Recent content by ratnerstar

Thanks guys. I was having some jitters, but I figure it'll turn into beer one way or another! Do you know if there's a simple method for converting Munich grain in a recipe into Munich LME? For me, it's just that I prefer DME to LME, so I use the former whenever possible. But there's...

I've been brewing for several months and have pretty much confined myself to kits and pre-designed recipes, with a few minor tweaks of my own. I've also been shopping exclusively at my lhbs, which is an awesome place but a bit pricey. Trying to save myself a little money, I started checking...

Uh, my French is pretty rusty, but I'm fairly sure that's a health supplement. The ingredients seem to include yeast, but ....

Hah, well, I guess nothing to be done about it now. If it's bad, I'll just call it my Ol' Skunky brew and tell my friends that it's a little known style they aren't familiar with.... Thanks!

I've been doing this homebrew thing for several months and I was just starting to feel confident in my mad skills, when I made a stupid mistake last night. Until now, I've been doing standard five gallon brews in an opaque plastic bucket. But I thought I'd switch things up a bit and do three...

Hey, finally something I'm qualified to talk about! Regarding DC, at least.... +1 on Churchkey, which is attached to a restaurant (Birch & Barley) that is definitely worth going to, if you can get reservations. Brickskeller is indeed overrated. Their beer list looks pretty good until you...

Wait, I did that too. Is that bad? Is my beer ruined?!

I think this is the winning solution. Thanks for all the advice, everyone!

Okay, so I'm two weeks into fermentation on my first brew. The anticipating is killing me. So much so that ... once or twice ... well, maybe three or four times ... I carefully lifted off the lid of my bucket to take a look inside. I know this is non-Kosher, but how bad of a practice is it...

Heh, well ... that's a whole other worry. But I tried! Lord knows, I tried. Thanks everyone.

Okay, I'm a total newbie: I just started my first brew. It's fermenting (hopefully) in my closet right now. Incidentally, I spent days obsessively reading this forum before starting. Thanks so much for all the advice! You guys are crazy smart. Anyway, I'm slightly worried about the...