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One time I dropped a non-sanitized pint glass into my primary bucket just before adding my yeast...and just reached into the bucket up to my elbow to retrieve it. Two months later, it took 3rd place in the CASK Beer Blitz. Maybe I should sanitize less often.

Registration for the event closes the 13th of this month. I'm putting in a Blue Spruce Ale in the "Herb/spice/whatever" category. Anybody else in? THERE'S STILL TIME TO ENTER! Let me know if you're interested. As long as someone is winning, someone is homebrewing...and that's all that...

This was an experiment of mine that turned out quite well. I hit my projected gravities, and the taste is spot on. The pine flavor began as a coarse sappy flavor, but even after a week, it has mellowed to a smooth pine flavor. It's an odd mixture of flavors: there's bitterness, but not like a...

Took another gravity reading, and she's holding steady at 1.021, putting my abv at 11.7%. I was hoping for an even 12, but I'm quite happy with how well the yeast attenuated. She's a barleywine for sure!

We're down to 1.021 and falling!

The idea got put on the back burner when I caught the dark-beer bug (a truly demonic infection to catch), and it never came to be. When March and April roll around, I'll get hoppy again and give this ago. I still love the idea, even if it's buried in my recipe book. She will come to life...

My intended goal was a nice, hoppy American Barleywine, but my yeast must have come with a tiny superhero cape that I didn't see. It's been fermenting for 10 days, is at 1.024...and still chugging along happily. The starting gravity was 1.110. If it continues to ferment down to, say 1.015...

If you like fooling around with your beer like I do (and it's honestly a bad habit), then I wouldn't do a secondary until she's sat in the primary for 2 weeks. You'd be fine with staying with the primary, and since I've started running short on time, I've done just that with my last 5 batches...

Well, you really swung for the fences on this one. Haha! Sorry, I don't mean to pick on you. We've all been there, but most of the time it turns out alright. It looks like you didn't break any of the HUGE no-no's - ie, you sanitized everything you should have, didn't sparge above 170...

I go at it more or less like an neanderthal. I put a sanitized strainer over the top of my bucket and pour it through. I've never had a stuck fermentation (knock on wood), and most importantly...it's simple.

Head space won't be a concern if you have CO2 (fermentation) happening. It will the void and not result in any oxidation of your brew. Since you addend 2 lbs. of simple sugar, your OG will be close to what you expected from a 5 gallon batch. The other side of the coin is that your beer...

Same story on my end. I got 29 for my blonde because it was too bitter (guess I've become a little desensitized to hop flavor). My Oatmeal stout did about what I expected - 33/50. The only thing holding it back was a sourness that the judges tasted. Not sure if it was my water or a mild...

Unfortunately, you've been given some excellent advise, and time is probably your only chance of getting a mellower beer. The silver lining is that you can always brew another beer while you wait for this one to age out. The old line, "Mo money, mo problems" does NOT apply to beer.

Lets get 2015 going! 5 gallons spruce ale + 5 gallons porter = 246 gallons BREW ON!

6 Gallons of Barleywine hit the fermenter 12/30/14. She just made the cut! 47,520 + 6 = 47,526 gallons

Putting together a Spruce Ale this Saturday. Should be a fun experiment!

Due to ridiculous events COMPLETELY caused by me, please do not follow this recipe. It was a nice idea, but whole thing went Ka-Flooy. I'd delete it if I knew how.

This will be my 1st all grain...but I still only have 5 gallon pots. Solution? Divide the recipe between 2 pots. I will brew this tomorrow. BOTH POTS - Steep grains in 14 liters of water @ 150 degrees - Sparge up to 18 liters - Boil down to 10 liters POT 1 9 lbs. 2-row 1 lb...

If you don't mind me asking...how much Rum did you use? I planned on putting 2 oz oak chips/16 oz rum, but now I'm thinking 4 oz oak chips/16 oz. rum. I know it's quite a bit of rum, but I'm looking for something that takes a while to tame, so why the hell not?

Did you use the Rum from the oak chips, or did you just toss in the oak chips after soaking? I was gunna age this beast for a whole year, so I'm trying to go a little overboard on everything so it will have time to mellow...but still have a solid taste 365 days from now.