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One of the last 2 classes I have to take before I graduate is a Small Business Entrepreneur class where the final project is a 30 - 40 page business plan. I, naturally, decided to do mine on a microbrewery. Does anyone have any good sources of information for how much a typical...

I've been enjoying some Guinness lately, both the draught and extra stout, and I've often thought it tastes a bit like (black) olives. I'm not crazy, someone else pointed this out, and other people have agreed (think about olives next time you enjoy a Guinness). Anyway, I had a bizarre...

I had a fun time bottling a batch of beer today, I finally got to packaging my Rhizome IPA, the only beer I was able to make with my freshly grown / picked hops. First, I forgot to tighten the spigot on my bottling bucket, so beer started to ooze all over the floor until I realized it...

For some strange reason, I've been getting much lower Starting Gravity numbers than I'm expecting. Most recently, I used 12 lbs of grain (and 3 lb of turbinado sugar), and got a SG of 1.040 for 5 gallons. I've been concerned about this for awhile, since this has happened a few times. I...

Today's quite a day. Right now it's just past 6:30 AM, and as soon as I finish this 2nd cup of coffee, I'm off to pick my (first year) centennial hops for some dry hopping action for my Rhizome IPA (very basic IPA). Then I'm meeting my brew buddy and we're brewing my Zombie IPA (moderately...

I just started an apfelwein / cider variant with 2 gallons Costco apple juice, 1/2 gallon Trader Joe's fresh pressed apple juice, 1 gallon Trader Joe's Macintosh Apple juice, 1 gallon TJ's Black Raspberry juice, and 1/2 gallon TJ's Blackberry crush. I also used 3 lbs of Turbinado sugar. SG is...

What a day! I woke up at 6 AM (not bad considering I got out of work at 11 PM last night) to pick my hops, got started by 10 AM, finished by 3 PM, and I'm dead tired now. I was determined to get my first year hops into a beer, and even though my usual brew buddy couldn't make it, I powered...

Do I need to dry my hops if I can just chuck them into my brew kettle? Like literally, pick them into a bowl and pour the bowl into the boiling goodness? I'm planning on using all of my (first year) yield for a pale ale, it shouldn't be too crazy. Any problems with this plan?

I was looking up wort chillers, and figured I'd rather pay $52 for 50' of copper tubing on ebay than $80 for a 25' chiller on any number of homebrew sites. Just got my tubing, I already have a fixture to hook it up to a hose. Now all I have to do is clean it up and bend it into shape I...

Would an apfelwein with orange peel work? I'm waiting on my first batch, but the 1/2 cup I had while bottling tasted like a tart / dry, slightly sweet white wine (freakin awesome). I'm wondering if anyone's tried, or if anyone thinks orange peel would be a good addition to Apfelwein. The name...

I have a rasperry IPA recipe up next on my massive queue, and I was wondering when the best time to add the raspberries would be. I'm looking to retain the juicy, fruity berry flavor, not so much of the tartness (if that's even possible with raspberries). I figured adding juice either directly...

I was with my SWMBO in a liquor store (She wanted some Smuttynose because she's awesome like that) and I was walking down the craft beer aisle and noticed brown 4 packs of Dogfish Head beer that I didn't recognize at first glance, and upon closer inspection, it was Palo Santo Marron! I don't...

I recently made a Disaronno ale that turned out a bit stronger than I anticipated BEFORE adding Disaronno to the batch (8.9% before addition), and it's been bottled for over a month and hasn't showed Any carbonation whatsoever. First I thought it was infected because of some faint vinegary...

My buddy at work suggested the possibility of me making him a small batch of beer for his birthday, so we started talking about a recipe & whatnot. I came up with "Prank War Ale", and I'm not even sure if it'll be an amber ale with brown sugar, but it might be. Anyways, here's the label...

Is it okay to ferment apfelwein in the plastic gallon jugs the juice comes in? I'm thinking I can get some stoppers & airlocks to fit the mouth of the plastic bottle, and that should be good. I've seen pictures of ciders fermenting in plastic juice bottles on here, has anyone had any kind of...

There are a couple video games coming out this fall that feature zombies, and I often take my label inspirations from video game stuff, an thus Zombie IPA was born: I'll probably use one of my existing recipes for it. Hopefully I'll actually have it brewed & bottled by the time one of the...

Yet another label from me & my drawing tablet: Some of you may remember me mentioning this brew. This will be the 2nd brew using my freshly grown (1st year) Chinook & Centennial hops. The 'briefly aged on fresh pine' will be a small amount of pine pieces taken from a tree in my backyard...

Here's a label for an idea I've been toying around with. I've never made a mead before (Hell, I've only had 1 mead ever and it wasn't a good one) but if I did, I would use this label. The label would probably be 3.5" X 3.5" on the bottles, unless I used bigger bottles. Whatchoo guys think?

I just did some major & much needed maintenance on my hop garden today. I spent about 4 hours digging out the grass & weeds & plants that've grown through the mulch I put down, trimming my hop plants leaves & scraggly weak shoots, and laying down 2 more bags of mulch. It looks 1000% better...