap water. After about a half hour I had a nice, sauce-like base...

That's quite a shopping list! There's a few odds and ends that may not be necessary, but I doubt they would save much money. Your list is very similar to where I was after about three months of brewing. You can upgrade your better bottles with spigots, but that will add about $50 to your...

I racked my Irish-American Red to the secondary last weekend, and it seems to be about the right color. I used 8 oz. 10L Crystal Malt, 2 oz. Roasted Barley and 2 oz. Biscuit Malt as specialty grains before the boil. That gave a nice ruby-red color. I used extra-light DME which added a brownish...

Aging for a few extra weeks should help out greatly. My first brew was an IPA, and I was probably in over my head - two kinds of malt, specialty grains, and three kinds of hops. By sheer impatience I only topped the primary to 4 gallons instead of 5 as well. The result tasted more or less like...

FG on a Wit should be between 1.008 - 1.010. As long as you are using a secondary fermenter, I wouldn't worry too much unless you think your fermentation is stuck.

The instructions that came with an ingredient kit I am using (IPA) recommended using a satellite fermenter to avoid having to unseal the primary fermenter for measurements. After a week, the brew in the satellite fermenter was reading 1.016. However, the airlock was still bubbling fairly...