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We have a planter of basil growing on our back porch and a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that something was munching on it. A friend was over and said it looked like slugs to her. She said to just put a cup of beer near the planter and the slugs would go for that instead and drown in it. She...

I currently have a high gravity doppelbock in the fermenter. Munich II 60% German Pils 20% Vienna 10% Caramunich 6% Carafa III 2% Melanoiden 2% Safelager 34/70 - 4 packets I decided to pass on a decoction (hence, the melanoiden). With the high gravity and so much Munich, I did a temperature...

Hi, HomeBrewCrew, I have a set of brand new probes (pH & temp) for my Milwaukee 102 pH meter. I think they work on any Milwaukee unit with plug-in probes. I've tested them against my other set and they are spot on. They go for ~$35-40 each on-line. I'm asking $40 for the set plus shipping. If...

Argghh!!! I have always had an issue with fruit flies in my house. Over the years, I tend to lose about 1 brew a year to an aceto infection (knock on wood, never had a lacto infection). I've narrowed it down to a bottling issue, not fermenter. I use all the standard tricks. I seal around the...

So I'm finally getting around to brewing my Oktoberfest (Marzen Invasion) but since it's past March I guess this makes it a Mayzen. :) This is my 5th year brewing it to the same recipe using a multistep mash. Five years ago I pretty much plugged in the multistep mash because everything I had...

Time to start astronaut training! https://www.google.com/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/01/22/scientists-brewing-plan-make-beer-moon/amp/

So, after over 100 brews and occasionally repeating to nervous newbies the mantra, "Yeast can take up to 72 hours to show activity" while assuring them I had never had a yeast fail to launch, I thought I might have to eat my words (or wort?). On Friday, I brewed what has become my house DIPA...

I'm getting ready to brew my summer lager loosely based on Kona Longboard. Last year I tried adding real pineapple to secondary. I ended up with a load of trub, considerably less beer and zero pineapple flavor. So this year I am trying pure pineapple extract and looking for some guidance. I...

For 3 years I have been blessed with great consistent brewing water out of my tap. Nice soft water that was a blank slate. In the past 6 months it has all gone to hell. The history of my town water supply is that years ago they had the brilliant idea of putting the town salt storage pile...

I saw an interesting mash schedule in the BYO 250 Classic Clone Recipes. For the Westmalle, they recommend slowly ramping the temp up during the mash. It says "...ramp time should take at least an hour ...". A longer ramp up is even better for a more fermentable wort. Has anyone done this? I...

I pretty much give all my brews a minimum of 3 weeks in the fermenter and have a stabile FG for a week or more so I know incomplete fermentation isn't my problem. However, the hoppier my IPAs the bigger the head I get. I use a priming calculator and carefully measure my priming sugar. I usually...

Just stopped in tonight at Willowbrook Spirits in Cromwell to see what struck my fancy. Low and behold, they had 4 packs of Sip of Sunshine in their cooler. Not sure if it's gone yet but can't hurt to check tomorrow if you have a craving.

So, I think I may have killed my holiday ale. It all started with a small brain fart. I am brewing my holiday ale for the third year so I knew what to expect. It's 65% pale, 15% light munich and 20% choc/c60/honey malt/oats. I mashed on the high side (154F) and gave it a good shot of O2...

OK, sorry for a long post. So, I've been scratching my head lately because I have had to use way more lactic acid than Brunwater predicts to adjust my sparge pH. My last brew I even had to add lactic to my mash even though there was a fair amount of dark grains. I last had my water analyzed...

I have been using Beersmith for over 2 years now and have everything pretty well dialed in. I'm almost always within a point or two with the predicted OG and FG. However, every brew I've done with lactose has ended up 3 to 4 points high on my FG over the predicted FG. I check the box for...

I've been using BeerSmith for a couple of years now and I've got my process pretty much dialed in now so my gravities (OG and FG) are pretty consistent with its estimates. I'm almost always within a point on both. Except when I use lactose. I enter the amount and check off the "not fermentable"...

Just got a six (cans) of this session IPA. One of my go to stores had a small supply stashed in the back. Lawson's brews it at the Two Roads brewery in CT. I'm really liking this beer. Lot's of great aroma and flavor at under 5% ABV. I would love to do a clone but can't find much information...

So on my latest brew (a DIPA) I had some issues adjusting pH on my brewing water. I have very soft water: Ca 5 Na 17 Mg 1 SO4 6 Cl 9 Carb <1 Bicarb 28 Alk 23 PH 7.6 I added gypsum, CaCl and epsom to get (according to Bru'nwater): Ca 55 Na 17 Mg 10 Cl 50 SO4 110 Bicarb -7...

Learned a valuable lesson last week. Don't try to do anything brew related when you're asleep. I did one of those absolute F-ups that you see in slow motion. I had been building a starter for my Irish Red. I was going to decant my first step and toss in some fresh boiled extract for my second...