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Ditto. Northern Brewer is only 1/2 hour from my parent's house, and only 1 mile off the beaten path while traveling between the two. Any time they visit or we visit, there is a stop at the fun store. They have great prices on sacks of grain, and my shipping is free! :ban:

I use an old. broken, 22 cubic foot chest freezer with a small space heater. The freezer holds 6 carboys and 4 cases of beer, and the temperature only varies by 2 degrees. The heater barely runs, and any "accidents" are self contained and easy to clean up. The only downside is that lifting...

I didn't use a feeler gauge, but tightened 45 degrees from the factory setting. My efficiency went way up, but I had stuck sparges on both of the brews I've done since I tightened it up. I am going to back off half way back to the factory setting for my next beer.

I really like my Barley Crusher, but I have no experience with other crushers outside the HBS's I've been to.

What do you need 2 more keggles for? I only use 3, or 2 and a mash cooler. It looks like you have 2 already.

My first batch was an American Amber extract kit. I bottled after 6 days, cracked the first one on day 10. Needed more carbonation, but tasted great. I think that all but 6 were gone within 30 days of brewing. It was one of the best beers I ever made. I recently had one of the remaining 6...

I am going to go against the grain here. Pun intended. I have used blow-off hoses for about the past year. I use 6 gallon carboys for the primary. Most of my batches ended up puking into the hose which makes a mess to clean up if you want to be sanitary for the next brew. I also don't get...

I usually do my "trial" brews in 5 gallon batches, and do 10 if I know that I will like it. It is also nice to be able to split a batch with a friend. I have tried different yeasts with the batch split in 2, but I always wonder how much of the difference is from the yeast, and how much is from...

Good efficiency is a continual goal. My 20th batch I finally hit over 80% efficiency. My first few batches were all in the high 60's. How are you calculating your efficiency? Are you adjusting for temperature and volume? If you are using your hydrometer with wort at, say, 150 degrees, you...

Four hours sounds about right if you are humping it. Very good for your first try. Little tricks can save you time on your brew day, such as: 1) Weigh and crush your grain the day before. 2) Sanitize your carboy(s) the day before. (I always do this with star san because the bubbles are...

For my last 2 10 gallon brews, I tightened up the spacing on my barley crusher by about 1/8th of a turn. I am mashing in a coleman X-treme 70 quart cooler with a PVC manifold with hack saw slots every 1/4". Since I tightened my crush, I have gone from 75%ish to 85%+ efficiency, but my batch...

I did this once last year for a group of 25 people. I carefully crafted, brewed and bottled two batches. One was my house ale, and one was an amber ale. The event was a training session for my Six Sigma training and I had actually done a yeast DOE on one of the batches. It fit in very well...

I can get an AG 5 gallon done in about 4:15. My 10 gallon batches are closer to 5:00 thanks to slower heating of the boil and cooling of the wort.

As an example, on my 10 gallon system, I shoot for a pre-boil volume of 13 3/4 gallons. With evaporation and the crud left at the bottom of the keggle after I whirlpool and let it rest for 20 minutes, I collect about 11 1/2 gallons of wort split between 2 6 gallon carboys. When I transfer to...

I have tried a mash-out several times with boiling water, but I haven't noticed an efficiency difference. I think that good stirring, temperature stability, and crush are far more important. I also don't understand why you need to stop the enzyme activity. Isn't that what you are encouraging...

Cooling water was my biggest challenge last weekend brewing in 8 degree weather. I typically run my immersion chiller with the garden hose, but I wasn't going to risk freezing in the 120 feet between my house and my garage. I ended up filling keggle #2 with water and snow and pumping to my...

Yes, yes. Buy more fermenters. This is how I ended up with eight carboys. Good thing I got all of them cornie kegs for the secondaries. :drunk:

It could be lots of things. How did you aerate before pitching? Is your thermometer calibrated? How long did you wait until you hit 1.020? Have you used this same DME before with better results? I have also struggled with high FG's, but they have gotten better since I started aerating more.

I have a batch with 05 going at 63F right now. After 5 days in the primary, the bulk of the fermentation is done, and I am getting a couple of bubbles per minute. I have used it down to about 60F with no problems.

My children are 11 years old and 16 months old. I can usually break away from the homework and havoc for enough time to weigh out my grains and get my brew sculpture set up. When the little one goes to bet at 8:00, I go out and get started. I can usually get a 10 gallon batch done by 1:00 am...