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I keep overshooting my target mash temp. I'm using 2 methods to determine the strike water temp. John Palmer's "How to Brew" book, as well as Brew Mate's strike temp calculater. Both are withing 1/2 degree F of each other. I use a 10 gallon rubbermaid water cooler. and preheat with 1...

I'm planning an all grain weizen bock. My goal is to get a beer with around 8% ABV, and color around 24. I've come up with 2 recipes that accomplish this, the difference is the ratio of malted barley to malted wheat. What would the be the differences in these 2 recipes as far as flavor, mouth...

I just got done with my 1st all grain brew day. According to the recipe I got from "Radical Brew" and my brew software, I should have got an OG of 1.066. Unfortunately, my actual OG was 1.054. According to the brew software I only got about 54% efficiency rather than the 70% that it uses for...

So I just bought a carboy cap designed for a 6 gallon carboy(http://www.midwestsupplies.com/carboy-cap-3-5-and-6-gallon-carboys.html). I have two carboys, and at the moment I don't know what size they are, but are around 6 gallons. The cap definetly does not fit on one of the carboys (cap is...

Not sure if that's correct language for what I'm considering, but here's what it is. I'm about to brew this coming weekend, and after fermenting for 1 week, I'm brewing a second beer. I had read that you can pitch directly on the yeast cake of another beer so... What I was planning on doing...

I recently built a copper manifold, and I'm trying to figure out what diameter to make the filtering hols in the bottom. Does anyone have an suggestions on what diameter to use?

I'm looking at a recipe the calls for milde ale malt (not pale ale), and brown ale malt. Can someone tell me what malts would fall into these categories?

I'm planning a brew with some syrup added to it (not malt extract). I read that it would be best added to a secondary to retain as much aroma and flavor as possible. So I have 2 questions..1) For sanitary concerns, how should I go about adding sugar or other flavor additives to a secondary? 2)...

For those of you that use propane burners to boil, does anyone have any idea how much propane you tend to use while doing a 1 hr boil? I have a burner, but i need to get a tank. I'm trying to figure out how large of a tank i need to get.

I'm kicking around the idea of making a wort chiller. I'm not sure if I want to make an immersion, or counter-flow chiller yet. But my thought was, since both of these come in contact with the wort after the boil, how do people go about sanitizing their chillers? I'm assuming the outside of an...

I've seen some recipes that call for different types of sugars like demerara and turbinado. I've seen sugar products at Wal-Mart that claim they are these two types of sugar. One is "Sugar in the Raw natural cain turbinado sugar", and the other is Florida Crystals Demerara sugar". Has anyone...

I'm just curious, what is the longest period of time anyone has let a brew condition. I read a couple of recipes in "Radical Brewing" that had maturations listed in the 4-12 month range, and then said the brew would be ready to drink in 5 yrs, or one that said "brewed at the birth of a son...

I know that the difference in mashing vs. steeping is that grains that needs enzymes to convert starches to surgars get mashed, the rest get steeped. Is there an actual difference in how you do one vs. the other?

So the last batch I made, I had something like 5 lbs of DME. It took me almost half an hour to add all this to my water after getting it to boil (I did turn off the heat while adding). I've noticed that while adding DME, the stuff is so fine that it instantly wants to clump to itself, and...

First off, only my second batch ever. OK, I began to worry that my latest batch hasn't been fermenting due to lack of signs (has been almost 4 weeks now). I checked the gravity reading, which came up 1.01. I looked back at my original reading I wrote down and it was 1.01. The 2 obvious items...

I'm making a coiled manifold out of soft copper pipe. Should I cut my slots before or after I bend my pipe into my coil. I wasn't sure if that would cause my slots to get bent too large if i cut first, but i'm not sure how easy it will be to cut after bending.

I'm tring to come up with an easy/cheap way of making a sparge ring for a round water cooler. I was thiking about using the clear high-temp tubing you can buy, and cutting a series of slits in it, bending into a ring, and connecting to a T connector. If I recall correctly, this tubing is...

Is Straight A a sanitizer, or just a cleaner? I was told by an employee where I bought my equip that it was a sanitizer, but when I read the bag it said it is a cleanser made for brewer's. I sanitized with bleach to be safe, but still would like to know.

I went to use my hydrometer the other day, and I'm not sure it is accurate. After I looked at it, it is a hollow glass tube with a rolled up piece of paper in it with a Tralle and Proof scale lines on it. The paper inside is not resting on the bottom, it is floating in the middle of the glass...

I've not seen anyone ask or address this specific question. If I'm brewing in a white "Ale Pale", how do I know when my wort is done fermenting? Do you open it up and drop a hydrometer ever day to make sure the gravity isn't still dropping (doesn't seem right)? I wasn't sure how anyone...