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Do the full boil. When I moved up to full boil, my beer got noticeably better. Also, the Black IPA kit is awesome.

Moving to full boils will make a lot of difference, especially if you've been adding all of your extract at the beginning of the boil. Doing some quick math, your boil gravity was 1.164 :eek:. The hop utilization from such a concentrated wort would be terrible.

I made a blackberry wheat by just throwing the frozen blackberries in at flameout. The beer turned out great.

A Kolsch would be a perfect spring wedding beer. Clean, crisp, fairly low ABV. However, you may be cutting it a little close with timing.

My first two all grain batches (one from LHBS and one from Northern) had around 60% efficiency. I ordered ingredients for my last brew from Farmhouse Brewing Supply and opted for the double crush. Bam, 75% efficiency. My next big purchase will probably be a mill, but until then, I'm buying...

Looks like it was the crush. Hit my gravity exactly, with over 80% efficiency. My mash pH was a bit high, at 5.7. Next brew I'll experiment with the water profile.

My second brew was Midwest's Boundary Waters Wheat. It was a very nice American wheat beer. Perfect for the spring/summer. The only other Midwest kit I've used was their Autumn Amber. That was good, but nothing special.

There was a groupon for starter kit that seemed like a good deal. I always loved beer and was intrigued by the thought of brew and the groupon pushed me over the edge. By the way, it didn't turn out to be that good of a deal. In the 10 months since then I've added, 2 brew pots, all-grain...

Thanks. I plan on testing the mash pH when I brew this weekend.

I'm planning on brewing this weekend with ingredients from Farmhouse Brewing Supply. I paid the extra buck for double milling, so this should determine if my low efficiency is due to a crappy crush. Everything else will be kept the same to eliminate one variable at a time. Hopefully I'll be...

I try to have NB's Dead Ringer IPA (Bell's Two Hearted clone) on tap as often as possible. The problem is that I drink it too quickly.

Sounds like the consensus is crush. I'm going to my LHBS this weekend for my next brew. I'll ask for a fine crush and see what happens. I'll also pick up some pH strips and measure my mash pH

Answers to some of your questions: - I'm pretty sure my thermometer is good. Before making my brew kettle, I used this thermometer with extract brews to see when I was getting close to boiling. It always boiled right around 212. - My mash tun is a 10 gallon water cooler with a stainless...

I've done 2 batch sparge all grain batches and both had an efficiency just under 60%. One was crushed by Norther Brewer and one was crushed by my LHBS, so I don't think the crush is the issue. I followed all of the steps in the "Maximizing Efficiency when Batch Sparging" sticky EXCEPT pH. I...

I've only done 2 all grain brews (with relatively crappy efficiency) but I think I can answer some of these. 1. 2-row doesn't require a protein rest. 2. Anything from 1 to 1.5 qt. per lb is pretty standard. 3. DON'T DISCARD YOUR FIRST RUNNINGS! You keep any liquid that leaves your mash...

New to homebrewing and I want to start ordering bulk hops to save some cash. Does anyone know about when hopsdirect get their shipment from fall harvest? I'm looking to get some centennial and hallertau. Thanks.

If you're doing a partial mash pumpkin ale, I STRONGLY recommend this recipe. I brewed it last weekend and took a gravity sample yesterday. It already tastes amazing. I can't wait for it to finish. Edit: The partial mash conversion is a couple posts down from the original.

Ugh. I'm in the same boat. Every time I walk by the keggorator I have to tell myself, "I don't want a beer, I don't want a beer." Most of the time it doesn't work. I think I need to buy a couple more carboys and extend my pipeline.

I LOVE centennial hops and don't notice any soapy flavor, but this may be a genetic thing. Some people (including my wife) say the same about cilantro. It's basically been proven that there's a gene that makes cilantro taste like soap. I know it's not the same gene for centennial though...

I made the partial mash version of this recipe yesterday (my first partial mash!). It already tastes awesome. I can't wait for the yeasties to do their job so I get this bad boy on the keg. Thanks for the recipe and all the help, Reno.