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good looking recipe and timetable. Looks quite similar to a barleywine I did last xmas. a few notes from my experience that might help. First, use a blowoff on your primary, I used a 7 gallon bucket for a five gallon batch and the krausen still plugged my airlock. As far as your dry-hopping...

What'd you end up doing for a recipe?

Thanks yoop, I think I'll just go for a steep then to save a little time on brew day.

I'm getting ready to put together the extract with grains version of "who's your taddy" porter tomorrow and had a question. The recipe calls for a simple steep of the brown, crystal 40 and chocolate malt (3# total) then 6.6# of LME. Would I be doing anything detrimental by mashing then sparging...

A bottle brush with a 90 degree bend in it really helps too. Lets you clean all the dried Krausen and muck from the curved part of the neck

Yup.

Brewer's best had an awesome cascadian dark ipa as a seasonal release last year. I tweaked it just a little for better head retention and just brewed my second batch of it a month ago. Recipe as follows: 5 gallon batch. 60 min boil Extracts: 3.3# dark LME 3.3# amber LME 2.25# amber DME Steeping...

One suggestion I have is, instead of corks, try waxing your bottle caps. Its really a cool and easy effect. If you do a quick search of the forums for bottle capping wax you'll find a sticky with great step by step instructions on making your own. Fwiw, I've made both a barleywine and russian...

+1 I recently did an apricot wheat and did two weeks in the primary then racked into a Carboy with apricot puree for an additional ten days. Came out great

If you want to avoid pouring your priming solution into each bottle, then yes, use the bottling bucket. Does yours have a spigot? And as far as mixing goes, just put the priming solution into your bucket before your rack your beer onto it, you'll get all the mixing you need.

do you have a nice big brewpot? A plastic carboy so you can get another batch going? (trust me, you'll be glad you did) A journal to keep track of your formulations and methods as well as tasting notes, A better sanitizer than comes with the kit (starsan or idophor) Plenty of bottles Good luck...

you'll be amazed at what chilling/carbonating/a few weeks of age will do for a brew. They taste way different once cold and all carbed up. Tasting flat beer at bottling/kegging can give you an idea of what it's going to be like, but but by no means reflects what the finished finished product...

I've used regular household bleach when I was out of idophor to sanitize on bottling day. I just followed the dilution directions on the bottle for sanitizing. Also, make sure you rinse really well to avoid off-flavors. I've been drinking the beer from that batch for several weeks now with no...

how long did you chill your bottles for before opening? Cold beer can dissolve much more C02 than warmish beer. Also, several weeks of additional aging can help dissolve more C02 into the beer. Something you can consider doing if you still have the excess carbonation issues is to just decant...

Another piece of advise I wish someone had gotten into my head before I started brewing was to learn the art of patience. The directions that came with my kits had me bottling as soon as two weeks after brewing. You may hit your FG in that time, but extra time in the fermenter in my experience...

sounds like you've got good carbonation, which is good. First, I'd try chilling some bottles down for four or five days in the fridge. If that doesn't help your problem, you can always decant your beers in a pitcher or large glass about 15 minutes before you drink them.

RDWHAHB you might miss a little bit of OG unless you added less H2O to correct for it, but your beer should be fine

a good lesson on why to keep an extra packet of nottingham, or US-04 (or whatever you use the most) in the fridge =)

I recently had very good success with lemon zest in a Sam Summer clone that just finished bottle conditioning. I added one tablespoon of fresh zest at flameout and the lemony/citrusy note is definitely present in the finish. Hope this helps! Edit==> I didn't strain the zest out when racking...

to answer your kit question, yes! by all means, premeasured kits containing all the required ingredients can make great beer. I started my brewing hobby with two Brewer's Best Kits, American Amber and Black IPA. I have since moved onto buying the raw ingredients in bulk from my LHBS to make my...