Search results

Stick ball

I soaked 8 oz of cocoa nibs in a cup of vanilla rum overnight and threw them into the primary for a week. Added a really awesome chocolate flavor to the beer.

I would do ancient Egypt or around the American revolution. I feel like they would appreciate it the most.

There are some great videos on the northern brewer website. They will help to explain the basics. A starter kit is going to make sure you get (almost) everything you need. I remember when I first started brewing I just brewed a new beer or planned something new beer related for the first weeks...

Peace talks

Those were kind of my thoughts. I just took my first hydrometer reading and it is right where I want it to be. So I will probably not be adding more yeast unless anyone else has experience or information that says otherwise.

Hey all. So I am currently fermenting my first Belgian Dubbel (yay!). When I was picking up the supplies at my LHBS the (generally very knowledgeable) guy that works there said that I should re-pitch a small amount of yeast when I transfer to secondary. He said like a 4th of a smack pack...

I feel like now that I have seen this men in black suits are going to kill me in my sleep.

I have never had issues with contamination and I top off using tap water run through a brita, and then treated with Camden. If you are not waiting a long time to pitch your yeast, the yeast should be able to gain a stronghold that any contaminant in your tap water won't have a chance against.

I put each batch in a large plastic tote. But I have never had a beer explode.

Just wanted to update this. I ended up soaking the 8 oz of cocoa nibs in about a cup of vanilla rum overnight and then threw it in the fermenter for a week. It worked like a charm, and imparted an amazing chocolate vanilla flavor to the stout. Thanks for the help all.

Hi all. Sorry up front for not being able to put up a picture, the beer is in a brown bottle and any pictures I take don't show anything. I bottled a stout about ten days ago. I cracked one open last night and it tasted great, although under-carbed. I was gently swishing the bottles this morning...

I have had great luck with cocoa nibs. They are better than powder because they don't clump like the powder does. Just soak them in booze overnight (I used vanilla rum and it worked great), and toss them in the fermenter. I used 8 oz of nibs ($7 at whole foods) in about a cup of vanilla run. I...

Don't dry hop until your fermentation is done. You can tell fermentation is done only by using a hydrometer and getting identical readings 2-3 days apart. There is nothing wrong with letting the hops sit on top of the beer. They will eventually float down, and they are still imparting flavor...

Just popped open a bottle after a week of bottle conditioning. Definitely needs to carbonate more, but tastes amazing.

The co2 produced by fermentation will protect your beer while you put on a blowoff hose. If you are really worried just put a piece of sanitized foil over the top of your fermenter while you are cleaning.

I soaked 8 oz of cocoa nibs in about a cup of vanilla rum for about 24 hrs and then dumped them in the primary. It imparted a great, but not overpowering, chocolate flavor. I left them in there for about a week.

I like to put in the name any extra ingredients. Then I usually just troll the Internet looking for cool pictures and name it after those. For example, for my dubbel I was looking for pictures of monks, and I came across a really cool hooded statue photo, so I called it stone monk dubbel.

That seems like a lot. Use a priming sugar calculator. Northern brewer had one. Too much sugar can result in bottle bombs (I think).

You can store star San for months in a covered bucket depending on how hard your water is. It is also the best sanitizer because it is made specifically for brewing. There is a great brew strong podcast on sanitizing that explains the science better than I can. Check iTunes for the podcast.