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I have an AIPA in primary now, brewed it last weekend with the grain bill from a planned Classic American Pilsener team-brew that fell through. At 6 SRM and 54 IBU it should be a nice surprise! Tomorrow I think I'll brew a smoked American wheat session beer - something I've been considering...

Adding the hops to your secondary provides cavitation points that cause CO2 to come out of solution. So you'll see more airlock activity but it isn't fermentation as you might think. Just give your carboy a gentle swirl and wash the hops back down into the beer. Lately I've been hearing...

Wow... I keep wondering if I should brew another batch this weekend... and this is a really good argument for it. Thanks for the extra motivation! You should have someone pop some of those beers in the fridge a few days before you get home, and maybe have a kit waiting there for you. Sounds...

Never tried an all late-hop beer... but I really like a firm bitterness in the background. I think I'll try the malt bill with hop schedule as follows instead: 0.25 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (90 min - First Wort Hops) Hops 13.2 IBU 0.25 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (90 min - First Wort Hops) Hops 14.2...

Had a Pilsner imported from India at one of the local ethnic restaurants a little while back that was loaded with buttery flavor. I believe the name was Haywood 5000. It went really well with the heavy curry flavors.

I'd planned to brew a Classic American Pilsener with a friend tomorrow but he can't make it and I still want to brew. Instead of trying to split the 10-gallon recipe I figured I'd try a very light IPA with a lot of the same grain bill. Everything here is in the house already so that's nice...

There's also a much higher chance of the sugar caramelizing - due to less space and a thicker wort - which will cause the dreaded "homebrew funk". This is perceived as a strong bitterness or tartness, which especially hits me in the back of the throat. It diminishes over time but can...

The best option for priming sugar is to boil it with a couple cups of water, cool it and pour into your empty bottling bucket, then siphon your beer into the bottling bucket. This should give a nice even distribution with no significant splashing. If you're bottling straight from the primary...

You under-pitched dramatically and stressed the yeast very badly. Don't worry, if you don't like banana beer just bottle it and let it sit for a while. I had the same thing happen a while back from my fermentation temps being too high and the flavor mellowed with time. Of course it wasn't the...

Sounds like the perfect opportunity to build your own plate chiller.

High fermentation temps work fine for IPAs or Belgian styles. If your current batch gets too much yeast character, just dry-hop it! That's not always an option of course. I had a similar issue toward the end of last summer and put together a simple cooler for my primary for less than $25...

Kickass! I've been talking for years about putting together a similar setup for my mud turtle. Maybe this great example will give me a little extra motivation.

I've been thinking off and on about making a really spicy ginger beer, like a Blenheim ginger ale. Something that makes your stomach tingle as you drink it. American wheat sounds like a great base, and I'll probably add ginger to the boil, secondary, and run a bit through the juicer for an...

My first batch using California Lager yeast is in primary right now. It's a lager yeast that ferments at ale temps (58-65 dF) so that might be a good option. http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=131

Yeah, you've gotta have a hydrometer. Very easy to use, just float it in your liquid and read the calibrated neck. If you're using a bucket for primary you could just drop it in, but that seems like a little more chance of infection. Plus, don't you want a taste too? A turkey baster worked...

That's a good point. The only re-pitched batch I've done was with an OG increase of about 10 points to account for the extra yeast, but still got immediate airlock activity. My beer came out with a slight peach flavor which I didn't detect in the original beer. Maybe that's the explanation...

Oh yeah... I'm not really paying attention. :D I think my nephews got me sick this weekend, and that seems like a good enough excuse.

You might have trouble using a 5 gallon carboy for your primary, though. The headspace for your krausen is pretty important, mostly to keep the airlock from clogging and blowing beer everywhere. As long as everything is sterile you're probably better off pouring the yeast cake into the primary...

You're better off leaving it long enough to make certain the primary fermentation is complete. Bottling early can cause bottle bombs - pressure building up in the bottles and creating a big mess. I like to give mine at least 2 weeks in primary since the yeast is still working even after...

Sounds like you're using a bucket for primary and the lid wasn't tight or something, so you had a leak instead of getting CO2 through the airlock. No big deal, you're going to have good beer in a couple weeks anyway. But a glass primary is a very nice upgrade! The simplest thing you can do...