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I need to get some of those $20 extract kits whenever they go on sale. (they still do that, right?) I'm an all-grain brewer but I only get to brew a few times a year. Extract kits would allow me to sneak a few extras in. Thanks for the reminder.

Try Red Star Cote des Blancs yeast, a.k.a Epernay II. It's a lot cheaper than beer yeast and I think it makes the best tasting cider of them all. I keep trying different yeasts and I come back to this one. I also recommend using white sugar, and less of it. A lot of people think brown sugar...

I planted some pepper seeds a little over 2 weeks ago. "Mad Hatter" mild peppers, Murupi Amarela which is a long white habanero-type very hot pepper, and some seeds that I saved from a chiltepin x "Lemon Drop" cross that I really liked. All the seeds were a couple of years old, and they should...

I bottled this yesterday and drank about 6 ounces of it warm and flat. It tastes wonderful but that might partially be because I haven't had any beer in about a month. (not a permanent thing, I'm just trying to lose some weight and get healthy) It's not as bitter as I expected but it's still...

Schell's 2023 Snowstorm. (Posting from phone because that's where the picture is.) It's a dark rye ale, 6.3% ABV and 35 IBUs. I can really taste the alcohol after having not drank any in several weeks. :) There's condensation on the glass, that's why it looks cloudy

I'm enjoying all your beers (and port, etc.) vicariously. Keep it up! :thumbsup: I'm drinking coffee right now. I haven't had any alcohol in almost 3 weeks, trying to get healthy and fit after turning into a fat blob during the Covid lockdowns and not doing anything about it afterwards. No...

I remembered that I have some pints of dark invert sugar syrup that I made last year. I don't know if it's closer to invert #2 or #3, but each jar has 1 pound of sugar in it. A few weeks ago I brewed what should have ended up 4 gallons at about 7.5% ABV with the sugar, and a little less than...

Walmart and the local supermarkets here all have RO water dispensers where you fill your own jugs for 35¢ a gallon or less. You might see if you have that available. For about $6, Menard's sells 4 gallons of "spring water" (RO water with a little bit of minerals added back) in a lightweight...

Try using Red Star "Cote des Blancs" (Epernay 2) yeast. I keep trying different ale yeasts and wine yeasts -- I haven't tried bread yeast or lager yeast yet -- and I keep coming back to CdB because it tastes the best. And it's cheap👍 Also the cider will taste different (better) when it's...

That's how I reuse most yeasts. If the jar of yeast is fairly fresh I just swirl it up and dump in the fermenter. Or dump half of it in and transfer the rest to a smaller jar. Last week I brewed a kinda high gravity beer and the jar of yeast was a couple of months old so I made a starter. For...

See if your LHBS will add a sack of whatever malt you want to his next order and tell him you're fine with waiting for it. That's what I used to do when I wanted something that my LHBS didn't have. (not just whole sacks, but a pound or 2 of weird specialty malt too) I assume it's actually a...

Looks like shipping has gone up since I ordered last. It's $27.14 to here now too. And I might be misremembering the $10 shipping, but I know it wasn't much. :rolleyes: $15 maybe? I don't know. I don't have a LHBS anymore; when I did I bought almost all my grain and pretty much everything...

Shipping is cheap to Minnesota. They use a courier called Spee-Dee Delivery. (at least last time I placed an order)

I just looked up the price; $46 a bag for Briess 2-row at ritebrew.com. Their Briess Vienna has gone up to $52 since I bought it.

I buy most of my base malts in 50 and 55 pound bags, and stored in white plastic buckets in the basement they stay good for years. I think the last bag I bought was a year ago; 50 pounds of Vienna for $45 and another $10 for shipping. I buy 1 pound bags of crystal malts and black malt but I...

I'm getting a late start, but I'm grinding the malt now for a strong ale. (had stop and give my arms a rest because I'm a wuss) I should have it on the stove in a half hour. Some of the weights are a little odd because I'm using up the last of some bags of malt. For 4 gallons of beer: 8.2...

I made about a quart and a half of cream of mushroom soup, using some dried mushrooms I bought at an Asian market a couple of months ago. (I buy stuff because it looks interesting, then don't know what to do with it) The mushroom-looking ones I think were shitakes. The others were "black...

With a natural gas stove with a high-output burner, I could easily boil 4 gallons of wort in a 22 quart canner. I'd have to keep topping it up during the boil to brew 4 gallons, but that worked surprisingly well. I upgraded to a heavy 8 gallon kettle and it struggled to bring 4 gallons to a...

I use really good commercial beers as inspiration and try to brew something similar. Or sometimes I read an article about an interesting indigenous beer and see if I can brew one that resembles it. I also have a few regular beers in my rotation that were just interpretations of BJCP guidelines...

It's chunks. I figured it would probably take a week to dissolve but that would be okay because the yeast would be attacking it. I could be terribly wrong about that