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I want my beers to look reasonably professional, so I've been adding steps to my process to clarify the finished product. I've had good success with adding Irish moss to the boil and just being generally careful when siphoning and bottling (e.g., putting a filter over my autosiphon). My latest...

About to brew today and still looking for feedback. Anyone know if the rye will contribute significant sugar?

I do like to plan, but I also hold the winging dear. Can't give it up entirely. The brown sugar was called for in the original "imperial" American pale ale recipe I was using as a reference. The rye is my own invention. I've been meaning to play around with rye and get a sense for what it does...

Ok, so I've put together a recipe to brew this weekend, and like most of my recipes, it consists of equal parts planning it/winging it...so I still need some advice... The base style is high-gravity American pale ale. Most of my sugars will come from my grains (steeping 1 pound of crystal and...

Give that man a prize. One more week in the bottle, just like he called it, and I have a light lacy head and bubbles streaming in the glass. Even though I underprimed, based on these results I feel like I can expect to see more bubbles over time. On the other hand, flat-ish kind of works for...

I like to throw it all in and let it boil, but I think I'm going to start racking into the carboy after cooling. That way, I'll have a little more control over how much sludge goes in. I think a little hop residue is desirable.

I have not, so far, had first-hand experience with bottle bombs. However, I have always been a little nervous about it, to the point that I was underpriming my first batches. I've been doing my homework and asking around about priming, just to try to get my process right, and I've been really...

A growler is just like any other flip top bottle. I don't see why conditioning in one is "not advisable"...?

Thx. So I can keep hope alive? If not, I'll relax, not worry, and drink a flat homebrew.

+1 for Challenger. I think it adds a good funky bite to an English combo. However, the pellets smell like straight manure in the boil.

One of the things I'm still wondering, even after browsing this thread, is whether it takes a significant amount of time to build carbonation. I know for sure that I under-primed the bottles in my most recent batch (I had misjudged the final volume). I was using the generic priming sugar from...

I've been filtering the end of my siphon with a hop bag and butchers twine (mostly because that's what I had). I am very happy with the results. Thanks for the idea.

The title was more about the rhyme. Come on, man. Don't you got no soul? (<--Actually probably my fault, because you weren't the only one confused.) I got a little more attenuation than I expected, which is ok with me---I'm not seeking advice on that. I'll do the math myself. I just want input...

Well the style was Belgian IPA. This is my first time going for such high gravity, so I wasn't sure if the alcohol prominence was a typical green characteristic. It's quite drinkable flat and warm, so I think I'm still in the game. Thx for the input.

So I am about to bottle my brew tonight. The yeasties were very serious about their work and took it up to 10% alcohol. I was shooting for something close to this, so I'm not all that worried...but at the same time, the smell/taste of the samples I've taken are pretty potent stuff. Anybody...

I always had heard that a batch should be left in secondary for at least 2 weeks, but I had never heard that dry hopping should shorten this to 7-10 days. I guess that means I should bottle this weekend then.

It's the size of these chunkies that is disturbing. Is that the moss?

I am still trying out different techniques, and for my current batch I decided to just dump the unfiltered wort into the carboy and see if a long primary could clear it up. It's supposed to be an English bitter anyway, so I don't mind the hop residues hanging around. So far (about 4 days in)...

Ahhhhhh...thank you, sweet reassurance. Noobs need lots of tender words. I will take the advice about filtering my siphon, but I was actually going to cut out the secondary this time. I want to see for myself the effects of secondary vs. long primary. With some firsthand knowledge, I'll...

I pulled a similar maneuver on my batch last night. I felt fairly comfortable pouring most of the hop gunk in, since a good number of brewers seem to think it all settles out and it's all good. On the other hand, there seems to be more disagreement over this subject than almost any other...and...