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I'm curious - most kits come with the grains already crushed from my local brew stores. If this is a partial mash kit, are you sure the grains aren't already crushed?

Well, I think I'm going to go out and get that silicone and see how it goes. I have JB Weld and was thinking of using it, but wouldn't the chemicals from it leech into the beer? Stuff is pretty toxic by itself, not sure how bad it would be diluted.

Thanks for the replies. Yea, definitely don't want to spend too much on the fix. I need a big cooler, I'm thinking at least a 96 quart cooler. I'll have to price it out. I'm super cheap with my homebrewing, almost everything I use is DIY, which has saved me tons of cash.

I've been working on building a new mash tun, a big blue igloo cooler. My previous cooler is no good anymore, and also needed a larger one to upgrade to 10 gallon batches. The igloo was the right size, and I already owned it, so did not have to spend any money to upgrade. The igloo cooler...

IMO, those instructions are pretty bad. You want an END result (after adding water and grains into mash tun) to be 152 - the actual water temp you add is hard to say, as you need to take cooling into affect for the following: mash tun heat absorption, grain heat absorption. After an hour...

You should ALWAYS blend the water prior to fermentation, so definitely yes. Haven't used those tablets, cannot help you there. For hops, as long as you are using the correct quantity for the recipe, then wort concentration should have no affect, and I would not add additional hops.

I would only use a little wheat, not swap out the whole amount of 2 row for wheat. That is a ton of grapefruit - I would use maybe one grapefruit. A little should go a long way. I would double my primary and secondary times, 14 days each.

You really should bottle in one sitting as leaving your beer in the bottling bucket which is not sealed will cause potential oxidation. Contamination is a problem but I would suspect that you should be fine with your bottles. As long as they were truly clean, no gunk in them, new, etc. you...

The important part is the tempereature you are carbing at - 66 is low, you really want to get it up to 70-74F. At 66 it will take a lot longer to carbonate.

Keep in mind you will be tying up your fermentor for weeks per batch - for small batches and variety you should get multiple fermentors. I don't think your kettle is big enough - you want AT LEAST a pot 1 to 1.5 gallons bigger than the amount of liquid you need to start boiling with. For...

Got it. I do plan on brewing every 2 or 3 weeks, but best is to keep one container and rebuild each time.

Thanks for all the tips, everyone. I will definitely make the large starter and split into 5 containers and store - then at time of need, take 1 container and build it up and then pitch.

The 1/2 gallon starter is based on the container I plan to use for the starter :) So, you think I will be underpitching then?

I am wondering if this will work, or if anyone else has done this: I have a single smack pack of Wyeast 1010 - I am planning on smacking and letting sit for about 6 hours, then splitting into 5 small sanitized vials. I will store in my fridge until ready to use, then take one vial and make a...

Minneapolis/St. Paul area has so much stuff to see, three days really isn't much time. We have serious amounts of quality food and beer here..... Really depends on where you are staying, but Minneapolis side you have uptown and downtown, both have tons of restaurants and bars. St. Paul...

About a month ago I brewed 7 5-gallon batches in one long sitting, outside it was -5F. I was in a detached unheated garage. I had on a snowsuit, but the work kept me warm I actually had to unzip it. No gloves or hat either.

Personally I'm a fan of using secondaries and almost always do. I like to get the beer out of primary after about 3 weeks, then put in secondary for at least two, cold crashing for at least one week. I often dry hop in secondary too.

I've used the oven method before - definitely remove the labels and the glue - otherwise your bottles/oven will smell like glue. After removing all that gunk, cover the bottle tops w/ aluminum foil, then bake - I recommend like 275 for a few hours (check the howtobrew chart). Let them cool...

I would bet what your recipe is calling for is 'conditioning' in a SECONDARY for three to four weeks at 42F, THEN bottle.

I have the same 'issue' when I force carbonate - the problem is that you simply haven't given the beer enough time for the CO2 to make its way into the beer all the way. Give it a week at your 12psi and the problem will not exist.