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This is my first time actually adding spices to my cyser (only 3 lbs honey). I'd toyed with the idea before but never followed through. So I added some cinnamon sticks, ginger root, and sweet orange peel to secondary. Thing is, it never occurred to me to sanitize the spices before I added them...

I like juniper berries in my beer, and I like herbal teas made from meadowsweet and hibiscus (never tried yarrow before but it smells good), so I thought I'd try the mead located here https://www.norsetradesman.com/blogs/news/fill-your-horn-with-this-viking-era-mead (5 gallon). First, I note...

I'm trying to hit over 100 ppm calcium in a place where calcium in our water averages only 29.5 ppm. When I use Beersmith's adjustment tool, it tells me to add 1.9 g of gypsum, 4 g of chalk, and 0.5 g of CaCl to 8.1 gallons of water to get it to 102 ppm. However, when I use the Brewer's Friend...

So I'm looking to brew a big beer that's going to come in pretty close to 1.100. This will be my first attempt at such a high gravity, as my last highest attempt was only 1.080. My Igloo mash tun will fit it at 1.25qt/lb, a little uncomfortably but not too bad. I could go as high as 1.5qt/lb...

I tried my hand at hard cider for the first time this week. On Sunday, I poured 5 gallons (probably closer to 4.6 gallons) of unpasturized cider with no preservatives into a 5 gallon sanitized carboy (StarSan) and then added 5 campden tablets to it. I put a rubber stopper over the top to cover...

I made the fatal mistake of letting my LHBS convert an all grain recipe to partial mash for me instead of doing the calcs myself. He gave me 6 lbs of LME plus 5 lbs of grain. That should have sent up a red flag right there. I didn't think much of it though, but now my dry stout with only 1 oz...