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If you can do a full boil that would be better, so calculating and adding all the water you need at the beginning should be the goal. With a 6 gallon kettle I think 3.5gallon batch sizes would work for a full boil. I started off with an 8 gallon kettle and added a 15 gallon recently. I wish...

You could make Chili with a bottle in it. Maybe do a beer batter waffle or pancake as well. It might also taste better with age. If you have it bottled then no need to dump it, just make another batch and store those guys. Try one every once in a while and see if it gets better over time...

Don't forget to pull the dipstick line out. Last time I pulled mine I found hop material stuck in one end after a batch.

Definitely a full boil like these guys are saying. When I was doing Extract batches I'd start steeping my specialty grains while starting to bring about 5 gallons of water to a boil in my kettle. Then when my specialty grains were done I could add that water to the kettle, rinse the grains...

I've gone to sterilizing all my bottles in the oven. I clean the bottles, rinse them well and let them dry a bit before capping them with a small square of foil crimped on. At that point I load them up in our second oven we have in the basement and sterilize the batch of bottles over a day...

I've got a California Common in secondary now that I used the Cal Lager yeast on and after 6 weeks it's still got the little white bubbly yeast rafts. I think your beer will be just fine :)

Excellent! Thanks guys. The "Mash Out" was in fact a last minute change. It just seemed like my initial strike water was lower than expected so I tossed in the two liters thinking it might help for better flow from the mash tun, but I'm sure it didn't bring up the mash to 168 so it wasn't...

My wife and I brewed up our first ever batch which initially went great. We hit our numbers, cooled the wort, transferred it to the fermenter and just as I was whisking a bit of O2 into the batch the whisk fell apart dumping a cups worth of sand, fibers, plastic, glass and metal into our wort...

Come on guys. Nothing? I was hoping somebody would have some pointers or question some of what I did. Like what steps do you feel during your mash have helped you attain consistency. What prep work or other things do you do to speed it all up? I need to try and reduce my boil off rate...

A bit late to the thread, but I've pulled my entire panel and replaced it with a new one. It's not too hard to put in a permit and get the city to literally turn OFF the power to your house. Makes it super easy to pull the entire panel or whatever you need. What I haven't seen anyone...

How much wort did you collect? You mention 5 gallons but that wasn't the pre - boil volume you collected was it? I'd also question the hydrometer reading of 1.034 and make sure your hydrometer is accurate. Was there any wort left in your mash tun after you were done? I'm just guessing that...

I had an excellent brew day yesterday! It was my second AG batch and I hit 86% efficiency this time. Way better than the 68% I got on my first batch. I'd love to know what you guys think about my mashing and sparging process. What steps do I focus on, what do I drop. My goal is to...

Two more brewed up in the last few weeks. 5 - Candy Caramel Amber 5 - Amarillo sMasH 14420 + 10 = 14430

Another successful brew day yesterday leaving me with 15 gallons of brew now fermenting and aging in the beer cellar (aka - downstairs bathroom). I used the Cal Lager yeast for an Amarillo sMasH with an eventful starter this time. I washed the lager yeast after racking the California Common I...

A couple of my buddies signed up and took a short class. They seemed to like it a bunch. My one buddy just moved to Boston in the last year. You guys are probably neighbors :) hahaha Do you have a "Next" batch in the works yet?

I've got my "house" IPA that's 7.1% and around 95 IBU's. It's bittered with Warrior hops which make for a crisp clean taste and finished with Citra for a grapefruit citrus punch. An excellent brew that seems well balanced with good bitterness and an aftertaste that keeps you wanting more...

My last IPA was a Chinook, Cascade, Centennial and Citra mash. You could definitely taste the spice of the Chinook but the Cascade and Centennial added that citrus grapefruit taste with an extra kick from the Citra at the end. I think Cascade is a perfect dual use hop for when you are working...

Definitely. Check out the book "Beer Craft". The guy makes 1 gallon batches and experiments with a bunch of stuff. The book outlines how he does it, but it also gives a lot of really good info on beer in general and is a good few hour read. As for me, I'd have to say 5 gallon batches ARE...

All I can say is wow! Two weeks ago I brewed up a 5 gallon batch using some Northern Brewer and Amarillo hops in a "steam" beer. I used WYeast 2112, made a 2L starter and fermented at a very consistent 62*. It's still really active. Not much of any bubbling, but the yeast still seems to be...

This is a great thread! I just did my first AG batch last week and boy was that nice to the wallet. Instead of paying 30-40 bucks or more LME/DME my grain bill was less than $15. I figure my goal is not necessarily to brew cheap beer, but if I can easily reduce spending then I can use the...