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Ever tried that one? This will be my first non-kit extract beer, and the recipes from that book looked good.

Wow, thanks!

Yeah I already had a few cider containers. Thus far I haven't seen a lot of activity. The temperature today got up a little bit higher than I expected, maybe up to around 73-75 F, but probably not higher. I am brewing with London Ale yeast, so maybe that will be okay :-\. There's been about an...

Thanks I'll give it a shot.

So, I made the starter this afternoon, and I'm not really seeing any activity at all. There's a lot of headspace in the starter (since it's a 2 liter starter and I'm using a gallon jug), and I'm using foil instead of an airlock and stopper. How can I tell if it's stuck/yeast are dead?

Is the "foil method" okay? I think I may try to do the starter tuesday or wednesday night, because Thursday is very busy. If I get the starter into the fridge about 1 day after I make it, I should be okay right?

Also, the plan is to use a 1 gallon cider jug to do this in. I could possibly find a 2 liter bottle, but it wouldn't have enough head space...

So this is the first time I will be using a yeast starter. Brew day is Saturday. I'm using - White Labs London Ale yeast 1.25 cups DME I want to make a 2L starter. Is it alright to just go for the 2L outright or do I need to "step up" to it? If so, how does that work? Timing- When do I...

I'm beginning to think that mine had a minor infection. After trying my Scottish Export, I'm noticing an off flavor in my Irish Red. It has a slight after taste that kind of reminds me of a penny. I'm going to do a brown porter next! :D

I was pretty pleased with my Scottish Export 80 too. It had a nice clean taste, but I think next time I will only add some of the priming sugar. It seems a little over-carb'd for the style.

lol?

To anyone who may be interested: I have consumed almost all of this beer at this point. It came out crystal clear, carbed up, and very clean tasting. There's a slight bitterness at the end, but I don't think it's from the "infection." Is it possible that this was just yeast rafts? That was some...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think steeping grains contain any fermentables. Therefore they wouldn't affect your gravity. Did you find that the Irish Draught Ale was bitter? Is there a commercial brew that you would compare it to? (like Smithwicks or something)

Interesting. I'm not sure if I'm after a cleaner taste or not, but I have heard of late addition DME. Here's one thing I've wondered about. What kinds of taste changes do you see when you use a yeast starter? I.E. What off flavors do stressed out yeast add? What off flavors do very healthy...

60 minutes.

My kits used special grains. I think that Northern Brewer uses very fresh extract, and I always take the boil pot off of the stove when adding extract.

I brewed a Northern Brewer Irish Red Ale extract kit a while back. I did 4 weeks in primary, then 3 weeks to bottle condition before I started drinking them. Since then it's been about 4-5 months. I can say that the taste on those beers has improved quite a bit. One thing I noticed before...

I cracked open one of the Irish Red's that I had saved, and it seems to have drastically improved with age. Maybe I'll post a picture of it, because it's nice looking too. I think this beer has probably been carbed up for at least 4-5 months now, and it's just gotten smoother and has a much more...

Thanks for the information! Glad I'm not crazy!

Thanks! I agree about the brewing styles. I have found that there's a lot of personal liberty in how you set up/go through with everything. There's some great information in books I'm sure, but it's that personal experience thing I'm after!