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Okay! Got a second opinion on the cider, and it seems that it hasn't gone vinegar after all, it's just extremely dry. We mixed the hard cider with some of the unfermented cider from the same batch (at about a 3:1 ratio), and it tasted perfect - the apple flavors really came out, and I could...

It was 75 pounds of apples, in roughly this blend: 45% Pippin 20% Gala 15% Macintosh 15% Granny Smith 5% Gold Rush I also added a half-gallon of Cranberry juice, and some cinnamon sticks in the boil. I kept some out, unfermented, as a flavor comparison, and it's a fantastic cider blend. Very...

Well, this cider has not aged well so far. It's been in bottles for about a week after about a month fermenting. Still smells great, but the flavor is really not what I was hoping for. It's oddly watery, and has a not-quite-vinegary bitterness to it which I first noticed when I was taking those...

Brewed up a batch of the AG-version of this recipe this morning, and I'm happy to report that it's probably the first brewing I've done where everything went more-or-less according to plan. There were no huge surprises or disasters, and I felt surprisingly capable at the end of it! The batch is...

I grew up a child of the 70s, discovering ska in the 80s through Madness, The Specials, Blondie, and Evan Dorkin's excellent Pirate Corp$ comics! I didn't really like third-wave ska for a looong time, except a few random Offspring tracks, until I heard Save Ferris and my mind was changed. When...

Thanks for the tip, Tre9er! I'll give it a shot and report back in a few days...

Okay! Here I am, four days after pitching. The fermentation has almost completely ceased (the airlock is completely static, and there is only the tiniest of bubbles periodically breaking the surface), and my gravity is stuck at 1.020. The beer still smells fine, doesn't show any obvious...

Aaaaaand now there's no activity, either. This has got to be the weakest beer I've ever made. Going to check the gravity tonight and see if it's really done already, or if something has gone horribly wrong.

This is Wyeast #1728 - Scottish Ale. Not sure if it's a Nottingham clone or not, though I would guess not.

I expect the thing that really 'broke' my beer was that I wasn't able to do much of a sparge at all to get the residual sugars and proteins. I was brewing-in-a-bag and when I tried moving the bag from one kettle to the other I dropped it. Made quite a mess, and in cleaning up I basically made...

Not sure if this belongs here or in the Beginner's forum, but here goes: I made a batch of Oatmeal Stout yesterday, and while a lot of things went wrong with the process, I'm not sure if this is something I should be worried about. I pitched about 5:00 last night, and when i woke up this...

Did my first all-grain brew yesterday, an Oatmeal Milk Stout. Having done a few extract brews, I wasn't prepared for the sheer volume involved with a 9-pound grain bill! I wasn't sure my stovetop setup was going to be able to handle it, but it seems the weak link was actually me! I tried...

Is there a general timeframe for how long it should take to clear? I boiled my raw cider before I added the yeast, and I'm told that will cause the cider to remain cloudy no matter what due to the pectin setting.

Just signed up for untappd (indigo_k), and am excited to start adding my own homebrews once I think of a good brewery name.

Is aging cider in the fermenter better than aging it in the bottle? Or is there a significant difference? I've been looking around a bit, and the consensus seems to be that cider needs to age for a long time (months, in some cases) before drinking. But how long should I keep it in the...

Ah, okay. So if I boil the mash for 90 minutes in the bigger kettle, then soak in the smaller kettle for a while that sounds like it should be enough.

If the sparge water is boiling when I add the grain bag to it, isn't that enough to kill off the lacto? If I let it boil for a bit before refrigerating it, just separate from the main wort, would that be safe, or am I still opening myself up to infection?

Hey, all: So, I'm planning to do my first all-grain batch this weekend, and frankly I was unprepared with how much grain is involved. This is going to be a much more voluminous batch than my 3-gallon kettle can handle. SO, I'm going to pick up a 5-gallon kettle this week so at least I can do...

Checked the gravity on this today, after noticing that it has completely stopped bubbling. I got a reading of 0.996, which surprised me (didn't think a beer could get below 1.000..?). I went ahead and racked it to a bottling bucket, where I'll give it a few days before adding some potassium...

I always see Nottingham recommended here, but my LHBS doesn't seem to carry it. Can you describe what the difference is with the Nottingham? As I say, i haven't experimented with different yeasts yet, so I can't tell what would make one better than another for a specific recipe.