Recent content by TheBrewLebowski

Ok, so my wife has been requesting a coffee porter for a while now. I brewed it using the brew in a bag method. Long story short, I managed to add too much top up water after the mash. Ended up with around a 1/2 gallon too much wort as a result. My post Boil OG came up to 1.047. The target...

Sorry if this has been covered already. I didn't see anything about it in the posts I looked through. Has anyone tried making a pizza dough from their spent grains from brewing? I know it would change the texture of the dough significantly, but I'm curious now. Also, I will be brewing next...

Anybody? Last call before I have to give up and order a kit.

If your faucet connection leaks, you probably just need a new rubber hose washer. They are a couple of bucks at the hardware store. That said, I always run mine with the faucet full open. I have also found that stirring the wort continuously with a sanitized spoon while it is being chilled...

Does anyone have a tried and true bourbon stout recipe that they can share? I would like to avoid ordering a kit online if possible, and pick up all of the ingredients at the local home brew store, thus my request for a recipe. My preference is towards bourbon stouts that are heavy on the...

A friend of mine gave me a whole lot of Hallertau hops that he harvested from his vines. I dried them, then vacume sealed, and froze them immediately. My question is whether anyone has an extract recipe that uses just Hallertau hops. If I have to get an additional variety, I will, but prefer...

Are you using the graduation markings on a fermenter bucket when adding top off water? I had the same issue with my first beer. It turns out that my bucket was graduated incorrectly (markings were low). To check this, I poured 5 gallons of spring water into the fermenter , and used a sharpie...

Background: On 1/30/12 I brewed a coffee porter (extract recipe 5 gallon batch). The kits stated OG was 1.052 with a FG of 1.015. This gave an estimated ABV of 4.8%. I wanted something closer to 7%, so on the advice of the LHB store guy, I picked up 3 lbs of additional DME. On brew day, I...

Sounds like everything went pretty well for your first brew. At only 6 days after bottling, the beer will still be very green yet. Give it a few more weeks to carbonate fully and condition its self, and any overly strong or off flavors will work there way out. Your lower than expected wort...

I wouldn't worry about the lack of activity in the airlock. A 5 gal carboy with only 6 qts in it leaves a ton of head space for the co2 to have to fill before it starts pushing air out. Also, in my somewhat limited experience, starters aren't really all that fussy. Each one that I made...

That's exactly what my starter did when I swirled it earlier. The last starter I made took off and krousened up over night. I haven't used this yeast before however, so I wasn't sure what was normal. I think I'll just leave it go, and enjoy some home brews tomorrow during our brew session. In...

Tomorrow I am brewing the AHS Belgian ABT 12 quad. Last night I made a starter with my Wyeast 3787 Trappist high grav yeast. Used 1/2 cup of light dme and 2 cups of water as per the instructions I found here in one of the stickies. Trouble is, I was sober at the time, and forgot to top it off...

The only things I can think of are that the vinyl tubing you got is a size too big for the copper, or that you need to use one of the steel hose clamps that screws in place. The plastic versions may not be able to draw in tight enough for a good seal in this case.

Star san is the way to go. The powdered stuff that comes with the kitsis usually just a cleaner. Mine just came with easy clean, which isn't really a sanitizer. That may be part of the problem. It supposedly has some sanitizing properties but isn't really intended for that. Other...

Make sure you pre boil the top off water before adding it to the fermenter. Also, what sanitizer are you using?