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Have had a milk stout sitting in primary for the past 2 weeks and getting ready to rack to secondary along with 4oz of dominican cacoa nibs. Usually will soak the nibs in vodka before placing into secondary but ran out and decided to soak in some good 5 year old rum I had in the house. First...

Oktoberfest has been fermenting at 50 degrees for past 3 weeks........just about to target gravity so was going do a diacetyl rest for couple days then transfer to corney and sit at 32-33 degrees for next 2 months. Typically when I go to secondary I use a carboy with airlock attached.......this...

I have been experimenting with different recipes by brewing 1 gallon batches. 1st few batches I simply mashed in 8 qt stock pot but difficult to maintain steady temperatures and literally had to stand at stove for 60 minutes adjusting the stove temp. Came across a 2 gallon igloo drink cooler I...

Which direction did you end up going with this? I brewed the extract version of this and decided to bottle condition.......just cracked open for first time yesterday and came out great........had perfect level of carbonation and a lot more fruity esters then I thought.........fermented pretty...

Just returned from raspberry picking at local farm and want to use in chocolate raspberry porter but not planning on brewing this until fall. Should I freeze the raspberries or make a raspberry extract. I have not yet attempted a fruit beer but thought would be cool to make bunch of extracts as...

So happened to be at Home Depot the other day and saw the 10 Gallon Rubbermaid Water Cooler for $38.00 and pretty much decided this for me........so I now have am one step closer to all grain brewing. Now the question is regarding the false bottom.....10" or 12". I saw some posts that the 12"...

was looking at the Coleman Xtreme 50-Quart Wheeled Cooler (can be had for < $30) but thought I had read a few posts discouraging against wheeled coolers to use for mash tun. Any thoughts on whether or not I should try and avoid the wheeled variety?

I am starting to make the switch to all grain brewing and have been combing the forums looking at different mash tun designs and had a few questions. I have been going back and forth between a 5 gallon setup using round water cooler from lowes or going with a larger setup (Colman Xtreme 70qt). I...

Have had my Maple Porter sitting in secondary for 5 weeks.......was going to wait one more week before transferring and trying to decide if I should take this directly to 5gal keg or bottle it. I like my porters to be more cask style so was thinking about simply transferring to bottles. If I...

Thanks. Figured it made sense to clean and sanitize.......at the very least looks much nicer now :)

Had some additional fermentation in secondary and clouded up the 3 piece airlock........not in any danger of clogging just discolored the sanitized water that's in there so it's a beautiful shade of brown. Is this something that I need to bother replacing with a clean/sanitized airlock or am I...

Just racked my Maple Porter yesterday into secondary. Had used 22oz Grade B Maple for the main boil 2 weeks ago and then dissolved another 10oz and added to the secondary. 24 hours in and have a good deal of activity.......am I OK leaving in secondary for the next 6 weeks or should I rack again...

Ran my bottles thru dishwasher last weekend on the sanitize cycle and immediately covered bottle top with aluminum foil. Didn't get around to bottling last weekend and was going to do it this weekend. Should my bottles with the alum foil still be sanitized or should I run these through the...

Made my first batch of root beer last weekend using Cooks Root Beer Extract and some Ale Yeast (just did a 2 liter batch). Had it sitting at room temp for 2 days (between 68-72 degrees) at which point the 2 liter bottle was very hard so I put the bottle in the fridge and we cracked it open...

I was brewing an IPA that calls for fermenting temps between 65 and 75 degrees. On average I was probably sitting between 64-65 but at times it would dip to about 62. Again...it did ferment but it took a good 3 1/2 weeks before the SG was good for moving to the mini kegs. This just seemed a bit...

I am in Massachusetts and this time of year the temperature in my house remains between 61-66 degrees which means it's difficult to get my batches to prime fermenting temperatures. Any suggestions for enclosures, locations or other tips to get my batches a bit warmer this time of year.....I am...

I started a batch of IPA back on the evening of December 21st. The temperature has been a bit colder in the house the last few weeks and the batch was maintaining a temp between 64-65 degrees. Fermentation was occurring albeit not aggressively. Anyways about 2 days ago the temp jumped a bit to...

I'll definately pick this one up. I have a copy of "The New Complete Joy Of Homebrewing" by Charlie Papazian that's about 12 years old. I read about the kraeusen but unfortunately there are no pics so I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was kraeusen or some bacterial contamination. Thanks for the...

I have only tried homebrewing a few times in the past 10 years but am really hoping to get into it now. I cleaned and sanitized all the equipment last weekend and kicked off a batch of IPA which has been fermenting in the glass carboy now since Sunday night. There is a pretty thick layer of...