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First year Cascades. They've stopped growing vertically, but even when they were, I noticed the lower leaves slowly yellowing. Over the past 2 weeks, and really over the past few days, it has been very hot here and the leaves are drying to a crisp after yellowing from the outside in. They're...

Is there any tangible benefit from planting some bush beans around (basically right at the base) my first-year Cascade hops? Instead of using chemical fertilizers, and since the hops look a bit nitrogen deficient (I'm not positive, though), is there any appreciable and real fertilization that...

I tore down an old dehumidifier that was left in the basement when we bought our house in 2007 (a bad time to buy, by the way =). Anyway, it worked for a while, but eventually the fan quit. The compressor system works great still. Here are some pictures. I want this to power a...

I mixed a little fresh, local, Michigan cider in with a glass of Apfelwein and it was delicious. It tastes just like Woodchuck! It gave me an idea, but after searching the forums a bit I haven't seen anyone else try this. I am sure you have, though, so before I do it I'd like some advice. The...

I've done 5 all grain batches. The first turned out good (a simple, hoppy pale ale) the second one was so bad I needed to dump it out (even after ageing for almost a year a strange, cardboard, awful, stale, hard to describe after taste never went away. I think it's 'cause I didn't find the exact...

First, I am newish to kegging (put my 3rd keg in the fridge this afternoon). Second, yes, I searched the forums for a while and didn't find any discussion regarding a method of force carbing I want to try tomorrow. And C, I am impatient. Also, I've had inconsistent results with setting to...

I recently got a kegerator set up and have a Centennial blonde that has been in the secondary a few days after being in primary for about 6 days. It's finished fermenting based on gravity readings and I'd like to stick it in the kegerator to cold crash. I've never done this before but I...

I got myself a kegerator for my 30th birthday. Time to move on from bottling. I got a Haier hbf05ebss-2 two faucet tower model that holds 3 cornys. I placed it in a closet in my TV room (now all I need is a toilet and food in the fridge and I can survive in a single room). I plugged it in and...

Over the summer I brewed my first couple of all-grain batches. The efficiency was not great, so on the second batch I just used more grain. I got pH test strips for that second one, too, to try and isolate the problem. The pH was high, over 7.5, and only came down slightly during the mashing...

I am sure I read up on the questions I have here while perusing the thousands of messages on the Man I love Apfelwein page... but I don't feel like going through that again. I have a batch that's been in primary for 5 weeks now. I checked the gravity yesterday and it's at 1.000. (FWIW I tasted...

We all know how ugly fermentation gets: the gunk, the krausen, strange rings of goo, crusted bits, all sorts of congealed and coagulated... stuff... Sometimes it can be pretty though. Just pitched a vial of WPL300 into a 1.064 gravity wort last night at about 5:00pm. Seventeen hours later...

I only have two small pots to brew in, the bigger of the two holding only 1.5 gallons at max. I am doing a recipe today that calls for steeping 2 lbs. of grains in 1 gallon of water, then sparging in a second gallon of water. Here is my plan: steep the grains in the pot I'll be boiling...

As EdWort suggested I "brewed" two apfelweins, about 2 weeks apart. My first batch is going into its fourth week. It's darkening, starting to clear a bit, but still bubbling. I noticed after 2.5 weeks the bubbles started to actually pile up around the top in a neat looking ring. I also...

Well, admittedly "yeast ring" already kind of sounds sinister, like some sort of rash or something you'd catch off a high school gym mat. Yuk. But, here's my question... I recently brewed up this recipe right off this forum. Looks delicious. The link goes to my seriously overly-detailed...