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HA! Theoretically, pipe smoking can be a lot cheaper than any other type of smoking. I moved over to mostly pipes as cigars started to rise in price a few years ago. It was initially nice getting 2 tins of tobacco for the price of one good cigar. Then, I found a new hobby of collecting pipes. So...

Late posting, wanted to get a few smokes through it before I talked about it. Wife's Christmas present to me this year. She knows I love a big pipe, and this is certainly one of my favorites, but make sure you always have a free hand while smoking if you end up getting one of these. Savinelli...

If you are staying on the Mag Mile and want to get classic Chicago Style Deep Dish and a Pint, Gino's East (River North location on LaSalle St.) opened up a brewery at this location. Not the best micro brews I've ever had, but they were decent and certainly added to the experience. Depending...

Yeah, even better is that they weren't close friends. More like friends of friends. So yeah, not even knowing I was a homebrewer at all really made me feel good. On the opposite side is my Dad. Complete, die-hard, Miller Lite drinker. He'll drink my beer, go, "Oh, this is good." So I...

On the bolded part, that's why I use a wedge from the start. It really seems, once you get down to that last little bit, it's a lot clearer than if you try to tip it at the last minute while siphoning.

I took a 2.5 gallon keg of my Amber Ale and a 2.5 gallon keg of an IPA I made to a football party one time. There were only about 10 beer drinkers there that day. After about an hour and a half, 3 of them asked where the other kegs were to tap because the other two were empty. Then, when I...

Pre-filled 5 gallons. I used to know a place in Geneva that had a machine, to fill up whatever size you wanted and they charged by the gallon. They switched out machines there though and it's no longer an RO machine. Sorry, if you are loooking to refill on your own, I don't know of any...

I usually buy my 5 gallons of RO water at Ace Hardwares in the area. I see them at Lowe's and Home Depot as well.

I bought one of those clips that holds my autosiphon inside the bucket. I usually start a few inches below the surface of the beer and slowly move it down as the beer moves down. Unless it's a stout or similar beer, I've never had an issue being able to see the trub as the beer nears the bottom...

I don't know a ton about HERMS systems, but in theory, I think what you are doing should work. My big initial concern would be the cleanliness of the inside of your IC though. Those things are tough to dry out completely and i've seen some really nasty stuff come out of mine, even after I...

Your fears are exaggerated. Basic Brewing did a three part podcast on toxicities in brewing. Had a toxicologist who did a lot of the tests. The most toxic thing, by miles, found in beer, is the alcohol. Nothing else was even showing up in trace amounts. They did everything from copper, brass to...

I've seen them and they look like a cool invention. For the cost though, I chose to go with 2 - 2.5 gallon corny kegs instead. For me, I like the idea of stainless over plastic. Easier to clean and, this is just my opinion, but in my experience, anything plastic is not a life long investment...

Sounds like a great dog and loved member of the family. Sorry for your loss.

Seems the math got screwed up after my post, check for me, but it seems the math should be this. 29020.5 +205 _______ 29225.5 +5 _______ 29230.5 +9 _______ 29239.5 I think that's the correct number

29020.5 + 6 gal Magnum/Ciitra IPA ________ 29026.5

unionrdr pretty much said my thoughts on the matter. I like to give stouts and porters a couple extra weeks. Imperial non IPAs tend to take a little more time to mellow out the hotness of the alcohol. I found the best thing I did was really monitor fermentation temps pretty rigidly. This makes...

Brewing a simple citra IPA today. Starting chill right now.

I just filter out the chlorine with a carbon block filter. According to a guy I talked to years ago and goose island, other than all the chlorine they use Chicago water is pretty good for brewing. This was years ago, so I thought about getting it checked again, but I like my beer and so do...

That's cool, I wish my wife liked beer more. Although I can't complain she's very supportive of my hobby. She even goes out of her way to make sure I get time on the weekends to brew. The only problem I see with this is if she drinks all your beer before you can drink it and isn't willing to...

You hit my big one in your post. Fermentation temperature control. After that, another thing I like to tell people, is that if you are not happy with something about a beer you made, don't make wholesale changes. It goes along with good notes in some ways, but if you are trying to figure out...