Search results

No, don't worry about it. I really appreciate the help. DMS is a sulfur-like smell, right? This is definately not sulfur. In fact, it doesn't stink, per se, it is just harsh on the nose and tongue. The carbonation is also a little harsh - not as bad as soda, but still too much bite to it...

Hey kornkob....you live in Madison....just for the hell of it stop by Woodman's and pick up some Hackstein. It makes Old Style taste like liquid gold. I bought some as an experiment since it was dirt cheap. It was so so SO bad that I opened them up and dumped them one can at a time....until...

I steeped the grains in the muslin bag. Then took the bag out of the wort, dumped out the grains, rinsed it out well, and THEN put the hops in and put it back into the wort. Using StarSan on something that is going to go right back into boiling water is the kind of paranoia that can only come...

@Kaiser: Ha-ha...when I first read that post, I thought you were having trouble because you added a 1lb bag of hops to each batch. That would do it. But, no...I think my beers have been different types of hops, mostly. I buy the little 1 oz. packages. @Yooperchick: Here are my exact...

^^^ I have used tap water, Brita-filtered tap water, and bottled drinking water. The last batch was bottled drinking water. Our water here is very hard naturally, but after going through our water softener is quite soft. Off-topic: Just out of curiousity, can "softened" water be used...

Hmm...very interesting. I assumed that as long as I kept everything covered, it wouldn't be a problem. The only time I had my pot uncovered after boiling was when I added and removed the muslin bag to steep the aroma hops, and when I poured the wort into the bucket. Wouldn't bacteria have...

Thanks for the quick replies. What made me think of using a blow-off hose was the following from NCJoHB: “This method of fermenting has the extra advantage of ‘blowing off’ excessively bitter hop resins, excess yeast, and other things…” As far as what exactly the off-flavor is…well, I...

Every batch of beer I have ever made has a harsh overly-yeasty, overly-bitter (even astringent) flavor. I would guess wild yeast contamination, but I am ridiculously anal about making sure everything is sterilized well and kept covered at all times. Because of the harsh yeastiness, it...

Okay, I just talked to my friend about his hops. The bad news is he couldn't tell me much about his hops because they're not doing well. He planted them in partial or full shade, when they actually need full sunlight. This was his first go and he didn't do much research. The good news is...

I've used tap water, Brita-filtered tap water, and bottled "drinking" water from the store (I assume that means it has some minerals in it as opposed to distilled water.) It's hard to say how much it has affected the taste because I've been making different beers with the different waters...

I also live in Madison. A friend of mine who lives here is growing some hops on his backyard fence. I'll see if he can give my any info that I can pass along. I'll piggyback on this thread to ask if there are any expert home brewers in Madison who would be willing to taste a few of my home...

I guess you're right, this has SORT OF been talked about to death. I found a lot of posts about sanitizing (and the whole sanitation argument) times with One-step, but nothing about cleaning times. Isn't Oxy-clean essentially the same thing as One-step? They both work by releasing oxygen...

I'm interested to know everyone's opinion on how to best clean bottles. This does NOT need to include sanitation -- I will be sanitizing the clean bottles with Star-San just before bottling. I just need an effective way to take care of bottle grime and stickers. I have used One-step in the...

Last night after my wort (2.5 gallons) was done boiling, I let it sit off the burner for about 15 min, then poured it into the primary fermenter on top of 2.5 gallons of store-bought drinking water that had been in the fridge. I immediately put the lid on and gave it a good mix but it was still...

I just found the recipe that I used for the last beer I made. The recipe was from my father-in-law, and it does say to boil the grains for 15 minutes. So, that may have been the problem. But what about the fizziness? I wouldn't think that would be related to boiling the grains so I must...

Okay...I thought I was even overdoing the cleaning. It's possible that I was doing something wrong and didn't realize it. I am brewing with: Brewer's Best equipment kit - Plastic carboy for primary, glass carboy for secondary. Ingredients - Munton's DME, Wyeast, and pellet hops, all...

First off...Hi! I wish I had thought of looking for this kind of forum earlier. This is just what I need. I haven't brewed anything in almost 2 years. It's sort of like those romantic comedies where the protagonists want to fall in love but they refuse to because they have been hurt too many...