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Hey folks--with all the years of brewing I have under my belt, I've yet to really work out a good IPA recipe I'm happy with. I've played around with different hopping rates, dry hopping, first wort hopping, etc., but nothing really hits on what I'm looking for. I get great aroma and flavor, but...

Hey all--I brewed a west coast IPA (partial mash, OG of 1.065) six days ago, and my airlock is still bubbling intermittently (about every 8 seconds). I used the full package of yeast and pitched into 3 gallons, so there shouldn't be any issues with under-pitching, I followed all of my usual...

Recently (over the past two years or so), I started to notice a correlation between drinking certain Belgian beers and my hangovers. Specifically, Belgian strong ales seem to be the greatest culprit, but often Belgian-IPAs and other "Belgian inspired" beers have been responsible for some of my...

So I've been brewing all grain for about two years now and have nine batches under my belt with my current system. My beers always turn out pretty well, but I'm consistently missing my targets for my mash and sparge water volumes. I try one ratio of grain to water, and I come up short and have...

Hi all! So my hops are two years old, and after surviving a particularly brutal Chicago winter, they are starting to grow rather fiercely. I've been reading a lot of the other posts about "bull shoots" and how they should be trimmed back b/c they are weaker, have a lower yield, etc. However, my...

Hello all! I just brewed my first braggot and had a quick question for the community out there. It's been in the primary for just about a week, and it is exceptionally murky. It's still slowly fermenting (bubbles are coming through the airlock approximately once every minute), but it looks...

Hey all- I've brewed two batches of cider in the past, and although they turned out okay, they turned out considerably more tart than I was expecting. I know that back-sweetening cider can help counteract the intense tartness of plain fermented cider, but does anyone have any recommendations...

Okay, so I'm going to expose my dorkiness to all of you, but I think you might be able to help me. This was partially encouraged by a posting a saw for Butterbeer, from the Harry Potter books. I'm a huge J.R.R. Tolkien fan, and when I was recently watching Fellowship two scenes got me...

This may be a stupid question, but here goes. I have been using diluted bleach for quite a while to sanitize all of my equipment, but have been concerned about getting all of the residue off. I think some residual bleach was to blame for my last couple of batches being relatively flat. That...

Hey all, I'm brewing this weekend and I wanted to get some feedback on my recipe before I go ahead with it. Here it is-it's a pale ale 3.3 # Northwestern Gold LME 3.0 # Munton's Plain Light DME .5 # 40L Crystal Malt-cracked 1.5 oz. Challenger Hops-6.3%, 60 minutes 1.0 oz. Challenger...

I've been brewing for about two and a half years, and it feels like I'm consistently making worse beer every time I brew. Here are some of the most current problems. I recently brewed what I intended to be a porter, and I have a couple of issues with it. Tonight I racked the beer over to the...

Hey all, I've had this in the back of my mind for a while and am finally going to give it a try. I've seen some varying opinions over how get a good coffee flavor in the beer, so if anyone has some tips/criticisms about my plans or my recipe in general, I'd appreciate the feedback. 6.6 lbs...

Hey all... I'm in need of some help. I'm doing some preliminary research on for a paper on beer styles/origins/history and having some trouble finding anything substantial. I've found plenty on beer in America, but little on the development of beer throughout the world. Primarily, I'm...

I haven't really seen much up here about this, but it's been on my mind for some time. I would like to add a coffee flavor to a beer, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Does anyone have any recipes? Some people have said to brew coffee and add to taste before fermentation, some have said to...

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I used my first own recipe the other day (all previous batches have been made from kits) and in an attempt to give the beer a little more strength and body, added some extra malt extract. I think I overdid it, seeing as my starting gravity was much higher...