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Please let us know how it turns out!

This was yeast collected from the bottom of the secondary carboy. This explains why there is a lot of other material beside the microbes. Sometimes you can see huge chunks of hop material. I do have methyl blue, but have not used it yet. What I might do is make a starter from the beer, and...

This concerns me. I think that something is in the fermentation chamber and I will be do a deep clean. Also, the kitchen could probably use a good cleaning as well. But I have no where else to brew right now and I only have one fermentation chamber...not really looking forward to buying another...

I believe boiling them is good for two reasons: sterilizing and remove potentially harsh flavors. For my last imperial stout, I ended up dumping the bourbon I first used to soak the oak cubes. The second round of bourbon ended up having softer flavors imparted on it from the oak. I used medium...

I mash in the same spot I pitch the yeast. This is something I have considered before. The most handling I do is mixing the grain into the water, but I suppose this is enough to have grain dust floating around.

Thank you for the link I racked the beer from secondary to the keg. It is most definitely infected =( It has stronger off aroma and flavors than before, so maybe if I place a sample under the scope it will be more obvious. I'll post photos later on.

An interesting thing about fruit flies... I had a lot of them this summer in the kitchen. When I did a hefe, they really liked the smell of the banana. So there were lots of fruit flies that got into the fermentation wine fridge. That batch was fine. The next batch was the first one that got...

Looks like I'm in the same boat as you. Just finished up my second, in a row, infected AG batch. It's pretty frustrating. I am going to swap out as much of my equipment as I can for high-temp rated replacements so I can boil things to be safe. Possible sources for the infection include: -...

I'm a bit confused by all of the photos in which the tops of kegs and buckets are opened widely. If I'm not mistaken, opening the containers in such a way can potentially introduce enough oxygen to create significant sour. I understand that many want to taste that sourness, so some oxygen is...

I was motivated to purchase a relatively inexpensive microscope having x1000 magnification so I can start looking at microbes after my brews, to look at microbes of commercial beers, and to perform cell counts. The last couple of batches have given off a strange plasticy smell. Actually, the...

I am looking for a hemocytometer for counting yeast cells. There are inexpensive ones and ridiculously expensive ones. Here is an example of an inexpensive one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Improved-Neubauer-Hemocytometer-Hemacytometer-Blood-Cell-Counting-Chamber/390737198723 Some of the...

Detailed brew log Boil: 20 minutes for hot break Boil: 60 minute boil after Hibiscus was added @ 5 minutes. 2.12 oz (12 grams/gallon) Steeped until temperature of wort reached 160 F * Forgot to add yeast nutrient and irish moss. Turns out it was fine. Chilled with wort chiller to 72 F...

Sure thing! I messed several targets on this one, but it ended up great. I am copying from where I have the recipe elsewhere (on a blog that isn't ready to be shown ;-) ). I can try to rewrite the recipe to take the mistakes and make them the actual recipe. I was still getting my system down at...

Could there be an issue with too much residual sugar after adding one of the additions of sugar? For example, once it drops to, let's say 1.028 and you add more sugar so that it is over 1.050, then it drops again to 1.028 and you add more sugar....this happens a few times. Then it drops to 1.028...

How do you bottle? The spigot of a bottling bucket is a great place for microbes to hide. What is your process for cleaning and sanitizing bottles. Do you do both?

You could be inaccurate by a few points at different stages. 1) not accounting for pre-boil volume compared to final volume, 2) not calibrated refractometer, 3) not allowing wort to cool. Added up, it could be a lot of error.

I'm not sure what you mean here. You want to take gravity when wort is cooled to room temperature in all cases. I put a few drops on my refractometer and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Usually, the gravity goes up by a couple of points. Did you calibrate your refractometer using distilled...

Would there be any benefit from harvesting yeast from a bottle of high ABV beer to inoculate high gravity wort? Since the remaining viable yeast, if any, has been "selected" to handle high gravity and high ABV, would building a starter from a beer like Black Tuesday or World Wide Stout make sense?

When I add hops at "flame out", I don't actually add them right away. I have been chilling the wort somewhere between 160-170 and holding it for about ten minutes. I don't know how big of a difference there is, but I am banking on their being less alpha acid isomerization and more hop flavor...

This past winter I brewed a hibiscus saison. Got 2nd place in a HB competition in the spiced beer category (since with the hibiscus it's not a classic style). Here is the malt bill... 5 gal batch German Pilsner (2-row)...