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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...

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...

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 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...

I've done quite a few partial-mash 5 gallon brews so far that have turned out pretty well. There is a brew I'm interested in doing this weekend, but I think I want to do a 3 gallon batch this time. I'm kind of experimenting on this one, and I think ~30 bottles would be better than ~50 bottles...

Reading some different threads on here convinced me to go by a test vial and a turkey baster, and start drawing samples for my hydrometer readings, rather than doing it directly in the fermenter.The turkey baster I got was $1.99 at Target. I didn't feel like spending $7.99 for the Michael Graves...

I've done 7-8 partial mash brews now, and I still don't completely understand everything about the process. My beers are turning out great, but I'd like to improve my knowledge of the process. I've read DeathBrewer's thread that's stickied to the top of the forum, as well as several other...

I do partial mash brews using bottled spring water. The boil is usually ~3 gallons, and then I top it off to 5.25 gallons in the primary bucket. I have a pre-chiller and immersion chiller that I use to cool my wort, which usually takes about 15 minutes to get from boiling to 76F. I was...

I've done searches and I know there are frequent threads on this, but I haven't found the answer to my questions. First of all, I brewed an APA using Wyeast American Ale 1056, which has a recommended temperature range of 60-72F. This sat in the primary fermenter in my house at room temperature...

I brewed a Kolsch a couple weeks ago. No problems on brew day or anything like that. My primary fermenter is a 6.5 gal bucket, and I noticed active fermentation within 24 hours. Within about 6 days the airlock had quit bubbling, which I thought was awfully fast. On day 7 I decided to rack...

My wife wanted to do a raspberry wheat so we bought the following recipe from our LHBS: Grains: 1.5 lb White Wheat 0.5 lb Cara Pils Malt 1.5 lb 2-Row Malt Extract: 5 lb Wheat Extract Hops: 1 oz Perle (bittering) 0.5 oz Mt Hood (flavor) 0.5 oz Mt Hood (flavor) Recipe looks fine...

I've done several brews now and usually let them sit about 3 weeks before I open a bottle for a taste. And I know they get better with time. Patience pays off. But I recently did a witbier and I changed some things in my method, so I'm really eager to open a bottle and get an early sample of...

I had some issues with my old school analog thermometer yesterday, so I'm thinking I'll get a digital one before my next brew. I read a couple old threads and saw that Thermapen gets highly recommended, but I don't understand why. It's expensive and there is no cord for the probe, so it seems...

Somehow when I wasn't looking my mash temp jumped from 155 up to about 175. It was probably at this temp for no more than 10 mins near the start of the mash. I quickly turned off the heat and added a little room temperature water to bring it back down under 160. Will this be a problem for...

I looked at the brew chemistry forum, but a lot of the topics there were pretty specific and I just need some general advice to start with. Forgive me if I'm asking something that's come up before, which is probably true. I'm about to brew a NB Sunshine Wheat clone. It's a partial mash, but I...

Did my first batch about 3 months ago and it came out pretty good. It was a blonde ale from my LHBS and the flavor was good, although it did have a slightly unpleasant aftertaste that I can't quite put my finger on. I started my second batch about 2 months ago, which was a Breckenridge...

Bottled my first brew about a week ago and I just noticed that the bottom had blown out of one of them today. I cleaned up the mess and put them all back in the cabinet, but should I be concerned that the others will start blowing too? And if there is cause for concern, then would moving them...

My first batch is in the middle of secondary fermentation and I was hoping to bottle by the end of this week. The problem is that I don't have nearly enough bottles, and local alcohol laws prevent me from obtaining bottles from either bars or liquor stores. This had been my plan all along, and I...