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I think it's generally accepted that you pay a premium for extract in exchange for a shorter and easier brew day. It's certainly true for my situation (LME is around 2.5x more expensive than equivalent base-malt). Sugar is a false economy in my opinion. It's purpose is to increase alcohol...

Best one of these I have ever made was where I pitched 3 pints of super fresh slurry into 6 gallons wort. If you have the yeast, pitch a pint or so.

You can always do the remote airlock option, works real good. Put a silicone tube into the airlock bung. Put the airlock into the other end of the tube (use tape or whatever to get it to fit). Tape the airlock to the side of the fermentor so it sits upright. Gives you an airlock but without...

I've got 5, or 6 if you include the food one in the house. Fridge-freezer converted to Kegorator, holds 4 kegs and a shelf for yeasts and bottles, only 2 taps. Ice in the freezer. Fermentation fridge-freezer. Electrics have been hacked so the fridge is temp controlled and the freezer still...

Best advice on this thread so far. If they are oputting a dent in the beer supply but aren't helping out with the significant amount of work involved, then they need to be sponsoring all the ingredients.

Are we talking about extract kits here or all-grain kits? If extract kits, you should be able to smash those out as fast as you need to. You should be able to get "brewday" down to 30 mins with a few odd tasks here and there like dryhopping and such. If you mean all-grain kits, then yeah, they...

I've tried washing / rinsing yeast in the past and found that it was really a lot of work for a small amount of yeast. My new method if much simpler. You leave your wort in the kettle for an extra hour before racking into the fermentor and pitching, leaving almost all the trub and kettle hops...

Doesn't sound too different to my earlier attempts, but nothing catastrophic by the sounds of it. I'd query a hydrometer reading of 1.000 (or thereabouts) though. The cooler mash temps will bring it down a bit, but not that much. If your sample is cold then it will read a couple of points lower...

LODO brewing is a great example of a more complex brewing process that yields better beer. (ducks for cover :ban:)

Brewing is just like any other art form. There is beauty in simplicity, much like the early Beatles songs or Bob Ross paintings. But "Eleanor Rigby" is more interesting than "8 days a week", and I wouldn't fill my house with Bob Ross paintings. Both have their place. Both will suck if they...

Hmmm. I'm 90% sure I read this on the Gladfield website, who are a big maltster in New Zealand. I thought it was on this page https://www.gladfieldmalt.co.nz/our-malts/ but I can't see any reference to it now. Now they say that rye and chocolate rye malt is best used fresh, nothing about...

Yeah good idea. But you can actually sit on a lot more than 5-10 specialty malts if you want to. I live in a small town with no LHBS so I have to get everything shipped and most places have free shipping over $XX which I take advantage every time. For base malts I like to hold a sack of Ale...

Once you get a carboy or clear plastic fermentor you will see how much movement the yeast create once they get going. It's basically the equivalent of having someone standing there for 3 days stirring constantly. So I wouldn't stress about not stirring the yeast, they will take care of that for...

I've been really paying attention to yeast health and the results have been spectacular. Starters every time, and aiming to have good fermentation in progress the morning after brew day.

That thing about 1 gallon taking nearly as long as 5 gallon is a myth. Sure, a 1 hour boil is going to take an hour, no getting around that. But actually bringing a brew from mash temps to a boil, you'll never get faster than a 1 gallon batch. I can hardly get a dunk sparge done by the time the...

Motueka is my go-to hop for Euro lagers, when I need a bit more bittering power and noble-style character. It sits around 7% instead of 4%.

I don't have any new data to add to the discussion, but I've had a bunch of beers pinged in competition for subtle fermentation-derived off flavors this year and I was getting pretty sick of it. Now I make starters every time and my beer seems better as a result. Basically I don't trust the...

Sometimes I'll be hanging around here and people will post pics of foam that sits a good inch over the top rim and seems to somehow stay there. Looks like a marshmallow, rather than a liquid. I've never had that before. My beers typically pour with an attractive inch of foam on top that lasts...

All the commercial brewers I've visited use this stuff. What is the pros and cons vs starsan? Sounds like it has less shelf life and is more toxic. Presumably it works faster and kills more bugs? Or is it just cheap AF?

Have a taste of the grains. If they are soft and stale, that is not ideal. If they have a bit of crunch that is good. I've done a few brews with stale ingredients lately. They come out OK, very drinkable but nothing exciting. Just don't pop with flavour the same way as fresh ingredients.