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My OG was 1.083 and I used US-05. After 15 days it was only down to 1.035. It took 3 weeks to get down to 1.024 and thats where it stopped. I kegged it today and it tastes great, if sweet. It's warm and uncarb'd but I taste that Pumking butter/graham cracker taste that everyone is looking for...

It is a little sweet, but I like Winter beers to be sweet. It's not cloying at all, though. My OG was just too high.

Drinking this now. It's great. It's still a couple days away from full carbonation but it's nice. I had forgotten to dry hop it until it was kegged and the dry-hopping hasn't yet fully taken effect yet either. Can't wait to taste test against the real thing. It's gonna be really good as it ages...

Deschutes Jubelale 2010. I've had this in the beer fridge for over 2 years at a constant 42°F and waiting until "after January 29, 2011", the date suggested on the bottle, to find a good occasion to open it. It's Friday, seems like a good occasion to me. And I'm just tired of passing it by in...

Pike Place's Harlot's Harvest Pumpkin Ale. It's like a brown ale with pumpkin spices.

Mashing a Belgian Tripel right now and will use my new Speidel fermenter. I hope to be drinking this on Thanksgiving.

Yeast don't talk to each other and all agree there is or isn't oxygen and agree to either make alcohol or not. Each cell is making the decision on its own and if a cell doesn't have oxygen available at the time it wants/needs it, it may produce alcohol. A minute later, that same cell may make a...

Top-cropping is supposed to be the best yeast because it flocculates well – high flocculating yeast clump together and ride the CO2 bubbles to the top, so the best yeast are at the top. It's also harvested sooner so they're healthier than the yeast that sat in the trub for weeks. Again...

A 3L starter means 3L of wort that the yeast is pitched into. The easy math is 10g of DME per 100ml of wort but the goal is an OG of ~1.040 for a starter you will pitch into a batch of beer, lower (~1.030) if you're stepping up from a smaller amount of yeast. You should chill and decant the...

I believe the proper inoculation rate is more to keep the yeast growing at an optimal rate. Too much or too little results in a less growth. You need to hit the sweet spot. But yeast are biological, not robots, so they don't follow perfect rules. There may be some small amount of alcohol...

Because the sugars are being processed and removed, lowering the gravity. Gravity is a measure of sugar in solution, not a measure of alcohol. Read pages 24-25 in "Yeast" by Chris White (founder of White Labs): "...yeast would rather not make ethanol and they only produce it under special...

You gotta wonder why he didn't think its brewed in Nevada!

If you were correct, bread would have alcohol. ;-) Yeast produce CO2 in aerobic and anaerobic conditions. But they also produce water in aerobic conditions and alcohol in anaerobic conditions. You could try drinking your starter and see if you get buzzed to prove me wrong. :-) This, of course...

The point of the stir plate is to provide oxygen for the yeast so they get strong and multiply. Fermentation is irrelevant in a starter. In fact, you're not really fermenting a starter as yeast don't produce alcohol when in an aerobic (oxygen) environment, only when they don't have access to...

That idea is so good it can't be legal. My batch completely dropped the spices for a week, I waited and they came back a little, not as good as it was but much more drinkable. But there's nothing bourbon (and cream) can't fix.

I'd pick beer over any girl who wants to limit my happiness. Beer always seems to know how to make me happy.

Brewing beer is not the same as drinking beer. The alcohol comes later so your girlfriend should be okay with it. But really.... get a new girlfriend or change your name to "Wonderwoman". ;-)

I got my 30L Speidel fermenter the other day. Looks great, I hope I can fill it in the next week. After washing it, I noticed they dry a lot faster than Better Bottles, which seem to take days to dry.

Weird. I went away for the weekend and came back looking forward to having some of this. I poured a glass and there was absolutely no spice aroma or taste – it completely disappeared. It's like drinking a bland pale ale. What happened??

First, they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win. – Ghandi