Recent content by thummel1

FYI: TastyBrew.com has a great calculator for your priming sugar additions. I live by it, and it's worked great everytime! http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

Just mail it to me and I'll brew it... and drink it... but I'll tell you how it turned out!

I am so confused. Did your directions really tell you to add water in the secondary? If you only had a 2.5 gallons of wort in your primary when you pitched yeast I'm assuming you had a really high gravity. Sorry, I'm not being any help. You should post your recipe/directions. As far as...

The black balls may be if it were a hydrometer/thermometer... and those were used to calibrate the hydrometer. No idea what they are made of though? I'd say if you filter well and let it sit in the secondary you'll be fine...

If it were a red thermometer it was just an alcohol solution so you have nothing to worry about. I do not believe it is in any way poisonous. Not to mention it was a very very tiny amount inside. Just make sure there is no broken glass and I think you'll be fine... (no guarantees though...

Okay, so the honey really has me interested and I wouldn't mind trying it. Anyone have an opinion if it would be good or disgusting? I'm new to homebrewing so it would be really fun to play around with the recipe. If I were to add honey, how/when would I add it to the primary? It's only been in...

I brewed the NB EPA extract kit today. (http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/ExtraPaleAle.pdf) It all went well, but I over-shot my 5 gallon mark and hit about 5.3-5.4 gallons. Hence, my gravity reading was low. I read a 1.038/39 instead of the target of 1.045. Beer Smith says at...

Are you sure it was a mercury thermometer? I could be very wrong, but I thought they no longer made them with mercury. Unless your thermometer contained a silver liquid it is not mercury. Most likely a red-dyed alcohol based liquid.

Brewed a batch of NB Phat Tyre Extract Today... all went well until I realized I didn't follow directions. I foolishly added the 6lbs Munich Malt at 60 min instead of doing it at 15 min. Nothing I can do now, but I am curious how this will change the beer. Also, I am curious to learn the reasons...

I wanted to use some DME, but wasn't sure how much to use. I'll keep that in mind next time I brew.

Well, it is done and beyond me now. I'm putting my faith in the yeast and hoping for the best. But... I still can't stop from pondering on a few upsetting things that happened during my first brew. 1) I used dry yeast. I decided to rehydrate the yeast, spur of the moment and this process...

Yes, the whole airlock had popped off.

The total cooling time was around 35 minutes and it was covered the entire time except for a couple times to get a temperature reading. The batch is in a bucket now, but I will move it to a carboy when I dry hop. The airlock is fine now - no problems other than what I believe is a vacuum (low...

Today was my first ever home brew. I bought an extract kit from Northern Brewer. It was the Chinook IPA and I am very anxious to give it a try. The process went better than I expected but I ran into a few road bumps along the way and I am looking for ways to improve my next batch in a couple...