Search results

If it tastes burnt now, that might mellow a bit but its not clear from your post whether there was actually a burnt taste or if you're just concerned that there might be a burnt taste.

In general here is a simple recipe: 1 qt water + 1 cup DME, boil 15 minutes, cool to pitching temp, pour into a suitable container, pitch entire vial/packet of yeast. Give it a good swirl whenever you walk by it. Use about 36-48 hours later in your 5 gallon brew. I do at least this amount of...

Brown sugar is basically cane sugar + some molasses. If you're goal is really to get the molasses into your beer, I suggest adding that directly instead of having to add gobs of cane sugar along with just a little bit of molasses.

I use a nylon hop sack -- been reusing the same one for over a year now.. I just dump the spent hops gunk into the trash, turn it inside out and rinse it under the tap. Hang dry, and its ready to go again.

Swamp cooler and some empty soda bottles. Freeze water in the soda bottles and those are your giant ice cubes. You can get pretty fancy, or you can just use a $12 tub from target/walmart. And summer temps scream for a nice german hefeweizen.

I cool my wort in the pot in the kitchen sink in the coldest water that comes from the tap. Constant whirlpooling of the wort in the pot to help dissipate the heat into the sink water for 5 minutes (you'll know its working because the sink water will be HOT now). Change the sink water for cold...

Noz - what kind of container are you going to be fermenting in? plastic or glass? I didn't see that information anywhere..

For the first run I'd suggest leaving the honey AND the cherries out to keep it as simple as possible. The major issues in the beginning are maintaining sanitation and the more steps you add, the more complicated it is, and the more spots there are for something to go wrong. What yeast are you...

Yeah, if you can ferment all your ales at 64F more power to ya.

I copied my bottling method pretty much completely from Revvy's method that you can find here. Note that the whole setup is over the open dishwasher. This makes cleanup of any spills a simple matter of closing the dishwasher door. I still have a towel down to cover any other little drips.

Unfortunately, that water report seems to lack most of the information relevant to brewing. It sounds like you'll need to contact the person they list to find out the kind of information you really want in terms of Calcium, Magnesium, Carbonate, Sulfate, and Chloride. I agree with what others...

I'd call that a 1.054, did you zero against the water you are using for brewing? That could account for the extra .002

Stuff that isn't dissolved in solution won't effect your hydrometer readings -- doesn't matter if its hops debris, cold break, or a penny, only stuff that is dissolved into the water will change its density. My guess is that your steeping method for the carapils is extracting lots of...

Another vote for a hef - they are quick to ferment and meant to be drank young.

Almost all municipal water will have chloramines in it as the disinfectant. Campden tablets will solve that part of the problem.

Sounds all pretty normal to me. Take a hydro reading to see where you're at, then take another hydro reading in three more days, and then another three more days after that. When two of your readings match, its done.

Yep, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

I haven't noticed much of an effect on beer taste if that is what you mean, but for process, if you need to boil off more water to get to the final volume you want there are a few ways to get there - longer boil, more vigorous boil, or both..

With your next brew you could also find out how far above the minimum heat needed you're at. If you've been way above the setting needed to keep a rolling boil going, turning it down will save a little gas in the long run..

The more heat you pump in there the more boil off you'll get. In my setup the difference is noticeable, but not huge -- at minimum heat to keep a boil I get about 0.5gal/hr boil-off, at maximum heat its closer to 0.75gal/hr.