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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...

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%)...

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...

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...

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...

Up until now I hav done either extract kits with steeped grains or all grain recipes. Earlier this year we switched to an electric system out of Germany, the BrauMeister. Excellent mash efficiency (70-80%), little or no sparging due to constant water flow during the mash, and easy cleanup...

While my son and I are still relative newbies (about 3 years) we have moved in to all electric brewing and all grain. I have noticed that a good many all grain recipes say nothing about the mash - no temps or times, etc, while others do - usually in some detail. We have done brews with both...

Last weekend my son and I added some fruit to a couple of stouts and a belgian that were done fermenting. We pureed the fruit and used 100 proof vodka as a sanitizer. The fruit was then poured into the carboys with a funnel and the beer siphoned onto the fruit. About half way through the...

Although the therminator isn't per se electric, it is part of my electric brewery. I'm wanting to improve my consistency and lower the output temp of my wort from the Therminator. Currently I use a 5/8" hose pipe from a faucet running water from a 300' well through the Therminator to another...

Almost 2 weeks ago my son and I brewed 10 gallons of a Belgian Ale and 10 gallons of stout. We added extra sugar and some malt to the Belgian and extra brown sugar and sorghum syrup to the stout. I had cooled each to around 70 with a plate chiller and set them in the fermentation freezer...

Can plastic water bottles be used as a secondary? I have some with handles and, being plastic, are safer to handle than a glass carboy. The orange caps seem to fit nice and snug on them too. I wouldn't want them for a primary because there would be no headroom for the foam but that usually...

I have some Stout and a Double IPA coming out of primary in the next day or two and I want to ask a few questions. I'd like to add chocolate to about 5 gallons of the stout. Assuming a level of some of the commercial double chocolate stouts (like Rogue, or Southern Tier's Mokah), how much...

Was recently reading an article that was suggesting pitching a champagne yeast/ brown sugar mix a few days into the fermentation, re-aerating the wort and then continuing on to get a higher ABV. What is the reason for the wait? Could both be pitched up front or would the champagne yeast...

I want to get into electric brewing but really don't have the time available to assemble one from a multi-sourced kit type system. I am looking to buy a decent system and have found them to be a strange set of systems from the single tank, spargeless Braumeister to some dual tank and top heavy...

My daughter and I may be brewing this weekend and want to put down at least one cranberry beer - maybe 2 or 3. To make Christmas we'll need to add the cranberries in the primary, ferment 10 - 14 days and then force carb in a keg until Christmas. The possibilities include Marzen, Strong...

I'm trying to get a handle on why using electric heat is superior to gas/propane. As an electrical engineer (Indusrial control systems) and having a world class chef for a wife, I have experience with both. NO cook that I have ever seen would choose an electric range over a gas stove. Why...