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My son and I have brewed and bottled a lot of beer over the years and a few hard ciders here and there. We carbonate using forced CO2 into kegs (20 to 25 lbs over a couple of weeks) and never have a problem. We use a Blichman beer gun to bottle with. We brewed a batch of Apple and a...

Been brewing beer for several years now and have done 3 ciders in the past. An apple with juice from the farmer's market and a Peach and a pear with cans of juice for wine. I'm looking for the lower cost route and have seen guys on here talking about using store bought juice with good results...

Do you have a home-brew supply store within driving distance? Most of the ones in the Atlanta area carry both extract and all-grain kits as well as custom orders. They are also a wealth of experienced knowledge and can get you in touch with the local clubs. My supplies are coming out just...

Kits are depending on what you want. I did well with several different brands at first. Once you have the process down and have run several batches. Branch out and try some extract recipes from the local homebrew clubs, BeerSmith or Northern Brewer. Add some fruit, play with the ABV (don't...

Last week my son and I brewed 10 gallons of Wee Heavy and 10 gallons of BarleyWine. We used a Wyeast 1728 into about a 1.8 ltr starter for each 5 gallon carboy of the Wee Heavy (target was 10.8% ABV) and the Wyeast Champagne in like sized starters for the Barleywine (target around 15%)...

Started using Fermcap with this latest batch. Did 4 1600 ml starters, 2 each of Wyeast 1388 and White Cry Havoc. One drop in each and foam stay at less than 2". Did 10 gallons of Kolsh and 10 gallons of Blond Belgian yesterday, pitched about 6 PM - added 10 drops (2 drops/gal) of Fermcap to...

I work out of town and my son made up the yeast starters for some bocks we were going to brew last weekend. Unfortunately I had to stay over the weekend and I just told him to put the starters in the refridgerator over night and then pour off the clear liquid and popur the yeast into some Mason...

Using a Marzen with a normal ABV of 5.5% as a base, Beersmith shows (on a 10 gallon batch) for 20 lbs of sugar to be 54% of the fermentable sugar. ABV at 10 gallons shows 17.4%. Maybe insane - all depends on point of view of who's asking but hopefully Beersmith is pretty close. Not for 5...

OK - I think my plan is to make a Marzen as the base and add 20 lbs of Honey to get it over 51% of the sugar. Add the Honey to the carboys and add the beer. Pitch (Wyeast 1084) and start to ferment as usual. After the initial activity slows, pitch the EC-1118 and let it go to town. Last...

Also engineer - electrical by degree but IT Architect by profession. May never look at them (much) but the writing down and review does help keep them in the mind. Son and I brew all electric and the process is now just a part of what we do. Did 10 gallons of Midas Touch over the weekend with...

OK - so if I were going to use an amber for the base beer (and I understand I can use any style for the base) I would figure out how much honey I needed to get at least 51% of the sugar from it. Brew the beer minus the honey, chill and aerate the wort, pitch a yeast strong enough to get to the...

How do you get the honey into solution in the wort at what is essentially room temp once the fermentation has started. As my mash tun is essentially limited when it comes to high gravity brews, we mix LME into hot wort and pour it back in during the boil - no problem. But the honey at below...

Many thanks. Clears that up for me.

I think getting the process down as second nature is a key ingredient. My son and i brew about twice a month. We both know what we each do and when. I usually add the grain as he paddles it in. I set up the plate chiller while he's getting the carboys sanitized and ready. Once your...

I've been using a Blichman Beer Gun for a little over a year now and a thought hit me this weekend while bottling up around 8 cases from kegs. Why is it a good idea to purge the bottles with CO2 before filling? You hit the bottle with 1 - 2 secs of CO2 to force out the air, fill with beer...

Although I've been brewing beer for awhile, my son and I want to try a Braggot. We've seen a lot of guidelines and some recipes and will probably use an American Amber for the base style. All of my research left me with a couple of questions: First - I read that in order to be a...

I have a sweet stout in the fermenter right now that I want to add chocolate too. I'll add a coffee toddy to it when I keg it and want to add the chocolate to the secondary. I want a fairly big but smooth chocolate taste and have Ghirardelli Unsweetened Cocoa to add to it. My question is how...

We had 4 jars of honey and a few pounds of brown sugar left over from a previous brew weekend plus the label on the cider showed 30 grams of sugar per 8 ounces of cider.

My son and I are making 10+ gallons of apple cider. This is our first cider but we are experienced beer brewers. Using some process info we found in Zymurgy, weheated the cider (no preservatives) to 160 degrees and added honey and some brown sugar. We cooled it to 74 degrees with a plate...

My son and I are wanting to do a beer with LOTS of ginger and one with coriander. I'm thinking probably an amber of some kind but have no idea about the amoounts of ginger or coriander to use. Any suggestions on amounts and styles would be appreciated. And whether they are going into the boil...