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I've been looking at the famous recipe for small beer written down by George Washington and kept at the New York Public Library. It goes like so: "To Make Small Beer Take a large Siffer [Sifter] full of Bran Hops to your Taste. -- Boil these 3 hours then strain out 30 Gall[ons] into a...

Tomorrow we brew our first ever kitchen sink IPA. 13 oz. of 13 kinds of old hops, from as recent as our last brew all the way to back-of-the-fridge "do I still have that?" age and from some French 1.1% thing that I forgot what I used it on to some Warrior that came in over 16% will go into an...

Unbelievably given where you're promoting the new site, the username: homebrew was still available when I signed up earlier this month. So that's me: homebrew.

What you're asking, essentially, is how to speed without speeding. If it's illegal, it's illegal. That said, there's illegal speeding going 50 in a 45 zone and illegal drunk driving at 100 mph. What you're looking to do is go 50. So just do it. Trading (not selling, of course) your beer for...

I'm pretty persnickety about not bottling until after I've reached target FG and it's sat there at that level for at least a few days (more usually a week). And I'm down to 1/2 cup sugar or 3/4 DME for most bottlings. The pattern has been that it carbonates at normal speeds (or sometimes even...

I agree. Worst that can happen is you'll lose a little gravity during secondary but not get a yeast cake on the bottom.

Heh. Every gravity reading is also a taste test. :) This is going to be a good beer. It's going to be a fantastic beer if some of the dry-hopping moves up into the nose when it carbonates. The style, for me, isn't a session beer. But it'll be a good beer for me and a session beer for my...

My apartment is warm. Too warm. 80F in the winter is not at all uncommon even with the heat off and the windows open. Welcome to NYC apartment living. A result I have a persistent problem of beers overcarbonating. No problem, usually -- when carbonation is right I throw the bottles in the...

Followup: The secondary is in the same place as the primary but it might be a touch warmer. In any event, it indeed seemed to be a stuck fermentation. My last worry, that the gravity wasn't decreasing, solved out in a day or so and now it's very late but down to the correct FG. Tomorrow it goes...

Be careful with that book. It had some interesting-looking recipies but the author clearly has an axe to grind and believes some things that are, well, let's just say they're not well-sourced by historians.

Oh, don't worry -- relaxing and homebrew-having will definitely be done! I was mostly curious for a three reasons. One, I don't want to blow up bottles -- that and non-blown-up but overcarbonated foam bombs are two of the bad things that happens most often to me and I'm trying to get better...

Thank you, Christopher. That was fascinating and helpful. I've got a couple follow-up questions. You talked about stress and off-flavors. With the current state of the science, do you suppose that could be turned on its head to create (or "evolve" by selection) a bacterium or alga which...

You really think it's that simple? I considered it but a) I agitated the thing in primary so many times I probably infected it with that moldy stuff and b) my gravity still isn't moving down. But I guess it's still a possibility. I hope you're right -- the wort tastes really good. I...

I'm currently making a Cascadian Dark Ale from a recipe in Zymurgy (extract). OG came in on the button at 1.064. Fermentation from a 2-liter starter of Wyeast 1318 London III went normally. But after a week airlock activity had stopped and gravity was stuck at 1.02 (goal: 1.011). So I figure...

I agree with you; my girlfriend thinks it's would be just fun. Like a green beer, I guess. We'll definitely look into a CDA as an option. Having a couple recipes in Zymurgy is a nice piece of serendipity -- I've been forgetting to renew and now I've got the push to make me remember...

For her birthday my girlfriend wants to make a beer that is both dark and hoppy. But we're not sure what direction to go in. Have you tried any "black IPA's?" What about hoppy porters or stouts? We probably don't want to go the super-malty direction of an Abita Turbo-dog style but we'd...

Just opened some of mine -- of course I couldn't wait two weeks, has anyone ever waited two weeks? I'm pretty pleased for a first spiced beer effort. A little heavy on the cinnamon and a little light on the other stuff -- I'll definitely want to add a full orange worth of zest and at least a...

Thanks, P. As I continue to research it, it appears that the Bierkeller might have been made with American malt in the first place. The extract recipe from Clonebrews does call for 8 oz of Vienna, maybe that's enough to get close. That said, this will also be my first lager -- maybe I don't...

After an extended secondary fermentation brought about mostly by scheduling conflicts our Christmas brew is finally in the bottle and should be carbonated by Christmas. We went to two tsp cinnamon and that seems to have been the right amount. I'm feeling good about the plums (actually prunes)...

We'd like to make a Negra Modelo clone next and of course we'd like to get the malt as Viennese as possible given the constraints of extracts. My normal guys either don't have the stuff or don't have it and say it' been discontinued. Any ideas? If necessary, I'm not afraid to spend Euros...