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Go with your plan, sounds good. I misunderstood what you were talking about with a lower OG, my bad. The hop utilization is still a mystery to me, but there are plenty of threads about tweaking that on here (I'm sure).

Oh no! I'm making my 1st Graff this afternoon. I hope the dry yeast I'll use does better! Good luck with this one, sounds like it will work out with time or jostling the carboy.

Use BeerSmith's scale tool. It's free to try for (I think) 21 days. You boil gravity will be MUCH higher if you don't scale your recipe down. You hop utilization is effected, but I don't know much about that. I believe BeerSmith will calculate your hops correctly though. Something to consider...

First things first, read a lot of stuff on here. I'm still a noob, but I've learned a LOT of info on here in the last month. Read through the stickies in this forum first, you will probably avoid many mistakes that way. Other than that, welcome and don't be daunted by the process of brewing, it...

That doesn't seem likely. If they had all the necessary minerals and everything, what would happen if somebody DIDN'T use distilled or RO water? It would throw things off. I think that most companies give their kits only what is necessary and allow the brewer to make adjustments to their water...

That's what she said? :confused:

Also, give them a few weeks in bottle. In addition to more time, throw them into the fridge for about a week. The "cold crash" will help to settle out a good deal of the sediments and compact them on the bottom of the bottle. I've had my first batch in the fridge (after 3.5 weeks at room temp)...

I decided to do stamping also, mainly because I have a POS ink-hog of a printer. Although, what I did was get some blank rubber and carve out what I wanted. Then I bought some witty labels from the local office store. The end result is labels that come off easily and have a somewhat handmade...

I would like to know too, that is a wicked looking label. Oh and I'm jealous of you for living in my beer Mecca (and having that killer NB goblet).

If it has a carboy/bucket, a brew pot, funnel with filter insert, tubing for blowoff and siphon, an airlock, bungs for carboy/bucket, hydrometer, etc. go for it. That's pretty basic, fundamental stuff. Things other than those listed above are just bonuses. BTW, post a link to whatever you are...

I've read on this forum about "yeast rafts," which I assume are pieces of yeast that come up from the bottom for no good reason. I would suspect that the heat spell you speak of is the cause of the yeast raft only because extreme heat brings up muck from the bottom of lakes around where I am...

Even if you don't like it, I'm sure some of your friends will take care of it for you! As for some other types of beer to try... try some Oskar Blues products, other New Belgium beers (maybe 1554 Black Lager), the wheat beer mentioned above has a sweeter tasting beer usually but should taste...

All of these are good suggestions. I think that you could do any/all of those AND step it up to baking them in the oven. Apparently this can be done with most bottles, but you are most likely going to have to start them at room temp in the oven (not throw them in once it is preheated. I could be...

My first trip to my LHBS I was told something similar... I asked what I should do first and he said, "A man should never pick another man's woman, car, or beer" That being said, go with an IPA, we all demand you do so. :ban:

I haven't been to any meetings, but have met some of its members at Orlando Brewery (near downtown, in an industrial complex). My friend and I are going to join as soon as we get to a meeting. I'm only 27 BTW, and am a student at UCF, as I assume you might be from your blog. Hearts is a drive...

Grains are WAY cheaper than LME, but it's worth the price temporarily while you might save up for those bigger pots and what not. At least that's my take on it as a partial grain brewer myself. I can't wait to go All Grain, but the extra equipment is a little too much at the moment. Good luck...

There are some real cool calculators for this. If you have a phone that runs apps there are two that are good for this... Brewzor Calculator and HomeBrew Calculator (both free). By the way my 1st batch that I am enjoying NOW, was an Oktoberfest recipe, probably from your LHBS "Hearts". I...

Cool, I never knew the science behind skunk beer. EDIT: Oh and Homebrew > Mtn Dew + Rum

Somebody on here once described what it should look like, and I can only paraphrase, "If it looks like a gang of monkeys had a poo fight in there, you're golden!" I gotta find that one again, made me laugh. EDIT: Found it, put into signature for posterity.

Because I think it would be a pain for them to keep them in a separate area, throw away twist offs and only put dark, pry off bottles to the side. I am going to ask, but wouldn't it be kinder to sweeten the pot a little?