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+1 to toasting the pumpkin in the oven first and adding to the mash. Also highly recommend adding rice hulls to the grain bill if doing biab. I used them the first time I made my pumpkin ale and things went well. Decided to skip them the next time and the bag was totally clogged and wouldn’t...

That’s so cool, congratulations! I brewed a Grodziskie a couple years back as an homage to my Polish heritage. Been wanting to make one again. Enjoy your experience of being part of brewing it at a brewery.

Well that’s a bummer. It has been a strange growing season overall. Mine grew a lot but all the cones turned brown quickly, and they did not seem to be ready yet based on past years. Not sure what happened.

Also in the same area as Allagash Brewing are several other smaller breweries as well as a great distillery (New England Distillers). They are all in this former industrial park type area, can practically walk from one to another. Also in Portland, along the waterfront part of town, is...

I ferment my 1G batches in a Little Big Mouth Bubbler. And the 2.5G in a 3G Better Bottle. Been happy with them.

+1 to the above. I started with a 1G kit using a pot I already had in my kitchen. It was a good way to get my feet wet without investing too much.

Welcome to HBT! You should let those go, those branching out bines with nodes are where the hops will grow. Usually at the start of the season I cut back all bines and then once they start growing again, just keep some of them. The early bines are usually bull shoots and are kind of hollow...

Kegged my Dark Lager with Lubelski hops. Sample tasted great, can't wait for it to carb up!

@balrog I guess he/she likes you.

I recommend Great Lakes Hops. It's been several years but I bought mine from them, they sell small plants rather than rhizomes, and have a nice selection. The plants arrived looking very healthy and are still going strong.

This doesn't answer the immediate problem, but next time try putting a top draw setup in the keg. I've done this for ferment & serve in keg and it works well.

@Miraculix , my friend recently brewed your British Golden Ale-Miraculix Best-Classic English Ale mentioned above and gave me some to try. It was very tasty. Definitely on my To Brew list.

Enjoyed a homebrewed Czech Dark Lager on Thanksgiving. 🍻

I find putting a hop sock with some aquarium charcoal in it on top of a 3 piece airlock absorbs that sulphur smell.

This doesn’t answer your immediate question, but +1 to the advice above to not use an airlock. In the future use a loosely crimped piece of foil on the top. This is what I do when using the SNS method. Whenever I walk by I give it a good swirl and the foaming I hear lets me know something is...

I live in western MA, and cut mine down to about 6 to 12 inches and cover with a little layer of leaves. I used to put a really thick layer of leaves but now just do a few inches or so. I haven’t yet done all that yet this year, but usually do so by the end of Oct.

+1 to the bag draining issue. I've used pumpkin with the grains in a biab during the mash. It worked well except the time I didn't include rice hulls in the grain bill. The pumpkin clogged things up and I had some frantic moments getting the bag full of hot liquid, etc. to drain.

Just visited a distillery in Portland Maine that distilled Allagash Saison into a great tasting whiskey.

I’ll just add that I’ve found the Online Yeast Starter Calculator on brewunited.com to be very helpful in making my starters. Sometimes I overbuild the starter and save the extra to make a starter for another future batch. That extra gets saved in a mason jar in the fridge.

I recently used a lager yeast and fermented in the 50s. But when I made the starter I made it at room temp like usual and it worked out fine. I did put it in the fridge about 24 hours prior to brew day so that I could decant off some of the liquid. When I chilled the wort, I did manage to chill...