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eastern Connecticut.

Man, I wish I had a place like that near me. There was only ever one brew store within a reasonable distance, and it didn't survive the lockdowns, so I'm stuck with just internet orders.

It's been almost a year since I bought malt. Lucky for me, I stocked up before the situation in Europe made the price go up, but I've finally run myself out of base malt. Back then, the best deal I could find was buying by the pound from MoreBeer in 10 pound increments. I was getting Viking...

I usually forget to vorlauf, but when I do it, there's less crud in the bottom of the fermenter. And like most have said, all I do is run a quart or so into a jug until it runs clear, and gently poor it back into the mash tun.

Sounds like an interesting way of adding caramelly flavors and sweetness to something like a milk stout.

Oooh, I kicked a hornet's nest didn't I, lol. To try to bring things back into context, I think we can agree on a general consensus that making a starter with dry yeast is not necessary and not ideal, compared to just using the right amount of dry yeast. My specific situation is that I have...

Especially the "cheap" part. Yikes. $8-9 per packet does not induce me to think "I'll just buy two and save myself some time." In my internal battle between laziness and cheapness, cheapness wins. The question in my mind is, why does putting dry yeast in a starter destroy the cell walls, and...

As my grandfather used to say, "When all else fails, read the directions." The instructions say 1 packet per 10 to 15 liters, pitched directly into the wort. So ideally, 2 packets for a 5 gallon batch. I'm all for whatever option requires the least amount of work, but I have some DME I need...

I finally have a fridge set up for temperature controlled fermentation, so I'm about to try my first lager. I usually don't do yeast starters, but I've seen a lot of things saying that they are a necessity for lagers. I've also seen things saying that starters are unnecessary or not...

ornithologist

I'm brewing this weekend, if FedEx brings my grain tomorrow. I'm making a special brown ale for Thanksgiving. I got the recipe from that "Home Brew 4 Life" youtube channel, he described it as tasting like chocolate cake, so I call it Chocolate Cake Brown Ale. After that, it's on to a Belgian...

I was brewing at a friend's house once. Hauled all of my equipment there to do a batch. I had started the boil when I realized I forgot the Star San. There was no time to go home and get it. Ended up finding a bottle of rubbing alcohol in the bathroom, and sanitized the carboy with that...

The only brewing stuff I have ever found a good deal on from Amazon is dry yeast. Sometimes you can get five or six packets for a great price per packet. Ebay is good for that too. Any malt or extract on Amazon is always overpriced. I get all my grain and hops from Morebeer. Grain by the...

The experiment was a success, I think. I did my mash as normal, batch sparged at 168 F, then transferred it to the kettle and heated the whole works up to 168 degrees, which should have denatured any enzymes in the wort. I steeped a pound of flaked corn in it for 30 minutes, in a BIAB bag. I...

I wondered if that might happen to some extent, but I'll be doing a batch sparge at 168 F, so most of the enzymes should be denatured by then.

Years ago when I made my first extract brew, it was a Brewer's Best cream ale kit. The brew shop guy threw in an extra ingredient that wasn't in the kit, some flaked corn and a grain bag. He said it would help the flavor, and told me to steep it, like any specialty grain for extract brewing...

I was considering jumping straight into kegging, since bottling was really a drag back when I was doing extract brews, but I got overwhelmed by the options available and the cost of the equipment. I bottled my first all-grain batch yesterday, with the help of some new gadgets that I didn't have...

Kind of expensive, but it does look handy.

When I recently started brewing again after eight years off, I discovered that a lot of things have changed in the home brewing world. For one, racking to a secondary fermenter is apparently something that most people don't do anymore. When I started brewing in 2012, it was still considered...

Well water. I was stressing out about water chemistry for a week, until I decided to wing it and see how it comes out. I ordered a GH and KH test kit, which I saw recommended as a low-budget way to test water, so I'll try that out and make any needed changes on my next batch.