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Have you had any skunking effect from the light (or do you block the light from getting into your bucket/carboy)? That's my big worry with a light bulb. And yes, I also get overshoot to the tune of about 0.3F (not bad, but not that great). I had to widen my deadband to +/-0.5F when I added...

I'm in Northern California, and just started having this problem last week. I use an electric heating pad, and just threw it into the freezer. It's fairly slow to heat, but at 40W, I would imagine it's about 2/3 as fast as a 60W bulb.

I use an old chest freezer. Apart from the heavily lifting of getting beer in and out, I like it a lot. The design helps keep cold in when you open the door. Before you buy your temp controller, check out the eBay aquarium temp controller thread. You can easily build a digital two-stage...

I have a hard time believing you'll get all the way down to 1.014... If you're steeping those other grains, they should mostly be unfermentable. What would your software return, gravity-wise, if you plugged in a recipe of just the 4lb dark extract? Also, much of caramel's flavor comes from...

It's fine. All that will happen if the temperature drops is that the yeast will go dormant and stop carbonating. When the temperature rises again, so will the yeast (just try not to have too many cycles of that). If you can hold your beer between 60 and 70 for a few weeks, it should carbonate...

I'm heading home for the holidays, and wanted to brew some beer with my dad at a brew-on-premise place. Does anyone in the Mississauga/Toronto area have a recommendation? I've found a few places on Google, but information is very scarce. Minimum requirements are: 1) They let you do most of...

Followup: I bottled today after nearly three weeks in primary. Flat and warm-ish, this beer tastes amazing! It's got a fair bit of sweetness, but less than I was expecting given the gravity readings. It's a smooth, sweet stout with really nice body. It's weird... I tried three batches of milds...

5 gallons is a standard size, but not magic. Start with whatever size you have equipment for. Just know that your consumption will go way up once you start brewing your own. When I first started, I'd go through a six pack in two weeks. Now, I drink at least a pint a day! 5 gallons lasts about a...

Listen to the Jamil Show episode with Epic brewing from New Zealand. They do an all-cascade beer with additions from FWH all the way to dry hop. I've tried the "chuck a few pellets in every few minutes" strategy, from 30 minutes down to flame-out, and have been very happy with the results. For...

Two of my standby beers are: -An all East Kent Goldings beer, though it's not very hoppy -All Cascade, for my golden California Poppy ale

I forgot to mention, I did let it start to rise a few days ago. It's now at 68-69, with no change. Regarding the yeast efficiency, Brewpal and the original recipe said to expect an OG of 1.056 and an FG of 1.016 (71% efficiency). Even if I get 69% from 1.052, that should still be about 1.016...

This might be my first stuck fermentation! Or, something else. Here's my situation. Grain Bill: Partial Mash Oatmeal Stout, based on Jamil's all-grain recipe. 6 lb Light LME (Morebeer) 1 lb 2-row 1 lb Flaked Oats (totally unprocessed by me) 0.75 lb Chocolate Malt 0.75 lb Victory Malt...

It was in the 90's today. I came home from work into a sweltering house, and have been sitting up sweating all evening. My oatmeal stout, however, is happily fermenting away at a cool 64 degrees. I'm going to feel pretty good when those lucky bastard yeast cells are killed in my tummy.

Everything should settle out after fermentation. I use muslin bags, yet still always have some hop material go through the mesh. Generally, all of that stuff will settle out first, and the yeast will lay down on top of it. It may be a little hoppier than if no hops went into the fermenter, but...

For people who have built everything into a box, what did you do for strain relief on the main power cord and temperature probe cable?

Just thought I'd share. I bought the 110v 2-stage from uni_mart, and it's happily chugging away (so far). Total cost, including outlet, power cord, Radio Shack project box, etc. was just under $50. I'll let you guys know if my house burns down.

Two days ago, I tried a Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat (bottle, in California). It was really strange and bad. Really strong grapefruit aroma and flavor, half-masking a truly horrible taste that I can't describe. It was the first beer I've dumped since 21st Amendment's Watermelon Wheat. Actually...

When I brewed my first batch two years ago, I tried a sip of wort and nearly spat it out. Today, I found myself downing the entire contents of my hydrometer sample jar. I was like, "That is some good wort!" And I'm a partial boiler, so this is really wort syrup (1.090+). I feel like I passed...

I thought I'd share my recent experience of trying out a 30-minute boil. I do a partial boil of 2.5-3 gallons and use extract for at least 80% of my fermentables (sometimes I partial mash with up to 2 lbs of grain). Since December, I've been doing 30-minute boils to try and save energy and...

I just use OpenOffice on my Mac. It opens their spreadsheet without complaint. Actually, I went one better and uploaded the spreadsheet into a Google document!