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I made a Christmas Ale this weekend and probably screwed up the spice addition. I believe I was supposed to add the spices with 10/15 minutes to go before flameout. Instead I boiled for the entire 60 minutes. Recipe called for 1oz fresh grated ginger and 2 cinnamon sticks. What did the 60...

Well it finally happened to me after 6 batches (3 all grain). I went down to the basement this morning to check the bucket and I see my thermometer laying outside the closet... my first thought was DAMN CAT. but as I entered the room and saw my lid off and green streaks on the wall I knew what...

After 2 Brewers Best batches (1 subpar 1 good) and 1 Northern Brewer extract kit (turning out pretty good) and 6 months... I decided it was time to move on to hopefully greener pastures. I decided to go with Edwort's Haus Pale Ale. I think everything went allright, it took me about 4.5hrs...

I have a Coleman 36q Xtreme cooler that I plan on converting to mash in. I've seen the "rackers" calculater and someone posted a chart. Rackers said my tun can handle up to 23lbs of grain, and the chart said my tun can handle a 5 gallon batch with an OG of 1.13 I think. I don't intend on...

For my initial brew made early in January I've come to learn I made a few crucial mistakes: - The BB American Ale kit was a gift, the kit was the old style so the extract was likely old - Didn't really do a great job of aeriation (not bad though) - Fermented at 71 degrees ambient (so...

I have a Brewer's Best Kit for the Robust Porter. The last kit I had included a target for final gravity, but this one doesn't. Ingredients: 6.6LB Amber LME 4oz choc, 4oz Crystal, and 8oz Debittered Black Specialty Grains .5 oz bittering and aroma and 1oz flavoring hops 1 satchet of...

I think I read somewhere here that you can use a vinegar solution to clean your wort chiller. I don't have a chiller made yet, so I borrowed my friends. His was not cleaned from previous use (sticky and had hop residue on it). So I soaked a rag in a 50/50 water and apple cider vinegar solution...

... other then bottle bombs. I have a suspition that I had a stuck fermentation and bottled a little too early. I'm not concerned with bombs at this point (it's been 2.5 weeks). My 2 week sample still has an off taste. I could get used to it, but... in this case being bottled already, will...

Is there a general rule of thumb for bottle conditioning times per style of beer. I've noticed there's a recommended 3 week minimum for conditioning, but imagine you'd want to condition bigger beers longer. Is there a guideline to follow for conditioning: Pale Ales IPA's Wheat Amber Ales...

I'm making my own bottle tree with pvc pipe and I see the vinator can be placed snuggly on top of store bought bottle tree. What ID size of pipe should I use to best achieve this setup. It looks like about a 1" center that comes down the bottom and then under the pan there's a few stems...

I bottled my beer last Saturday. This is my first batch, so I don't know what to look for. After 2 days of conditioning I pulled one bottle out and refridgerated it for 2 additional days. After that short time, to my surprise there was a C02 release when I popped the top, and when I poured it...

I'm ready to bottle my first batch today. My OG started out about 1.05, according to instructions it shoud've been between 1.04-1.045. I think it started fermenting between 1-2 days and I left it in the fermenter for over 2 full weeks at 70 degrees air temp. It's been at least a week ago that...

I've been using the brewer's best kits that have all the predetermined ingredients along with instructions. The instructions read to boil ingredients in 2 gallons of water. I have a pot that could handle 4-4.5 gallon boil with no boil over. I realize a full boil is the way to go, but would a...

I'll be bottling in a few days and had a few quick questions on cleaning and sanitizing. What is the best to sanitize bottles with. I have a bottle sanitizer you push the bottle down onto and it sprays solution up into the bottle. I'll be using my dishwasher as a bottle tree this first...

Here's my situation: I did an American Amber Ale kit by Brewer's Best last Saturday afternoon. I followed instructions to the 'T' and even had an experience brewer help me up till fermentation. I had my bucket fermenter in the my basement for untill Monday and I saw basically no action at all...