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Funny, I also have a witbier with a similar looking film on top. I also have two bags but I used them to dry hop. I soaked the bags in vodka first though to try to disinfect them. It doesn't look like the film is really growing anymore right now, hopefully it's salvageable. To those in the...

My very first bottling experience, the NB capper broke after only a few bottles. Thankfully it was during the day so I just drove to the LHBS and got a press style capper. I also realized that the caps that came with the NB kit are much harder to use.

This may be amateur thinking, but maybe there's no harm in starting with 6 gallons and topping off afterwards if needed, and then keeping that info for next time. I would think wort and water might boil off at different rates.

Update: as always, relaxing and having a home brew was the answer. I bottled this on Friday after 7 weeks in the bucket (don't you hate when life gets in the way?), and it smelled and tasted fine. I will chalk this up to another learning experience and remind myself not to be worried by what I...

I saw this recipe a couple months ago and was very intrigued. Looking forward to hearing how it goes!

I don't know how much sugar is actually in the unfermentable sugars found in different malts, but maybe that's the difference? I know I can get headaches from a lot of sugar. Since you mentioned lighter beers and whiskey doesn't do it, that could be a possibility. I would use this as an...

Honorable is abbreviated. It's a joke :)

I'm doing the NB brunch stout kit, and was thinking of adding oatmeal to the grains and doing a mini mash. I know normally I would need to add a lb of base grains for a lb of oatmeal to convert the starches, but with these grains is that still necessary? 1.25 lb English Roasted Barley 1 lb...

As an alternative, maybe use the flask batch as an opportunity to try something different with the brew?

A compromise might be to crack the lid and let it ooze out. The guy at my LHBS suggested that.

Cool! Never thought to do a smaller batch alongside, I guess the only real trouble would be cooling. How did you cool them both at the same time? And I've never made a saison, but when I was looking at them, it seemed that the yeast gets lower than 1.010. Maybe that saison will end up being...

Thanks for the words of wisdom. I'm feeling more hopeful. It's still bubbling every few minutes, but I realize that this may be off gassing that I didn't see on my previous brews because the big mouth bubbler didn't have as good of a seal on the top. Now normally I would take 2 gravity...

I have batch number 5 in a brand new bucket fermentor right now, a brown ale, brewed on Wednesday night (today is Tuesday of the next week). I used US-05, sprinkled on top of the wort. The bucket had previously been used once to soak a blowoff tube in oxyclean free, but was rinsed well after...

It smells more like beer, so I guess that's a good sign! A little bit of carbonation fizzing up. Now I guess my next step is figuring out how to store this yeast once it's finished until I can actually brew the witbier. Can I just keep this beaker in the fridge, or do I need to decant the liquid...

I've been swirling it a little, but I'll try stirring with a sanitized spoon. I just went with the instructions I saw when I googled yeast starters, 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup DME. This is for a 5 gallon batch of witbier, 1.044 OG.

Thanks for the comments. I knew it was risky having it shipped, but it was last month and I really wanted the Hoegaarden yeast to try for this beer. It just sucked that it sat on the doorstep for a few hours in direct sunlight until I got home. The pouch was somewhat inflated when I got it...

Granted I've only had 3 of my batches in bottles, but every single one of them tasted "eh" before 3 weeks. I think I'm just not even going to waste one trying it until 3 weeks from now on.

So I made my first yeast starter last night in anticipation of brewing tonight. I'm making a witbier and had a packet of wyeast 3944. When I ordered the kit, the yeast pack was warm from the box being outside despite the ice pack. I refrigerated it as soon as it came. So it's been over 24...

Have you tried a similar style beer from a commercial brewer before? You may just be tasting the sweetness that it inherent in the style. It might have been masked at bottling by the alcohol burn, and as that faded, the sweetness came out.

Thanks everyone for the advice, especially about the suck back. I'd never thought about that. It seems that it's not pushing any more krausen, at least for the last few hours. Just a good about of CO2. Do you think I'm safe to replace it with an airlock? I tried a couple ways to get the bottle...