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Thank you very much for such a prompt answer! Now I need to do some math :-)

Hi guys, I am making a minimash NXNW Black Ale from AHS. The recipe calls for 1 oz of Cascade (60 min), but I decided to go with Centennial. The reason is simple - they didn't have leaf Cascade, and I don't like pellets. Now, the question is: if alpha number of Centennial is twice as much (10...

Well, I eat only local Texas honey, but I wouldn't say it is doing anything allergy-wise. It is just tasty, that's it... :-)

I live in Central Texas, and cedar allergy (aka cedar fever) is a big thing here. Many people suffer from it in winter, and when you are done with the juniper, there is always something in blossom around that makes your life miserable. Sometime ago I have heard from somebody or read somewhere...

I've just measured the gravity, and it is way lower than expected (or better to say, lower than instructions suggest): instead of 1.012 I have 1.006. The OG was also lower than it had to be - 1.035. I don't care much about alcohol, but I did not want this porter to be so dry. Is there any way to...

I do the same - the only difference is that I put bottled water in the airlock instead of vodka (I hate its taste). The water sits there for about two weeks, and always has the same funny hoppy taste regardless of the type of beer I brew.

Bleach works well for me. It makes everything clean in 20 minutes, and then I rinse with hot tap water. In fact, my city water is so bad (it really stinks with bleach) that I might be able to sanitize with it straight from the faucet :-) BTW, if you use moderate amount of bleach (1 tbs per...

It's hard to buy it. After all, beer is not a harry-potter-style potion - fermentation is just some chemistry :-) And I can significantly reduce its variables. Let me rephrase my question. What if I brew three extract beers (5 gallons each) - both with the same bottled water, the same hops and...

I am trying to find a correlation between beer style (from the most pale to the most dark) and the activeness of fermentation. In other words, which beer ferments more actively? I know that it is always different, but still - based on experience, is it possible to say, for example, that some...

You need to learn some Russian if you want to make kvas from authentic recipes :-) Funt [foont] is a pound, stakan [stah-kahn] is a glass (250 ml).

I see what you are saying. No, I didn't steep in the full volume. I don't have my records at hand, but it was about 2 gallons if I recall correctly for 3 lbs of mixed grains. And that was what the instructions called for. After steeping (let's call it this way) for 45 minutes I put it on fire...

Yeah, I may be misusing these term. Here is my view: mashing involves enzyme activity (starch becomes sugar), and steeping is a simple dissolution of sugars (no starch conversion). Since I had everything mixed together in one bag (base grain and specialty grains), I probably was mashing and...

Everything is bigger here in Texas, even colors :-)

Yes, 5.25 to be exact. So which of the grains you think I might add next time?

AHS grinds/cracks all the grains and combines them into one bag, so yes, everything was cracked. I steeped at 155 for at least 45 minutes. I am not saying that the original Newcastle is very brown :-) it's just mine clone is much lighter. I poured them both in two identical glasses and...

I made a mini mash AHS clone of Newcastle Brown Ale. It has been sitting in the bottles for two weeks, and yesterday I decided to try it. I know it is two early, but still. The taste is really close to the original, although somewhat flat, which will improve, I hope, after a few more weeks. What...

I pitch dry yeast straight into the carboy without any re-hydration. Activity usually begins in 4 to 8 hours. Palmer's claim that "the yeast can not draw enough water across the cell membranes" because there is too much sugar in the wort doesn't seem convincing to me.

The color is not as good as it should be because I was cheap and made several batches in the same bowl with lye. It might have lost its strength. I'll make a new solution next time.

My friend has finally brought me some NaOH from the lab, and I made brezel (as we call them in Russia) today. Tastes right for me! My homebrew will be conditioning in the bottles for two more weeks (brown ale), so it's just Fireman #4 from the store.

There is definitely a connection between drinking and peeing, but enjoying both activities at the same place?! Not for me!