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The first batch of beer I ever made was with a can of Blue Ribbon hopped extract that I found on the shelves of a small grocery store in Iowa City, IA. It even had an insert under the lid with information on where I could get some supplies. Who knows how long it was there.... I used it along...

Yeah, he said that the lacing looked "soapy" but I doubt that is what is happening. Soap generally breaks down the head and not the other way around....

You might consider doing an extract batch like normal but then also mashing say a pound of 2-row and sparging it through a small strainer. I did batches like this for a long time and it is a good way to "get your feet wet" with mashing and start to understand the process. Also testing for...

I'm kind of stuck in between at the moment and that is because I live in an apartment and have an electric stove. That may change very soon as a friend and I may go in together on a Mash N' Boil electric system. He sounds like he wants to go for it and he has brewed with me before. I am a...

I don't do bottles anymore but when I did I simply let it overflow only the slightest amount. Either way you will be fine. It's not super critical. Just depends on how you want to do it and with some practice you will know. Man, I used to have so many bottles... I always rinsed them out...

My favorite English Ale recipe is my Dark Chocolate Ale which uses real chocolate. I am not giving that recipe up. LOL. Recently did an Old Peculiar clone and that came out awesome and I got a lot of compliments. I posted up the recipe on the Northern Brewer forum. I could dig it back up and...

Before you pour another one take one drop of dish detergent and then one drop of StarSan and clean the glass that you will use. Scrub it good and then rinse it really well with hot water. The StarSan will get that glass extra clean and leave no residue. If it repeats then it is the beer and not...

No idea. I simply used a bottle filler and filled until the beer came out over the top of the bottle. I also used the bottle filler without the spring because it fills faster. I put the bottle in some sort of small pan to catch anything that overflows. I may waste a small amount of beer that way...

One local microbrewery had a Peach Cream Ale at only 5 IBUs. I thought to myself, that is not really beer anymore. I do quite a few fruit beers and I don't try to change the underlying beer. The beer should stand on its own and you should want to drink it regardless of whether it has fruit in it...

I once drank what if I can remember correctly was a 12% beer that not only used local wild hops but some wild yeast as well, along with some apples. It was good but I could only drink one and when I got to the auto parts store to buy something I realized that I had left my credit card at the...

A couple of things that have not been mentioned here. First is the fact that when I use the StarSan for clening the keg and removing debris I have my arm inside the keg and I am using a green scrubbie and physically removing debris by scrubbing. The StarSan is used full stregth. I have no idea...

In order for this to be a relevant statement you would have to provide actual data from all people who just use StarSan and what percentage of them actually get contaminations. That would actually be providing evidence and not just a blanket statement about "other people".... I would actually...

You know, technical brewers can make technical beers but maybe they don't make that one beer that sweeps you off of your feet. There is something to brewing, much like cooking, that doesn't come from a book but from the heart. I brew from the heart and usually don't drink the majority of the...

Of course I would generally say "prove it". Also you don't know their procedure, how they actually sanitized or failed to do so.... Here is something to know about me. My great grandfather was a brewer, although in a time when it was probably not as legal as today. My dad told me stories about...

You know, I don't remember whether I have ever used some OxiClean or PBW on the keg for cleaning it. I might have. I might even do it next time before using the StarSan. I have plenty of it. I do have a bunch of One Step cleaner that a friend gave me.

The only thing I want to add is that recently we had an "Ice Bowl" disc golf event here in Colorado Springs. I brought a keg of my brew and there were two kegs from a local brewery. My keg was gone in 3 hours time and the other two kegs were not even close. I got comments like "You should bottle...

All of those books are great. I think I checked out every book I could find at the library and then started using the information that worked best for me.

Looks like we are both adding fruit at exactly the same time. I recently switched to doing it this way with great results!

I will go with my 33 years experience and the fact that I have not once ever had a sanitation issue. But please. let's create problems when none exist. The proof is in the final product and I recently served up a 5 gallon keg to friends that lasted all of 3 hours.... Just sharing my experience...

I did once use frozen cherries in a batch and for that one I used a bucket. But it was early on in my brewing experience and I added them to primary right away. I no longer do that. I wait until primary has crashed and then add it to the fermenter before racking to secondary. That is where I am...