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Ok. Is there any overwhelming reason to transfer to bottling bucked, or can I just bottle from the same bucket it fermented in?

Ok, thanks!

Hi, I'm doing my second batch, using Brewer's Best (a brown ale this time). I brewed 8 days ago. It has been bubbling happily since, although the bubbling has slowed a lot in the last several days. I have decided not to transfer to secondary, feeling that the upside (clearer) isn't...

Full and fair disclosure: It was a significant PITA to find the parts for wiring the STC-1000, and wire it up (and I am experienced at wielding a soldering iron). Radio Shack ain't what it used to be. But it's now done, and seems to be working properly. The compressor delay is a bit...

Given that I now have the equipment to easily do the cold crash, is there any reason not to do it? This seems especially relevant to me now, since I do not plan to secondary ferment. It's a brown ale.

Sounds interesting; I'll have to read up on that!

What's "cold crash"?

Ok, I see how it works. Thanks! I've decided: I have bought a 5.1 cubic foot chest freezer, and an STC-1000. The STC-1000 is supposed to be delivered on Friday, and I'll get a heating strap for my fermenter before then from our local brewing store. Thanks very much!

Yeah, a basement, especially in a place that's normally not too hot (like Seattle or RI) would be perfect. Unfortunately, I don't have one. I suspect that a wine refrigerator, which will cool to 55-70, and large enough for my fermentation bucket, may be the best answer for me.

Ok, I'll bite. If it's always hot outside, and always hot inside (not an unusual event in Tyler, Texas, and it happens even here in Seattle), how do you keep your freezer at 65 without having it plugged in to cool? I understand that, if I were to keep it in the garage in the winter, I would...

I see how the STC-1000 works, but I wonder if that is just a recipe for, at the least, high energy costs, or, worse, failure of the fridge. It seems to me that introducing a heater into the fridge/freezer will cause the fridge/freezer to run all the time, and the heater to run a lot of the...

I'm handy, just lazy (complicated projects go unfinished, but I can change the motor in my car). A fridge does sound like the only way to go.

I'm not really interested in something as large, or potentially leaky, as a junkyard fridge. But the idea of buying a relatively inexpensive, smaller fridge, and regulating it with an STC-1000 has appeal. How much work/how complicated is it to adapt the STC-1000 to a fridge or freezer...

Ok, thanks. A/C may be pressed into service, since I can't be there all day loading ice into a bucket if it gets warm.

Hi, We have air conditioning in our house, but don't use it until the house gets above, say, 78 degrees F. I'm brewing a batch now that's supposed to ferment at 64-72 F. Right now, it's cold outside, so that's not a problem; but some time during the next three weeks, it likely will get...

Hi, I was given a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas, which produced quite decent results, and inspired me to move a step further into brewing. I bought a Brewer's Best Red Ale kit, and followed the directions reasonably well. I moved it from primary to secondary after 6 days. ABV was exactly...

Thanks very much!

I bottled my first 5-gallon batch last Thursday (a Brewer's Best red ale). I think all went well. When I finished the boil several weeks earlier, and transferred the cooled wort to my first fermentation bucket, I topped it up (took very little) to 5 gallons, as instructed. After...

Bottling day. The five gallons that I had at the end of the boil have reduced to about 4-1/2 gallons for bottling (presumably due to leaving some in the primary and secondary jugs to avoid transferring sediment, plus the 8oz each of the two times I took a gravity measurement). I assume that...

Hi, I've done a search, and found nothing. Forgive me if I missed it. I'm planning to bottle on Thursday (red ale, from a Brewer's Best kit; my first time other than one batch from Mr. Beer). I have an adequate supply of various-sized bottles, sanitizer, etc. I plan to sanitize...