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Sierra Madre is a beer kit from Northern Brewer. It is supposed to be a clone of Sierra Nevada. It is currently in the primary and will soon be in bottles. The OG was 1.052 for this 5 gallon extract kit. According to last night, I checked my primary and it was 1.008. I checked it a few...

Yes, the Wine Thief on top is what I have. As for posting questions here, I certainly have been but I try to do my own due diligence of searching before doing so. I'm starting to get a better handle on what info to trust but still learning. :)

No worries... just taking it all in stride as I know I have so much to learn. :) The video was something I found on YouTube because I wanted to know how to use the Wine Thief. For noobs like myself, it would be incredibly helpful to know what videos to trust because there are so many out...

As a new brewer, I'm just trying to learn - please excuse whatever noobness I show. Not returning the sample is probably because I haven't read anything that says not to do so until now. Also, I watched an instructional video a couple weeks ago (showing how to use a wine thief) and the brewer...

Yes, thanks. I just edited it to avoid confusion.

Good read, thanks sharing the link. The results of the experiment seem to be fairly consistent with what I've been reading in posts from people on this board. That is, on brews under .0160, you can probably get away without re-hydrating the yeast. However, with higher gravity brews (such as...

Why? The hydrometer is sanitized as is the wine thief. I certainly could just drink it (or toss it) as maybe I should. I guess it's just me being a bit anal and not wanting to waste any of my soon to be precious beer. :D

New brewer here... on my third batch. I have a big mouth bubbler and really like using it. When it comes time to check the gravity, taking off the airlock and inserting my wine thief is easy enough. It's nice not to have to take the entire lid off exposing my brew to more air than is...

That makes sense. I'm glad I didn't listen to their advice. :D

Well, that would definitely include me "mostly for beginners". However, I didn't want to chance not having enough active yeast which is I why I decided to go against the directions on that piece.

On a related note... why do you think the instructions in my Brewer's Best IPA kit were very explicit NOT to re-hydrate the yeast? It not only stated this once but twice in capital letters. Since it has an OG around 1.070, I decided to re-hydrate the yeast regardless of what the instructions...

Good point. Perhaps I will just use tap water which would obviously save on bottled water and allow me to skip the microwaving step as well.

You must have decent water. My tap water is full of chlorine. I think next time, to simplify things, I will just use bottled water then... 1. Heat about a 1/2 cup in the microwave until about 90 degrees. 2. Sprinkle yeast on top. 3. Wait for 15 minutes. Then stir. 4. Pitch re-hydrated...

The guidelines that I have says to add yeast to the water when it reaches 105 degrees (when cooling down from a boil). Therefore, as eadavis80 stated earlier, heating up to about 100-105 degrees should be fine as far as I understand it.

Thanks... I like your method as it seems easy enough. I'll try it on my next brew.

Going back to my earlier question regarding boiling the water - are you boiling because you are using tap water? If I use spring water, I could skip this step, correct? Being that this is the same water that is in my wort (which I didn't boil either because it's bottled) I would think that...

Yes, being that I was using tap water, I understand the need to boil for 15-20 minutes. However, if I use spring water, do I really need to boil for more than a minute or two? This is the water that I use for my batch (without boiling it).

I doubt this is an issue or people wouldn't do it but I still wonder... cooling the beer and then letting it get room temperature in bottles for a week or two and then cooling it again in the fridge for consumption - that doesn't pose any issues with flavor? The reason I ask is that last year I...

Don't you risk shocking your yeast pitching it around 85-90 degrees if your wort is chilled to about 70 degrees? The instructions that I've been following recommends getting the yeast within 5 degrees of the wort. After looking more at other directions for re-hydrating yeast, I've seen within...

Those that responded that you re-hydrate at xx time, are you talking about when you actually add the yeast to the water? The reason I ask is that the instructions that I have about re-hydrating yeast recommends that you boil for 15 minutes. In my mind, that seems like a long time to boil such...