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Don't worry about infection at this point. Take the airlock off and either replace it as normal or replace it with a blowoff tube. I've had two batches where I didn't realize the airlock got clogged inside the bucket and a couple days later the lid blew off on both. You'd think the weak point...

Yep. How cool your basement gets is dependent on the age of your house and/or the insulation or quality of the build. Then there's the heat flux of concrete, water, and wort. The water in your swamp cooler will keep within a couple degrees day and night unless you get a cold snap where it's...

Let it go in primary for another week and then keg/bottle. If it tastes good now, it'll be ready by carbonation, else give it another week or more before drinking. If you transfer to bottles/keg this upcoming weekend, you'll be sitting pretty for Halloween.

What's the ambient temp you're doing your swamp cooler? If it's 70 or less, stop adding ice and let it sit in the water and let that act as the heat sink. I'm not sure on the implications of too low temp on US-05, but I'm thinking it's more of just inhibition and not going to cause off-flavors...

Indeed drink fresh for IPA and PA! But, it's not a requirement to dry hop them. By switching to FWH and late additions, you can avoid the dry hops and save overall. Seriously, I haven't dry hopped any IPA for a year and if I gave you a sample I'm betting you couldn't tell. EDIT: And another...

Partially personal opinion. I don't care if my IPA or PA are putting off lots of odorous compounds. The other part is that in my experience you need to use 3x the hops the LHBS gives you to get good aromatics from dry hopping. Thus saving the money. And then, by using FWH and loading up on...

Austin Homebrew Supply www.austinhomebrew.com

Hop efficiency begins to decline at gravities over 1.050. Yes, you could "fix the problem" by adding water, but only such that you end up with a final OG of 1.049 +/- 0.002. If you add water and boil down to 5.5 gallons, you don't change anything. So, if you want to hit the OG, then dilute and...

Definitely do gelatin in the fermenter. In the keg runs the risk of clogging, my brother and I each did so when adding to the keg. Better safe than sorry. I'd add the gelatin a day before chilling and then 48 hours at serving temp. I think you'll get better results that way.

Unless you're entering a competition with it, honestly don't bother with the dry hopping. You're just throwing money down the drain, and if you bottle, doubly so as the oxygen scavenger caps also like hydrocarbons and soak up hop aroma. But sub in some of your late additions as FWH. You'll get...

Wow. I'll commend you for finishing it. I took two gulps and the folks I had try it took a sip or two each. Definitely poured out over 75% of the bottle. To each his own. :) And speaking of which, there's multiple brews/breweries where I enjoy the beer and others hate it. Southern Tier is one...

Since you have a fridge for fermentation, maybe kick the fridge temp down 2-3 degrees, but probably not needed. At 70, your fermenter's probably gonna be about 75, which will pull out esters that will work with the style. Lowering it a couple degrees will knock those down a tad. Ferment for 2-4...

Vinegar is best. Just buy one of the gallons of "distilled white vinegar" at the grocery store for $2. But, using PBW will be fine, maybe a tablespoon to a full pot. Just run one or two full pots of clean water through it before using. However, PBW is an alkaline cleaner so if you're wanting to...

Generally, yes, it's illegal to brew if you're not of age. Just like it is to drink it, but we know how that goes. I'm not aware of any state that allows you to sell homebrew. Since it's a food product, you have to have permits for legality. Yes, I think. Giving it away is fine, but you're...

Batch sparging gives lower efficiency compared to fly sparging, so you have to compensate for that. Since I switched to all-grain, I've only done either straight fly sparging or a hybrid approach I came up with on my own. The hybrid was to drain the mash tun, add a first batch sparge and then...

I made a double chocolate cherry stout that turned out horrid. I followed advice here on chocolate and used Hershey's cocoa powder in the last few minutes of the boil and pie cherries in the secondary. After 3 months in the bottle, it was terrible. 6 months, just as terrible tasting so I dumped...

Indeed! Dilute it enough and it's all good. I'm not a vodka drinker, but even I can tell the difference between straight cheap **** and stuff that's been filtered at least a little. One of my former college roommates would get a handle of either McCormick's or Kamchatka to keep on hand for...

http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/04/01/making-a-yeast-starter-for-your-home-brew-beer/ http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-5.html http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php There are many ways to go about it. Your plan sounds good, and just make sure to shake/swirl it every couple hours...

I went to my favorite liquor store and got 5 or 6 bombers of good stuff. Then grabbed a handle of Kamchatka for my airlocks. The clerk noted the comparative difference and I had to explain. Now, in my youth, I partook in Kamchatka, but you couldn't pay me to drink it now.

Backsweetening can help, but you need kegs to do it. Since you have to kill the yeast if you're gonna add wort or sugar to kill the heat. You could add a non-fermentable, but they're gonna add a whole new element to the brew. Lactose and Malto-Dextrine are the most often used. I'm afraid the...