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I looked around the net quite a bit and found that the majority of recipes/advice tell to add orange peels at flameout (or during boil), but I have also run into a few recipes that say to soak fresh orange peel in vodka and dump it in the fermenter later. Has anyone done this? How does each...

I have no idea why I'm writing this, just some venting, I guess. It didn't really bother me, but later on I thought "that was a really sh***y thing to do, especially to a customer." I went to Northern Brewer as I usually do. I noticed a few of the employees had a bit of an arrogance, like...

with craft brew booming over the last few years, I have been seeing that many beers will list the hops used on the beer bottles. That's nice and all, but reading that only made me wonder: "How many of the people buying this actually know what the heck it means?" When did beer culture get to the...

Very nice idea. I might find someone who had a similar experience. I'm not against Mr Beer or other HMEs (I've had some great beers with them), but for some reason, something got messed up here, and it was such an odd situation I had to ask.

It's one of these. It's not unlike another other fermentation bucket, it just has a loose lid to let co2 escape. I got it when I started and just kept using it because it's incredibly easy to use and clean...

I fermented this one in my old Coopers bucket, so no airlock or tubing. The foam that I got during bottling was thick and dense, not light and soapy like star-san. Also, if this helps, a white, head-like residue left on the inside walls of the fermenter (which I've gotten before using Mr...

Thanks for the reply. I'm still uneasy about this whole experience. I think I'll dump the batch just to be safe. What a waste.

Hello. I have a few years of brewing experience under my belt, but I can't say I'm very good at it. Living in Minneapolis, I get my kits mainly from Northern Brewer and sometimes Midwest. I haven't used any Mr. Beer products in years, but I still get their e-mail newsletter. Anyway, they were...

Thanks for all the great info. This has really piqued my curiosity, so I think I will take this opportunity to do a yeast experiment. I usually brew recipes with just the recommended yeast, so I never learned firsthand how different yeasts affect beer. I may just half the brew so I can ferment...

Darn. That's too bad. I have no idea what a California common tastes like, so I'd like to get it right. I guess I'll have to pick up some S-23. That leads me to another issue: I don't normally lager, so I don't know what I would do with this pack of 34/70. I'll have to do some research on any...

I ordered a California common recipe kit on sale (among others), and by some mistake, I ended up with Saflager w-34/70 instead of the suggested s-23. I figured I'd just make it with that, but I'm not experienced with lager yeasts, so I'm having some reservations. What's the verdict? Should I...

Yesterday I tried a drink called The Dude's Rug from B. Nektar. It's described as a mead with tea and chai, but it definitely tastes like an apple cider. The chai complimented it very well. I thought I could try something simple and just add some spiced chai tea to an apple cider brew and see...

Thanks for all the replies. The clone recipe looks good, but whenever I try those, I often end up with extra ingredients I don't really know what to do with, and I don't brew all that often. I like NB kits because it gives me exactly what I need, and it's 15 minutes away. I'll mull it over a bit.

I was just in London yesterday, and I got a Fullers London Pride from a pub. It was... well, kinda flat. Strangely, though, I loved it. The light carbonation was refreshing, and I liked the taste ( I tasted something nutty(?) at the end of each swig). Anywhoo, that got me wanting to try an...

I just had a bit of a concern with a beer I just bottled. This was just a quick experiment with an extra can of Coopers HME I had to see how things like ginger and other additions would affect the taste. I got a bottle of Natural Rasberry extract from Northern Brewer, and the instructions say to...

I bought a bottle by this name yesterday. It was brewed by Olvalde Farm and Brewing Company. It bills itself as an imperial porter stout brewed with spruce tips. It was indeed very good, but the flavor that I was the most caught up on was something very similar to raspberry. What ingredient...

I use a Coopers FV as my fermenter (the newer one with the krausen collar). I really like it and I haven't have any problems with it yet, but lately I've been having some concerns, particularly with the spigot. The spigot is just a simple insert-and-lock system with the rubber around the...

I use swing-top bottles, and I collect various kinds when I find them. Some of the bottles I got had tops with non-removable gaskets, so I had to replace the whole thing. I got a pack of wire bail caps at Northern Brewer. They looked fine to me (the wire pieces looked the right length, the cap...

I use a Coopers FV, so no airlock to worry about.

I have a very silly concern that has kept me from taking hydrometer readings with the spigot on the fermenter, so now I am going to bring it out and let people tell me how stupid it is so hopefully I won't be afraid anymore. OK, so say I take a hydrometer reading through the fermenter's...