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I can only speak to my experiences... I hate making starters, and almost never do it. I make good beer that virtually never under attenuates. I usually have a very healthy aggressive fermentation within a few days that finishes quickly. I buy very fresh yeast...almost always less than a...

I’ve only used cacao nibs and was very happy with them. Won a gold medal with an imperial stout on nibs.

I hopped my first kettle sour and then realized that was a waste of money. If it’s not going to add to the character of the beer, don’t bother.

So I think starting fermenting a little warm to give the yeast a head start could potentially be my issue...because that’s something I do regularly. I never get any apparent ill effects like Fusel alcohols from fermenting too warm (because I tend to switch to the lowest suggested ferm temp after...

We've had massive growth in Florida and especially here in the Tampa area. I see a little of what you're talking about but we also have a lot of really good breweries that have popped up. Granted, many of them have grown out of the Cigar City family tree...so those folks were brought up the...

Won my first gold ever this year with an Imperial Stout. Great feeling. Congrats!

Lots of people around here smarter than me...but I would think if you're consistently getting lower efficiency, then you probably aren't getting everything out of your grain that is has to offer...which means you might not be getting the full character of the grain and thus might not get the...

Iodophor instead of Starsan?

I always force carb. I set to 30 psi for 24 hours, then bleed the keg and set to intended pouring temperature. I usually turn it sideways while hooked up to 30 psi and shake it around. I don't "start the clock" until the beer has been in the fridge for a few hours and had time to cool down so...

Maybe a dumb question, but why would you be carbing at 74 degrees? No room in the kegerator?

Been there! I once fell asleep while chilling my wort...Woke up two hours later...wort chiller was leaking tap water into the wort the entire time...wort was down to less than 60 degrees...you could see layers, and the top was straight water for like 3+ inches. This wasnt a cheap recipe so I was...

Long story short, I have gotten to the point where I'm usually nailing my original gravity...Which is great, there was a while where I struggled with this. I make beer that I really like and I'm usually very happy with it. Today I went to keg an american pale ale that I brewed a few weeks ago...

I would like to add one of my experiences. I've been brewing for about 4 years now (not 24 batches in a year like yourself...probably between 12-18 a year). So many people make it seem like making a yeast starter is necessary for most beer styles. I use a single Wyeast smack pack for almost...

Thanks for those tips BierMuncher! Have you been alright using standard bottles for bottling beers at this volume? @ Ba-Brewer, thanks for that information. Maybe I'll just need to bite the bullet and buy some belgian 375's for competitions to be safe.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=126884&page=4 That is the thread I was referring to. There are a couple of people who mentioned issues with high carb beers. One of them mentioned that its really difficult to bottle anything over 3 volumes on the homebrew level. I'm not sure how...

This may have been covered in the 132 pages but I noticed in a separate (pro-beer gun) thread, that this method might cause issues with high pressure beers... Long story short, I keg everything. Bought a Blichmann beer gun because I wanted to be able to bring my beer to the local brewery...

I have a great Kolsch recipe that I brew variations of more than any other beer on my rotation. I use Wyeast 2565 and have always had excellent results. I ferment in the 55-60 degree range with no issues and have had a few times where I let it get too cold and it still kicked the wort's ass at...

Was just perusing this thread for a new idea and just thought I should add something...and maybe this has been said before somewhere on the 10 or so pages I didn't read, but maybe not. I'm not sure why everyone is so concerned about infecting their beer by adding fruit to secondary...I know...

I've made starters that didn't meet up to the supposed cell requirements and have still met or surpassed my intended FG. Granted I only have 10 beers of experience, but so far the only difference I've seen when using a starter is that fermentation is more aggressive....I haven't fallen short of...

I wouldn't worry about it getting "too cold"...I did an IPA and fermented it between 52-58 just because it was easier for me to leave it in my wine fridge which ranges between 50 and 60 degrees. It came out great and fermented down to my intended final gravity...I used Wyeast Denny's Ale...can't...