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Well, buckets work great for me. I'm OCD about cleaning and sanitation and haven't had an infected batch yet. I always disassemble and clean receptacles right away and sanitize everything before storing it, then sanitize again before use. Haven't bumped a spigot yet either. Seems like you'd...

Not a strange request. I remember when I was starting out and everything seemed a mystery. I'm in California so it's a long way to my favorite part of the country. Do you have questions I might be able to answer? Otherwise, I hope my fellow brewers on the Eastern Seaboard can help you out.

Welcome back to the hobby. As kh54s10 said, things have changed. I don't even use carboys anymore. IMHO I'd just go buy a 6.5 gallon fermentation bucket with a spigot and get a spring-loaded bottling cane. Use the 6.5 as your bottling bucket this time and for a fermentor in the future.

I would be grateful if you could share your source of information on the Flint brothers, since they were so influential to California hop growing. My main source of information so far is Herbert Myrick's, The Hop: Its Culture and Cure, Marketing and Manufacture,(1899) to which Daniel Flint was...

You asked, "why the rest?" From Palmer's "How to Brew" -- "...the stir plate should only be used for the first half of the propagation.... The reason is the yeast needs an active period of low oxygen to build up its glycogen and trehalose reserves prior to cooling, decanting and pitching to the...

I tend to stay in the primary longer too. It's not unusual for me to go 14 days and then another 5-7 days for dry hopping before cold crashing.

Thank you for the reply. Any idea where I might find Ivanhoe? I looked at my usual suppliers but they don't list it.

I'm trying to develop a recipe for a Gold Rush era steam beer that would have been made in San Francisco ca. 1850-1870. I pretty much know the grain bill and will be using California lager yeast, but I'm stuck on the hops and hop schedule. Stan Hieronymus reports that farmers in California at...

@TxBrew half of my first harvest of Cascades.

I'm on well water too and mine is very hard. However, it makes great beer. It sounds as if you have had a good experience with extracts so far. I went to a seminar with Jamil Zainasheff on home brewing last year. He said many home brewers spend way too much time fussing over water chemistry...

Hey Michael, Looking for two bags: SS Brewtech 20 gal. kettle. 17.7" diameter, 21.3" high. 12 gal. kettle. 14.75" diameter 18.5" high Thanks

Codes please. Cheers!

I wrap my kettle during the mash and check the temp half way through. Most of the time it holds temp, but on the few occasions I have had to add heat, this is exactly the way i do it. Haven't scorched a bag yet.

First time I do anything I try to keep it simple. I brewed a porter in August and added French oak cubes soaked in bourbon. It's been conditioning since then. We're planning to tap it after Thanksgiving. If I screwed it up, it will be a lot easier to track down my mistakes than if I added a...

Nottingham's been good for me.

I love Citra, but be careful. You know what they say about too much of a good thing, and you want to be able to taste the malt.

I mill my grain twice. First time through at the top mark (I think it's .05). Second time through, I reset it to a little beyond half way to zero. It gives me just the right crush with a minimum of flour. I use Wilser bags and dunk sparge in a bucket while I'm waiting for the BK to come to a...

Something simple and cheap: I started out with a 12 gal. King Kooker pot to do 5 gal. BIAB. The size was perfect, even for big stouts, but the problem was getting the wort to the fermenter. For the first year and a half I used an auto-syphon. Almost every brew session, the tube would get...

I'm wondering why the cord lock is halfway down the side of the kettle. Are you closing the brew bag up (pulling the drawstring) and then letting it hang over the side while mashing or mashing out? When my bag is in the kettle, the cord lock, the top of the bag and the cord are all just under...

The main hurdles you'll encounter are regulatory, and they are at every level from city/county up to the feds. My go-to source in California is the California Craft Brewers Association. They work on legislation and education, even sponsoring seminars for folks looking to go pro. I attended one...