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Yeah, I've always heard that the lower you ferment, the less banana tasting it will be. If you go lower you get more clove/spicy notes. I think mine has a hint of bubblegum to it...

Extract Dunkelweizen I just made this one, and it's been in the fermenter a week, but I tried a sample over the weekend and it was tasting great!

I'd say throw out the money and get a temperature controller. I have done this with great success. :ban: But yeah, if you aren't ready to spend the money, leave it unplugged and put some frozen water bottles in there to keep the temp down. If you just put the fermenter in there with no ice it...

I've read this too. But, I've made 2 batches where I pitched directly from the Wyeast pack and with both fermentation started within 24 hours. But, I haven't been doing very high gravity brews to start with (~1.050 OG on my first 2), so that might be why I haven't had problems. Anybody know? I...

Revvy: I've seen you mention a few times here that 3 weeks at 70 degrees for carbing/conditioning is what you want. I've seen in some other places to do 2 weeks at 70 degrees and then a week in the fridge, since CO2 absorbs better in cold solution. Do you think it makes a difference? The 2 at...

When I used Wyeast #3638 (Bavarian Wheat, great yeast BTW), the pack didn't swell very much. I smacked it at the beginning of my brew day and put it on top of the fridge. I pitched about 5 hours later and crossed my fingers. 18 hours later I had bubbles in the airlock. So it turned out OK. When...

The racking cane included with the True Brew kit isn't an autosiphon, but if you don't want to spring for one just yet, I had pretty good luck this weekend starting a siphon using an old flavor injector syringe (the kind used for marinades). I fit the end of the siphon tube over the end of the...

Yeah it was the aroma from the yeast that really made it for me. Goatey, I don't know what kind of kit that is but if it's one of those "can and a pack of yeast" type kits (and it doesn't sound like it is) try the 3638 or a similar yeast with it instead. Ludovico: Double Hopped Weizenbock? How...

So I popped open the fermenter and used a baster to draw out a sample of this beer yesterday, and it was absolutely delicious. This was a recipe that I pretty much came up with myself, I looked at a couple of internet recipes and then used Beersmith to sort of adapt them into my recipe. I'm...

Never done it myself but I think I read a thread on this forum at some point where people were talking about soaking fruit in vodka to sanitize it.

Just Googling and asking at my LHBS I believe it actually is a sanitizer. I used it for my 2nd batch which I haven't tried yet, so I can't speak from personal experience yet, but I've read in more than one place that it produces hydrogen peroxide in solution with water, and peroxide is...

I think I read that it would keep for maybe a couple of weeks, but that was covered and possibly refrigerated. Myself, I would not assume it is still good. But, my LHBS sells a generic version of One-Step that costs about half the name-brand, so I don't worry too much about using it up.

So how important is it for me to take gravity readings before I bottle this? If I bottle a week from today it will have been in the primary around 2 and a half weeks. I see a lot of people say they just let it sit in the primary for 3 weeks and then bottle without worrying about a reading. But...

So, for my first batch, the Belgian amber ale kit that I got at my local shop, it fermented pretty hot the first 3 or 4 days or so before somebody mentioned the words "swamp cooler" and "fermentation chamber" to me. I was thinking I would bottle it next weekend, so I thought I'd try a sample of...

I started brewing last week and I've already done 2 batches that are fermenting now. First one was an extract kit that used steeped grains and wasn't pre-hopped. The second one I used BeerSmith to adapt an extract recipe I found on the internet, tweaked it just a bit to my liking. I have no idea...

Thanks. Hops are now vacuum sealed and in the freezer.

So, I had a brew day today, got my dunkelweizen started. The store sells hop pellets in 1 oz increments, and they come in a vacuum packed pouch. I bought 2 packages of hops and used 1 and a quarter, so I have 3 quarters of a package left. The package wasn't cold when I got it so I don't think I...

I'm still new at this myself, but based purely off of what I've read: 1. The canned kits really just aren't that good to begin with. 2. The canned kits often come with crappy, old yeast, so if you used the yeast that came with the kit that could be a big part of the problem. I'm...

Ok, an update. I bought a thermostat for about $70 at my local homebrew shop, and went to Lowe's and got an inexpensive chest freezer (7 cubic ft, enough to hold 2 fermenters and a couple of cases of bottles) for $189. So I completed my cooling setup for under $300, which I'm happy about. I've...

After doing some searching I'm starting to warm up to the idea of doing a dedicated refrigerator for fermenting. I found a thermostat that you can plug a fridge/freezer into with a temperature probe that goes inside for around $60. Have any of you done something like this? Is it worthwhile...