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I just read the wiki on cider making to get the basic overview. This was helpful, but I still have a few questions: 1. When to bottle? 1.015 like beer? 2. How do you sweeten the cider without the yeast eating your sugar? Are bottle bombs a common adverse event? 3. Can you age...

After several weeks in the primary and now a week in the secondary, I tried the beer and it's definitely on the sweet side. The gravity is also high 1.020. So, it seems that I have two problems. I've had beers get stuck here before and I don't think there's much I can do about the gravity...

Hi, I made a stupid mistake yesterday while brewing Northern Brewer's Tripel. The recipe is below. Basically, I switched the hops around. So when I should have added Summit, I added Saaz. And vice versa. Does anyone think I need to take action or wait to see how it turns out. Thanks...

David_42: The amylase worked! It's going again. It's not a very robust fermentation, but I've got a thin layer of foam, visible yeast activity, and bubbles in the airlock about every 3 seconds. Is there anything different I need to do at bottling? I ask because I'll have active enzymes in...

Is the alpha amylase to help convert the sugar? This assumes the conversion didn't occur in the mash? Thanks.

The story of this problem child is above. Basically, I brewed over the winter time and I believe I let the temperature fall too much in the primary,which stalled the fermentation. I got some good advice in this forum: I re-pitched (after rehydrating) yeast and moved the carboy to a warm place...

Time definitely seems to be a factor. In general my beers gain carbonation in the bottle over time. But, nothing like the last few, which is why I thought it might be the yeast. I'm wonder if safale US-05 is more sensitive and prone to going dormant before all of the sugar is gone. For my...

yeah - that's a bit of an exaggeration. Basically, when I pop the cap off, the beer immediately starts to foam over. If I open the top really slowly, I can keep the it from overflowing the bottle, but when I gently pour the beer down the side of the glass, I get a pint of foam. The problem...

Recently I've been having a problem with over-carbonated beer. I'm pretty careful with sanitation, so I'm hoping it's not bacteria, but I guess it's possible since it has been the last 3 brews. But, the last three brews have also all used the same yeast US-05. I'm ashamed to admit that I...

Thanks - this is all great feedback.

I've been brewing for about 2 years with pretty consistent success and have never worried much about temperature. Basically, I keep my house at 66 degrees (F) when brewing. However, the thermometer on my carboy always reads 76 - 78 during the first day of fermentation for an ale and usually...

Hi, I'm planning to brew a basic American Wheat from Northern Brewer tomorrow. My girlfriend wants to add orange...so we are adding orange. But, I'd like to do it correctly. I've read some recipes that call for orange peel or orange zest added to the boil. And, some that call for orange...

This sounds like a great method. I have a winter warmer with an OG of 1.08 and it got stuck at 1.035. The primary was in a cold part of the house, so I racked to the secondary and moved it to a 68-69 degree spot. No response, so I made a starter (LHB said it would work) of US-05 dry and...

BioBeing - thanks a lot. There isn't much head space in my 5 gallon secondary. Do you think that's okay. I'm happy to hook up a blow-off tube. I'm more concerned about having enough O2. Thanks again. E

I moved my Winter Warmer to the secondary about a week ago after it was in the primary for 3 weeks. I sampled it at the time and noticed that it was sweet (not malty, but sugary). The original gravity is 1.069 and the gravity reading for the past three days has been 1.040. The gravity doesn't...

I'm not expecting anyone to have a solution, but I figured it's worth a try. I'd like to salvage a pumpkin ale that I'm afraid I ruined. The original recipe called for 10 pounds of pumpkin in the mash and 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice. During the rack to secondary, I noticed that it didn't taste...

A few posts in this thread mention "oaking". I've had the oaked Arrogant Bastard and it was awesome. Can someone explain the process of oaking in a home brew? Thanks, euRC51

Great feedback - thanks.

Hi, A few days ago I racked my pumpkin brew from the primary to secondary. It had been in the primary for 2 weeks. I sampled the beer and was surprised that I didn't get any pumpkin taste or aroma. In addition to the recipe below, I added about 10 pounds of fresh roasted pumpkin to the...

This is good to hear and I have been given this advice before, but I'm still worried about the wheat beer I brewed yesterday. Fermentation for me has always started within 6 hours before, but I've also always done bigger beers. This time I'm worried because it was hot has hell yesterday and my...