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Man, I think I was getting a little too confident in my abilities. My first AG batch went pretty well, considering it was the first time. My 2nd batch was almost flawless. This time, well... First of all, I was brewing a hefeweizen, and was going for a lighter body, so decided to mash at...

I brewed an IPA last Saturday, and ended up pitching the yeast around 7:00 p.m. Sunday morning, around 10:00, the telltale signs of fermentation were evident. By 4:00 pm, my wort was off to the races, quickly on it's way to transforming to beer. I used some ghetto methods to keep the...

1. Boilovers are impossible while doing a five gallon batch in a 15.5 gal. keggle. I took my eye off the damned thing for 10 seconds, and next thing I know Mt. Vesuvius is ready to blow. I stirred like mad, but a bit of wort dripped down the side of the keg. Six extract brews doing three...

I'm attempting my 2nd AG brew today. It's an American IPA, using 16# of grain. I'm attempting to up my efficiency today from the 65% I achieved on my first AG, so I decided to use a thicker water to grain ratio during mash, which would allow me to add more hot water before collecting my first...

I'm brewing an IPA next weekend, and I'm trying to figure out how to get equal volumes from my first runnings after mashing, and sparging. The volume in the boiler I need is 8 gallons. That means I want two four gallon batches. Esitmating .125 gallons/lb. absorption rate, I'll need to add six...

I brewed an ESB recipe that I found on the Internet, with a few minor changes I made to it (substituted Crystal 80 with Crystal 60 and a tad of Crystal 90, upped the hops a bit, used different yeast). Everything went great during the mash...I used Beersmith to calculate the strike temperature...

I just bought Beersmith today, and I'm in the process of setting up an equipment profile for my setup. Here's what I've entered: Mash tun volume : 36 qt. Mash tun weight : 10 lb. (not sure on this, just guessing) Mash tun material : .3 plastic (preset option closest to reality)...

I've been away for the last month or so, but now that the weather's finally starting to cooperate in my neck of the woods, I'm getting ready to try my first all-grain brew on Friday or Saturday. First of all, I found this recipe: http://www.brew-monkey.com/recipes/html/bitterbaldguy.htm...

My wife recently decided to try winemaking, and one of the things we bought was this degasser: The point of this device is to remove carbon dioxide from wine after fermentation. But, on the Northern Brewer site, it also said it can be used for aerating wort prior to pitching. I've always...

I have a keg I converted into a boil kettle, and I'm still trying to determine the best way to go about this. I was going to install a sight glass, and make marks on it in 1/2 gallon increments, but LHBS guy recommended against putting one in a keggle, because he said once the sugars get in...

Well, I think I'm all done with building and acquiring the necessary pieces of equipment for all grain brewing. There's one thing that's been bugging me, however, dealing with teflon plumber's tape. I've put the tape on all fittings outside of the MLT and boil kettle, like where the ball valves...

(I moved this post from the All Grain section, because it's probably more appropriate in this forum. Admins, feel free to delete the original...) I ordered one of these from Northern Brewer, with the intention of installing it in my Coleman Xtreme MLT. Well, after getting it on Friday, it...

I ordered one of these from Northern Brewer, with the intention of installing it in my Coleman Xtreme MLT. Well, after getting it on Friday, it looks like the Thermothingy isn't nearly long enough to accomodate the wall thickness of the Xtreme. It looks like there'd be hardly any threads...

I just bought one of these bulkhead fittings from Northern Brewer for my Coleman Xtreme, and I have it attached, and it's sturdy, but I do have one nagging concern about it. Does the brass locknut on the outside of the cooler need to be completely tightened against the wall of the cooler? It's...

I just ordered a Bayou Classics Banjo Cooker. And, I'm in the process of getting a keg to convert to a kettle. I've just read that sanke kegs won't work with a Banjo Cooker, unless the stand is modified. :mad: If this is true, what am I going to have to do to get this to work? Honestly, I was...

I'm sure there's been one thousand of posts about this in the past, so here's post 1,001. What's the best way to go about getting a used keg? I've checked out the Sabco site, and the prices for kegs are a little discouraging to me. I see they sell refurbished kegs, but I couldn't find a price...

I bought a Coleman Xtreme 36 qt. cooler about a month ago. I already have a SS braid hooked up to the valve for sparging, but I also want to build a manifold. So, I was at my local home improvement superstore today, and I got impulsive. I bought 10' of 1/2" CPVC piping, as well as a bunch of...

I found a pretty good deal on a stainless steel turkey fryer, and the pot is 30 quarts. I only plan on doing 5 gallon all grain batches, but I know that after sparging, pre-boil volumes can be 7 gallons or so. So, assuming I get seven gallons of wort, I'd be left with two quarts worth of space...

Hi, everyone. I've decided to make the leap from extract to all grain brewing. I've been reading on the various all-grain systems that people have bought/built, and I've come to the conclusion that the round water cooler system would be the best option for me. Furthermore, I decided to start off...

I brewed a Dead Guy Ale clone about a week and a half ago, and used Rogue's Pacman yeast strain. Figuring it was on a limited release, and my love of Rogue's brews, I decided this would be a very good time to give yeast washing a try. I think it went pretty successful. I filled four one quart...