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My first batch of beer is ready today (hooray!). It's a Coffee Oatmeal Stout. The instructions say to drink at 55F. If I take it out of the fridge, how long do I wait until it comes up to 55? It's about 65 in my house.

I'm bottling today. I just realized I may be lacking some equipment. The beer is in a 6.5 gallon carboy right now. I have an auto-sipon and 6 foot piece of 3/8" tubing to transfer it to a bottling bucket, where I'll add the boiled sugar and a bit of cold-pressed coffee. I also have a...

I have new bottles I bought from the LHBS for bottling this weekend. Is it necessary to clean them first, or can I just sanitize? I have Straight-A cleaner, Iodophor sanitizer, and a high-pressure bottle washing attachment that connects to my faucet. I believe my dishwasher also has a...

I'm pretty clear on the pre-brew sanitation procedures, but after my first brew day yesterday I have some questions about sanitation throughout the whole process. There are some pieces of equipment that I used several times. One is a quick-read thermometer. I took multiple temp readings of...

Well, my first batch has been in the carboy for about 18 hours. The airlock is bubbling and a nice krausen is forming on top. First, I want to thank everyone here again for their support and encouragement. I posted many questions leading up to brew day, and two "emergency" questions...

I just finished the boil on my first batch (partial mash). Had the sink full of water and several frozen water bottles, ice packs, ice cubes. After 10 minutes the temp is still at 156. At this rate I don't think I'm going to get down to 70 in 30 minutes. The frozen water bottles are almost...

Okay, not urgent in the big picture sense. It's just a batch of beer. But... I'm doing a PM batch and am currently heating up my strike water for the mash. I made a yeast starter a few days ago, refrigerated it last night, and took it out of the fridge at 6:00 this morning to bring it to...

I'm doing a partial mash tomorrow with 4.75 lbs. of grain @ 1.5qt/lb using DeathBrewer's "easy partial mash" method. I've just figured out that the stainless steel pot I was planning to mash in is not big enough. I have one 5-gallon pot I will use for the sparge, but I need something else for...

Brew day is Saturday so today I made my yeast starter. I forgot one pretty important step, which was to take the yeast packet out of the fridge 3 hours beforehand to bring it to room temp. I took it out of the fridge, smacked it, put the pack in the sanitizing solution, boiled & cooled the...

I just got an auto-siphon and figured I'd test it out with water in the carboy before using it on my first batch of beer. It didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. It took several "pumps" to get the flow going and there was quite a bit of air in the hose. When the water level got down to 2-3...

I've read through many of the temperature control threads here and elsewhere. Most of them are focused on how to lower the fermentation temperature of ales in the summer. I live in the SF Bay Area in a poorly insulated house, and as we move into Fall the temps are dropping into the 40sF at...

I know I've asked a lot of questions over the past week or so and I really appreciate everyone's help. I'm pretty clear on all of the steps at this point, and there's just one area that I haven't totally figured out. I don't have a wort chiller (it's the next thing on my list), and my...

I'm about to brew my first batch, and it's a partial mash. After buying all of the equipment, I only had enough $$ left for one 5-gallon stainless steel pot. I'm wondering if it's possible to mash, sparge and boil in that single pot. The instructions for my Oatmeal Stout from Seven Bridges...

I'm preparing to brew my first batch. It's an Oatmeal Stout with an OG of 1.064-1.070 using Wyeast #1084 Irish Ale Liquid yeast with a production date of 8/19/09. Here's the full recipe (partial mash): 6 lbs. Pale malt extract 1.5 lbs Gambrinus pale ale malt .5 lbs Gambrinus white wheat malt...

I've read John Palmer's How to Brew, and have done a lot of reading here and on other sites as well. I'm getting ready to brew my first batch. I decided (maybe foolishly) to start with a partial-mash instead of an extract only recipe. I'm going to do an Organic Coffee Oatmeal Stout, because...

I recently ordered a partial mash kit. It arrived while I was out of town. It contains a pack of liquid yeast, which had a small cold pack attached to it. By the time I got home the yeast had been out of the refrigerator for probably 5 days (including shipping time). How long can liquid...

Last night I went to an incredible local pub called in Oakland called The Trappist. They have 20 belgian and specialty beers on tap and more than 160 in the bottle. I tried a beer called Bockor Cuvee Des Jacobins Rouge. It was unlike any beer I had ever tasted. Very sour with overtones of...

Hello everyone, This is my first post. I'm a complete newbie - I have yet to brew my first batch. I just bought John Palmer's How to Brew and am about 3/4 of the way through. On p.136 he gives a recipe for a porter (one of my favorite styles) which involves steeping specialty grains...