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You may want to add some flavoring to make it a dessert beer. One of my top winning beers was Jamil's oatmeal stout that stuck at 1025. I bottled twelve and then added cold brewed espresso and a vanilla bean to the rest. I won a couple of seconds and a third with the sweet stout and two...

I would like one of the sanke couplers. I recently got to brew at a large brewery and they sent me home with a bunch of free hops. I will trade you 1.5 pounds for a coupler. These are fresh out of hop union vac bags when I got them and have been in the freezer since. Pick between us saaz...

Insulate your tun. Get a full hinged false bottom. Recirculate during your mash. Use at least 1.4 quarts water per pound of grain. Do these things and never turn up your burner above what high on a kitchen stove looks like. I usually have my burner on during the whole mash at a very low...

I use the same process and have found it works well. I usually do it all at once though. I ferment in a chest freezer and have found it only takes a couple of hours to go from chiller about 53 to 45. So I brew then put carboys in the freezer. In three hours trub has compacted and wort is 45...

I play a mean skin flute!:ban:

I usually set my gap at 42. I find if I go less I will get an occasional stuck sparge. I usually hit 75% with this crush in my system. If you use loctite get the medium not permanent. Then you can change your gap if you wish. Mine usually slipped after running malted wheat through. It is a...

I have had mine for about 18 months and experience this problem from time to time. It usually happens when I don't blow out the flour after I mill. My mill is mounted under the lid of a bucket. I find if you roll the rollers by hand back and forth and blow out the four at the same time it...

I have a hard time with taste description especially when you put it side by side with 15 other specialty beers. It was very subtle mildly tart and effervescient. It seemed a little more funky in the first comp and mellowed nicely in the second. It was not really malty or hoppy but quite...

You may want to consider a cheap harbor freight battery powered impact and the appropriate 12 point sockets. I had a couple from northern brewer that I couldn't get off any other way. I you save up a bunch of kegs to clean at once this is a great tool to make quick work of removing posts.

It calls for 3112 brux and or 3526 lambicus. I pitched both. Do you think the long lag time will ruin this batch? I made this because I stewarded in two comps where I did speciality beers and got to taste it. It took a second and a first three months later. I tracked down the brewer and he...

I did my first flanders red last weekend and pitched the wyeast roselare blend. I know this blend has sacc as well bugs. Do I need to secondary this after primary fermentation is through. It was still for a couple days and now it is looking much like a normal fermentation. Do I rack after...

I brewed the sans le chat receipe from wild brews last sunday and pitched two brett strains from wyeast. I had no visible activity until thursday afternoon, and now it is chugging along just fine. Is this long lag time normal for brett? Thanks Derek

I like to put my sensor in a thermowell in a two liter coke bottle filled with water. It should greatly prolong the life of your compressor and stop large temperature fluctuations.

I would worry more about pitching at 80 degrees. If you pitched at 65 to 70 you propably wouldn't have the this issue. But this way fermentation should be done in 2 days if you force carb you can be drinking this beer by monday. Only problem is it won't taste very good.

Don't add O2 at this point. My first BGS did the exact same thing and I was able to get it down to 08 and it has won several ribbons. Pitch the us-05 and let it work for a couple weeks. On my second batch I was able to get it to attenuate fully by swirling the carboy daily as soon as you see...

I would not bother with hefe yeast it will not last very long, I have been advised by senior club members that a couple weeks tops with that particular yeast. I don't know why but I believe it is the same reason they should be consumed quicker as well.

In the future you may want to just swirl the cake up in the better bottle and then pour out a full quart mason jar full. I, and many of our club members do this often, and store in the fridge for up to a couple months with most yeasts. Hefe yeast is a little more perishable and should be used...

I like to use fruit frozen in bags from the store. It is already steam pasturized and when you thaw it you can work it into a pulp in the bag. Pasturizing on the stove gives the fruit a different flavor, more jam like and the pectin can make your beer very hazy. Not bad just different...

How about using dried bitter orange traditionally used in wit.

One pound of dme will add 9 points to a five gallon batch. You may add this up until fermentation is near complete. Put dme in a flask or pot and add enough water to make a very thick wort syrup. Slowly bring to a boil, cool, and pour it in. Derek