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you have a pretty good grasp on the situation. force carbonation lets you drink it faster, but you haven't given the beer quite as long to mature/"bottle condition". You can drink it faster but it may not peak for a few more weeks. I'm not to kegging yet because I don't have the room. I'm...

wow, thanks for the info. I always wondering WHY it was like that but I've not take the time to do side by side tests myself. Just goes to show that you always have to test this stuff out. Thanks for the info :)

I'm a partial mash brewer meaning i use some extract for the base and then use additional grains (like 2 row) + specialty grains for flavor. i boil a slightly concentrated batch. I have a 5 gallon pot and i make 5 gallon batches. Obviously, I can't boil 5 gallons of liquid in a 5 gallon pot...

I give 20oz bottles away to friends occasionally, but if anyone wants any more than that they're expected to pay for a batch of ingredients. If they come over and help me brew so I can teach them how to do it they get the whole thing minus a few bottles for my trouble. If they want ME to brew it...

It is not at all unusual to have a beer stop bubbling after 10-14 days out. It doesn't take healthy yeast long to do their job. I just bottled a dark wheat beer that was only in the primary for about 10 days. I'm going to give it another 2 weeks in the bottle to condition and carbonate. What...

I've just started using the method where you add sanitized ice directly to the wort. I have a few bugs to work out in my procedure but it works very well. I'm in texas so our tap water is in the 80's .... not really all that useful for chilling.

Here's a dark wheat beer recipe i just used with very good results.

yeah if he meant 1.04 to 1.01 then yeah. that's very typical. I kind of thought that's what he meant too but it's a forum so he had ample time to fix it so i figured it wasn't a typo. :) I have like super sweet meads that start at 1.2 :)

completely agree with monk3y. You've got the gear to mash in your igloo then take full advantage of that :) VERY VERY nice documentation with the pictures man and good procedure. I've seen people who have made beer for a couple years and they dont have procedures down to your level yet...

holy crap man. that's a very sugary beer. (not that that's a bad thing) with that much sugar in your batch it may take a while. i would give it 2 weeks like kabuto says and then take another SG reading. Make sure you're keeping everything absolutely sanitary that's going into that batch...

the Gravity of the boil when you add the hops has a LOT to do with extraction. If you really want maximum IBUs then you want to do add your DME as a late addition. That will MAJORLY lower the SG of the boil with the hops. If you keep to the same schedule above as listed and you wait until the...

you really don't have to steep for that long. 40 minutes at 155 is plenty. Here's the breakdown according to beersmith: (I would go download a trial. there's a link in my sig)

dry malt extract should be golden. Grains should be ok if you haven't milled them. Hops, if exposed to air will start to degrade. If you're going to vacuum pack them you should be ok.

if you can share your recipe that would be helpful. If the odor and/or flavor intensifies over time it's most likely an infection.

I would consider dry-hopping with .5 to 1oz of Hallertau hops for aroma or if you really just want to do it in the boil do an oz for 5 minutes.

while not best practice, it's not a show-stopper man. You can easily go overnight or 24 hours, especially if you have good sanitation practices. Personally, I think prepping yeast (starters) is highly over-rated, especially if you have good sanitation practices and I've been brewing good stuff...

I'm now a partial extract 5 gallon brewer, but i started out (in beer) with mr. beer. It actually made surprisingly good beer. I still use my Mr Beer tank to test small recipes. GREAT way to get into the hobby.

I agree I use about 15-20# for a 5-6 gallon batch normally. That does produce a sweeter mead, but it has plenty of flavor. I agree with the folks above in general. I'd try 1/4 tsp of acid blend per gallon and wait 4-5 days to sample and evaluate before adding more.

Complete meadmaker is great. Mad about Mead isn't all that bad either but absolutely more for beginners. Nothing advanced about it.

I've done a few batches of strawberry. I used fresh strawberries and pulverized in a mesh (not muslin) bag. The real key to using any fruit and getting the real flavor is to get a good breakdown on the cellular structure on the fruit so the fruit releases juice. Frozen fruit will do this...