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I bottle my homebrew, which has worked fine until the last 2-3 batches, which I've felt were undercarbonated. There are a couple potential causes: 1) I normally get prepackaged priming sugar (4.5 oz) from my HBS to go with each batch. For whatever reason, I didn't order that for the last couple...

I've learned from experience that hop-heavy beers tend to lose their hop profile and bitterness. I have an APA from last year that no longer tastes like an APA. It's still drinkable, but it just tastes a little bland. I've also read that wheat beers tend to have a shorter shelf life, although...

This is something that is often overlooked when people (myself included) first start homebrewing. I think a lot of the kits and recipes fail to stress the importance of temperature control, but it makes a huge difference in the quality of your beer. If you are doing a hefeweizen, your yeast...

I recently bought a Frigidaire 4.4 cf mini fridge that I will be using as the basis for a 2-keg/2-faucet keezer. It will sit inside a wooden cabinet with what I believe is referred to as a coffin top. Instead of a chrome tower, there will be a wood "backsplash" with the faucets coming out of it...

For anyone interested, Best Buy currently has this fridge on sale for $159 (normally $199). I picked one up and plan on doing the 2-faucet tower conversion in the next couple of weeks.

I tried to buy some of these labels today and couldn't find them at Staples or Office Max. They had several colored varieties, but none of the plain white labels. Maybe I'll just order from Amazon.

Everything I've read about this fridge indicates that it has a freezer component. Is it fairly easy to remove the freezer component for the sake of a kegerator conversion? Are there mini-fridges that do not have a freezer component at all? Seems like that would be the most straightforward...

Nevermind, I found this thread where it's discussed: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/haier-mini-fridge-conversion-224439/ Looks like 2 corny kegs will fit, but not with a CO2 tank inside the fridge.

Has anyone followed through on one of these conversions? I have a chance to buy the Haier HNSE05SS myself, but I want to know how it will work out. Will it hold 2 corny kegs and a 5lb CO2 tank inside without putting a collar on it? Are there any other drawbacks to using this particular model...

Thanks! That's exactly the type of keezer I'd like to build.

I would like to do a mini-fridge kegerator conversion in the next 2-3 months, and want to go ahead and keep an eye out for a good fridge in the meantime. I want something that can hold 2 corny kegs, a 5 lb CO2 tank, and have a 2 tap tower on top. I prefer a stainless front, but would also...

You guys convinced me to skip the secondary fermentation and just go longer in the primary. I recently did an "Oktoberfest Ale" this way, that is now ready to be bottled. I was thinking about cold-crashing it to improve clarity, considering I skipped the secondary. 1) Can I cold-crash in an...

I'm thinking about picking up some extra dry yeast in case I ever need to re-pitch. How long does dry yeast last? Is it best to store it in the fridge or just at room temp?

I almost always drink my first one in the 1-2 week mark. They are usually pretty flat and green at 1 week, but starting to taste much better by 2 weeks. I was proud of myself for waiting 15 days before trying an IPA recently. It tasted damn good.

Yeah I think I'm sold on skipping the secondary and just leaving it in the primary. I'm just more curious about the timing of bottling. Let's put it this way. Suppose I want this beer to be ready to drink 4 weeks from now. Would I be better off bottling now after 2 weeks of fermentation, or...

I've done about 10 different brews and it seems like wheat beers turn out the best for me. So if you like that type of beer, then you might give it a shot.

I have a dunkelweizen that has been fermenting for 2 weeks in the primary. I did not rack to a secondary because I didn't think it was necessary for this beer. Fermentation seems to be complete, as evidenced by the gravity readings and lack of airlock activity. Should I go ahead and bottle...

If it's fermenting, then you'll probably end up with a chemical-tasting beer. If you really want a better indication, then take a beer from your fridge and mix it 3:2 with some more sanitizer and have a sip.

I've been using a turkey baster recently, but today I did a 3 gal batch and put it in my 5 gal carboy for primary fermentation. The turkey baster wasn't long enough to reach the liquid level at that point, so I had to lower my hydrometer into the carboy and do the reading directly. Not quite as...

I will be scaling my recipe down, so the OG of the wort should be similar compared to a 5 gallon batch. However, if I don't scale down the volume of the boil, then the boil gravity will be lower, and thus hop utilization would be higher. I'm not sure if it's better to do a smaller boil, or just...