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I planted a couple cascade rhizomes in a planter box around beginning of April. I make my own fertilizer/compost from spent grains and leaves from around the yard. They grew to about 16 feet in 3 months. A bunch of the hops on it seem ripe now, so I picked some this morning - picture attached...

I've done 10% honey malt in the mash, let it ferment for 7 days, pour in 1.5lbs of orange blossom honey (mixed with an equal volume of water so that it would pour and mix into the wort reasonably), let it ferment out again, bottle using the same honey as the priming sugar, and it was slightly...

You mention that you are doing the partial mash kit. Walk us through your brew day with details like your mash temp, and whatnot. A hot alcohol flavor can be a sign of fermentation temps that got too high (see fusel alcohols). It can also be a sign of just a high ABV beer that needs time to age...

Here is a method I use that works every time. The below is scaled for a 5 gallon batch. It can be scaled up or down depending on your volume of beer. After fermentation is done and any dry hopping, cold crash the vessel in a refrigerator (40F-33F) for 24 hours. A chill haze should be evident...

From my search, I'm settling in on something that will be much like a SMaSH. Here is my tentative plan: X lbs US 2 row mashed at 149-150F for 75 mins Y oz Cascade at 60 mins (2/3 IBUs here) rest of Cascade IBUs spread evenly between 15 mins, 5 mins, 2 mins total IBUs would be kept...

Re the OP question: The BeerSmith default value is 1.25 qts water per 1 lb of grain in the mash. I mash 5 lbs of grain in a 3.25gal pot to do partial mashes, so using that to scale down I would expect that you can do a partial mash of up to 3 lbs grain combined with 3.75qts of water in your...

My SG hops were fresh. I even made it a second time shifting the addition times around and still didn't like it. I had previously used it in an irish red with lots of crystal malt and I'm guessing all the caramel/sweetness masks the grassy flavor. I'll be using EKG in irish reds from now on...

I made some 1-gallon SMaSHs plus a bunch of cheaters that included various % of a single specialty grain (SMaSH+1 or DMaSH) in the mash. My favorites so far have been Maris Otter + Saaz, Maris Otter + East Kent Goldings, and Munich + East Kent Goldings. MO+Cascade and MO+Northern Brewer are...

I do 1-gallon testers and 5-gallon batches on the stove top. The 1-gallon batches are all grain, about 2 lbs of grain to reach a 1.060 OG or so. The 5-gallon batches are partial mashes and my largest pot can accommodate 5 lbs of grain, requiring use of 1-2lb of DME to reach comparable OGs. It...

Without a hydrometer or comparable piece of equipment, you are guessing on when it is done. 2-3 weeks is probably safe to call it, but your next piece of brewing equipment really REALLY needs to be a hydrometer. I've never had a bottle bomb, but from what I've read (go check out the cider...

Yeah, whenever I take a sample for the hydrometer (OG, and so on), I taste it to see how things are coming along. At OG, everything is really sweet of course, but you can pick up other characteristics too.

Thanks all!

To be clear, I'm not looking to instigate flame wars between the different ways of doing it, just wanting a clear practical picture on how to tell for method 1/2 its ready based on criteria X/Y..

So, I've been sifting through all the forums and am still not 100% certain what to do and how to interpret it. The two strats seem to be 1) fill soda bottle with bottling wand, squeeze out the air space and cap, versus 2) fill soda bottle with bottling wand and cap it with the air space still...

Yeah, there are many different viewpoints on how to do it. They all seem to work too, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. I say pick one way and do that this time, next time try doing it differently and see which way you prefer - that's one of the things that makes brewing your own beer so...

In your original post, it sounds like you added the whirlfloc *after* the 60 mins of boil time. If you really added it right at flame-out, I suggest adding it a bit earlier. I use it in every batch at 15 minutes left on the boil.

No harm in procrastinating, I do it all the time! :D

I doubt your hottest tap water is 150F, it is probably closer to 125F. If your goal is to keep something warm, you want to insulate with something that is a really poor conductor of heat. Water will conduct heat away from your pot a bit better than just air. Unless you have a method for keeping...

I like 12oz size bottles and I get more than I need as donations from friends as empties. I do the hot soapy water soak method. Some brands labels fall right off, others are near impossible to get off: Easy labels to remove: Sierra Nevada, Newcastle, Sam Adams. PITA to remove: Karl Strauss...

My plain german-style wheats are done in about 10 days (stable FG for 2-3 days at that point), I bottle condition and those can be carbed up and ready in as little as 8 days - maybe because there is so much yeast still in suspension. I wouldn't bother checking any other style at that short of...