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Well my typical practice is to sanitize, of course. It's such a cheap and easy thing to do, you may as well do it, right? But bear in mind....that was batch #9 with no loss to infection. Let's say that I make one more batch without using sanitizer and it gets infected. That's one batch in...

Well, I'm a "Bacchus type" brewer. I brew using my own methods and yes, I suffer from "ugly baby" syndrome. I'm sure my beer wouldn't win any competitions and I couldn't care less. Hey, my stuff is better than Budweiser and that's good enough for me. Besides, alcohol is alcohol and after...

This is one issue that I really don't understand but hey.....we're all different, right? I just don't get the added exenditure of buying bagged ice to cool your wort when a bathtub full of cool tap water will accomplish the same thing in about a half hour to 45 minutes. I've been using this...

I too use the swing top bottles and I agree 100% with cleaning the bottles as used. It makes sanitizing so much easier on bottling day. I take the same approach with my fermentation buckets. I get those cleaned immaculately as soon as they're emptied. I then dry them, close the spigots and...

About a month and a half ago I cooked up an Irish Blonde. While the wort was boiling, I reached for my bottle of Clorox and it was bone dry. I decided, "What the hell! I'm always talking about how sanitizing is taken to extremes and here's a chance to show, once again, that I'm right." And...

That's always been one of my suspicions. I don't brew "lawn mower" beers and I typically brew nothing less than 6% ABV. Eight of those compared to eight 5% beers can make one hell of a big difference. Especially if consumed in the same amount of time.

Good question but I really don't have an answer. I too have noticed that if I over-do it with homebrew, I pay one hell of a price the next day. And let me tell ya', not sure if it's anything to brag about but I am one hell of an experienced drinker! I have a bit of a local reputation as a guy...

And I feel just the opposite. I kegged for about six months and got tired of the nasty keg cleaning and the constant sticky cleanup of all the little squirts and leaks due to the hooking and unhooking of the keg lines. I'll admit that it's very nice to be able to just dump a batch straight...

Kudos to you, my man! It takes real gonads to say that in a "hard core" brewers forum. LOL!!! I too keep my primaries and occasional secondaries to a bare minimum and always come out with great beers. When the yeast is done, it's done. You can let it sit on "the cake" until the cows come...

I'll second that. Your beer will be A.O.K.

Just polished off my batch of NB Honey Kolsch. It was great! I drank the last glass very slowly, swirling it and holding it to the light to watch the bubbles. It was actually one the better batches of beer I've ever made. I was really sad to see it go. I highly recommend it. The added...

That's funny and quite coincidental! My two previous batches (before the Coopers) were a Northern Brewer's Saison and Kolsch. LOL!!! Loved the Kolsch but the Saison had a really bitter bite to it. It probably would have been better with about another month of aging. Go slow with that one.

Oxidation is only an issue if you're going to be storing (cellaring) your beer for very long periods. At the rate at which most homebrewers consume their beer....usually under six months.....it's a non-issue.

Yep.....good old bleach inema will fix 'er up for sure. That baby could be crawling with AIDS and good old unscented Clorox will make it cleaner than the day it was created.

I got my start with a Coopers homebrewery kit and cut my teeth on their ingredients packages. I really enjoyed them whenever I made them but I eventually moved up to buying the kits made by Williams and Northern Brewer. A couple of weeks ago, I suppose for reasons of nostalgia, I decided to...

I bottle condition in a heated cabinet and so typically two weeks at about 75F and my lighter ales (kolsches and blondes) are usually fully carbed and so I refrigerate them for a couple of more weeks. But my heavier beers like Belgians sometimes have to sit for a month at that temp to get fully...

Just make sure when you're sampling to have some commercial beer on hand. As most of us know, a little alcohol in the blood stream has a sinister way of saying, "Go ahead....try another one." LOL! Next thing you know, you're into week two and you've "sampled" your way through two thirds of...

LOL! O.K.....let me get this straight.....an open fermenter placed next to a toilet while it's being crapped in and the advice is to pitch and ferment as per the usual? Alright...... But I better never see one complaint about anyone else's sanitation methods. And to think I've been told...

Texas law stipulates that any beverage made with barley, hops, water and yeast, up to 5% ABV, is classified as a beer. Anything above 5% is classified as an ale. Regardless of the yeast type or brewing procedure. Don't ask me why. It's just their rule.

My Coopers fermenter started leaking CO2 on the second batch. They're great fermenters but they are notorious for leaking. Don't worry about it. After you brew a while you'll realize that the airlock is pretty much worthless anyway. It's fun to watch but really doesn't tell you much about...