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Hi, Its actually pretty unlikely they went bad at room temperature in only a month. Here's an article on hop aging - but an average hops can survive a few months at room temperature if absolutely needed. Cheers, Brad

Hi, I would suggest wrapping wet towels around the fermenter and then putting a fan on it. If you keep the towels wet, you can cut about 10 degrees off your fermentation temperature. Cheers, Brad

Here's an article on improving clarity. Chill haze is primarily caused by proteins and (possibly) contaminants. Proteins come from the malts and grains you use. Contamination could be caused by underpitching yeast (no starter), not cooling your wort and pitching your yeast quick enough, or...

Hi, BeerSmith uses Tinseth by default which is great for full boil beers, but will give you a lower number than Rager. Many books and brewers traditionally used Rager because it was a bit easier to calculate. Rager is considered a bit better for partial boil batches. Some books and...

Sediment in the bottom of the bottle is normal, but the beer itself should be relatively clear. The beer will clear as it ages naturally. Here's an article on how to help clarity of your beer if this is a problem. Brad

Congratulations! The good news is you will probably never go back, the bad news is you will now embark on an endless search for the perfect beer recipe. Brad

I really prefer a propane burner, but back in the old days I occasionally put my big pot across two burners and turned them both on. It worked, but it took a really long time... Brad

Welcome! We're happy to have you here. Brad

Daniels is one of my favorites. To keep in touch I might also suggest http://brewpoll.com for brewing and beer news as well as my blog below. Be safe and godspeed! Cheers, Brad

Great start on your blog! I started one as well and it has been a great learning experience for me. BeerSmith Blog I also encourage you to check out BrewPoll.com and perhaps even submit some of your stories there. It has started to become a central location for many home brewing...

Thanks! I've been pretty happy with the response to the blog. It is a challenge putting a good article together every week, but I often find I pick up little tidbits when researching. You can also get new articles by email if you enter your mail address in the subscribe box on the...

Hi, I don't see any problem at all as long as everything is sterile and air tight. Cheers, Brad

Hi, I think this would work as long as you don't leave it sitting too long. My only concern would be oxidization as the starter might not generate enough CO2 to fill your whole fermenter with CO2. However, if you kick the starter off 18-24 hours before brewing you should be fine...

I usually fly sparge, but there is nothing wrong with batch sparging. Here's a summary with some advantages/disadvantages. Cheers, Brad

Welcome! We're glad to have you here! Brad

Get about 10,000 of your closest friends to link to the site! Seriously - it is a challenge to get front page rankings, especially for competitive keywords. It takes a combination of quality content, serious effort, lots of high quality links and even a bit of luck since google changes their...

Welcome!!!

All, If you want, just export any ingredients you have added and I will include them in the next update for everyone. Alternatively if you send me the web links for the product pages I can add them myself and put them in the next update. Cheers, Brad

If you have the smaller smack pack, I would strongly recommend having a starter. I put together an article that explains why - you would need as many as 11 of the small smack packs to reach optimal pitching rate for an average ale. A 1.5-2 liter starter would be great. Cheers, Brad

Hmmm, I calculated <15 IBUs (Tinseth) bitterness using BeerSmith (I assumed that the hop alpha was about 7.5%). Scaling that up to a 6 gallon boil you need only 0.55 oz of hops. The rest of the recipe can stay the same. However, I would personally step the IBUS up a bit to at least...