Recent content by ryan17c

Hi All, I am brewing a Maple Syrup Dark Ale (Midwest kit) and have read a lot of posts about the maple flavoring not being present when using maple syrup in recipes since the yeast eats up most of the syrup. I'd like to have some hints of maple in my beer and was curious if adding a maple...

Use fresh pumpkin if possible, canned pumpkin creates more of a mess and is difficult to contain in grain bags. I just brewed the Midwest pumpkin kit and the canned pumpkin left about 2 inches of trub at the bottom and soaked up almost a gallon of beer. I added mine to the boil for the last 30...

Yes, when I first started brewing I thought that it was supposed to go on the inside (amateur move- probably should have realized this since the buckets are opaque...) and never bothered to move it. I realize now (since it's been pointed out) that it's probably a terrible idea and a bacteria...

I'd recommend leaving the lid on as much as possible- tempting to look, I know, but every time you open the lid you put the beer at risk. I've currently got a pumpkin ale in secondary (Midwest kit) and racking to secondary did wonders for clearing it out. I recommend not disturbing your...

A few words of advice from a novice brewer, so take this with a grain of salt. Having just done the midwest kit, the amount of pumpkin they recommend is not enough. I recommend checking the reviews for the kit on their site, as a lot of people offer up recipe tweaks that I wish I saw prior to...

Awesome, thanks for the quick help! Will try this and update with results.

Hi All, First post, longtime lurker. You all are very helpful and I appreciate all of the great info I've gotten from here! That said, here is my current situation- I just took a hydrometer reading of my pumpkin ale (midwest kit) and it's reading right at 1.01 (see image) after 5 days in...