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Light lagers are doable using extract, if a bit exacting. I made a pretty good (if I say so myself) Helles-style lager with Briess Pilsen DME & about a half-pound of crystal 10, hallertau hops and wyeast pc-staro prague yeast. The thing is, I did a full boil, cooled with my plate chiller...

I think it's probably a case of "you get what you pay for" to a certain extent. That being said, I'm not convinced that Blichmann's Therminator isn't overpriced. I have a Duda Diesel 20 plate chiller (http://www.dudadiesel.com/heat_exchangers.php), and I only paid 60 bucks for it. Relative to...

I'd say that you really only need one yeast strain for all that, because most American ales and wheat beers are brewed using wyeast 1056, and you can brew it relatively cool for a lager-ish character for California Common and lager clones. Then, once you have that down, and you want to branch...

Don't know what child I'm descended from him through, although I do know that it was through one of the sons- my grandmother's maiden name was Schmidt, and her father's name was Frederick Schmidt also. I really need to discuss it with her the next time I'm down in La Marque; she's quite the...

The way I do it is to tweak my efficiency in Beersmith to match the actual pre-boil gravity, then add DME to my recipe until the right post-boil gravity is achieved, since pre-boil gravity is kind of a pain to see.

I was just reading an old thread on 2 row vs. 6 row, and they linked to a Briess page talking about the differences. The page mentions that they make both 2 and 6 row Munich malt. Considering the very high enzyme level in 6 row pale malt, does this mean that 6 row Munich would convert...

Yeah, that's what stood out to me too. (by way of comparison, my best lager so far was a 1.050 lager pitched with the yeast that settled out of a 2 gallon starter that was fermented at 50 degrees and pitched at 50 degrees. No off flavors or anything- it's a great lager!)

Isn't the Buried Hatchet Stout just awesome? I can't say I've had a stout or porter that gets the balance that perfect. Believe it or not, it's supposedly 50 IBUs, but you'd never notice because it's not a hop-forward brew. I'm all for cans. This seems like the beer equivalent of the...

Web resources split down two lines- one line says it's the old Edme yeast, which made fine pale ales, and the other says it's more of a Belgian yeast. My experience tells me that the latter is probably right. I brewed a batch that was pale ale malt, carapils, and melanoidin malt, and hopped...

Earlier in the thread I mentioned the worst "successful" beer I ever made that was ridiculously overhopped with Chinook. By "successful" I mean no infections, no snafus with temperature, etc... The worst beer I ever made was an unsuccessful one- it was an attempt at a pale lager that I made...

I've got a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler mash tun, a 52 quart tamalera as a kettle, and a 20 plate Duda Diesel plate chiller. I generally use my stepladder and some 2x4s to gain height. I put the 2x4s across various rungs depending on how high I need it. For example, I mash on the ground, pick...

The article basically said that young Germans are Euro-trash who go to clubs and drink vodka & red bull and crap like Bacardi Breezers and similar sweet, fizzy drinks, instead of good, solid beer. That's probably 90% of the problem- I doubt beer consumption has gone down among older folks.

You know, that's the Oktoberfest schedule, not the Maibock schedule... D'oh!

I do need to inscribe volume markings in the kettle, or on some kind of stick so I can determine volume at all phases of the boil. I'm brewing this more or less for others- my wife and I's baby is due in early August, so I'm brewing this as a sort of hospitality & celebration beer for family...

My mash (9 lb/75% 6 row, 3 lb/25% flaked corn, batch sparge) was spot-on what BeerSmith predicted- the exact pre-boil gravity (1.051), which assumed a 75% efficiency. The software predicted a 1.060 post-boil gravity, but I ended up with 1.070, so I assume that I boiled off more than I expected...

Done! Let's see what happens. Hopefully this won't mess up the yeast during their lag phase too badly.

I use one of these for general stuff: http://www.thermoworks.com/products/low_cost/rt600c.html and one of these (the 12" version) for the mash: http://www.thermoworks.com/products/low_cost/rt610b_12+24.html It's really interesting how your mash temp may vary from top to bottom. I never had...

I've been searching the forum and looking around the web, and I can't find a good answer to the question. Put simply, I underestimated my boil-off percentage, and ended up with about 4 to 4.5 gallons of 1.070 classic american pilsner instead of 5 to 5.25 gallons of 1.060 classic american...

That's what I use too. The wine's not something most people would call a "fine" wine, but it makes perfectly acceptable sangria for parties, and that's how I got my wine jugs.

Thanks. That makes me feel a little better. I boiled off quite a bit, I think- a couple of gallons at least. I really need to inscribe markings inside my pot for measuring volume by sight.