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Hops are an essential ingredient to beer. I know you guys have been talking about it being a preservative but it also balances out the maltiness. At least throw a little bittering hops in it. To each his own I guess. If there is another ingredient besides hops that would help balance it out then...

I don't understand why someone would want to go through the effort of brewing up a batch of beer and not add an essential component that is meant to balance it out. It's like not adding salt and pepper to a steak before you cook it? What's the point?

Hop Rod Rye from the BYO 250 Clones issue. Brewed it last year and it was fantastic.

After a lack of response to a few of my emails and them pushing out my order, I eventually threatened to go to Paypal and get my money back. They promptly responded and had my order shipped out the next day or so. Try that and see if it works. If not, just cancel the order and get it from a...

I'm really thinking about using bags for dry hopping. Upon racking my last IPA to the keg, I must've transferred a TON of hops. I just cannot seem to get a foam-free dispense because of the hops clogging the dip tube and poppet valve. I've cleaned it out multiple times and the hops still keep...

I use a hop bag for leaf hops in the boil. They can easily clog up your racking cane or Autosiphon, even with the plastic "filter" tip. I don't worry about putting pellet hops in a bag, just drop them in the boil or secondary, if dry hopping.

Mine took a little over 3 weeks direct from BC. Really had to nag them to get an email response. I suggest buying from a retailer that has them in stock. I get a great crush with stock settings. First time I used it I got 75% efficiency, the second time I used it I got 80%, third time was 78%.

I tried this tonight and didn't have very good results. Most of my problems were from an obstructed beer line. It was a rye IPA (Hop Rod Rye) and a decent amount of hops from the secondary made their way to the keg. It was clogging big time over the weekend but eventually worked their way out. I...

In the winter I brew 2.5-3 gallon AG batches in the kitchen. My electric range can bring 4 gallons of wort to a boil in about 30 minutes, assuming the runoffs are still fairly warm. I like doing half batches because it allows me to brew a variety of beers more frequently. I can turn over my kegs...

Well, I cracked open a bottle the other night and it tastes exactly like it did in the keg. :( Maybe I'll try dry hopping what's in the carboy, perhaps with a high alpha acid hop lika Citra or Columbus? It may make it tolerable to drink. What do I have to lose at this point? Some good news...

My father-in-law told me that you can buy a case of used empty beer bottles from you local beer distributor for about $8. They come with a nice, thick cardboard case. I've saved up a bunch of Amber Bock bottles over the past few months, cheap and decent "pry-off bottle beer".

It usually takes me 4-5 hours from start to finish for my AG sessions (batch sparge), not including cleanup. Definitely saves time if you heat your sparge water during the mash...that way you're ready to start sparging as soon as you collect the first runnings. Start heating the first runnings...

I racked it back to the carboy tonight and cleaned the heck out of the keg. There was some previous beer residue stuck to the inside of it. Possible source of infection right there. I cannot believe I didn't clean the keg. Shame on me I guess. We'll see how better or, most likely, worse it's...

I should also mention that the keg that it's in smelled bad prior to cleaning (shaking) with One Step. I forget if I sanitized it prior to storage. In hindsight, I should've scrubbed the heck out of it instead of just shaking the One Step solution in the keg. Maybe it's picking up off-flavors...

My LHBS didn't have Ahtanum hops at the time so I used Amarillo. Maybe I will set it aside but I only have two kegs total so that only leaves me with one...unless I buy another one. I didn't spend a lot of money on the batch, so it's not a huge loss.

I'll probably just dump the batch. I have a really good feeling it is an infection. When I was racking to the secondary, a piece of tape that was on the carpet just happened to attach itself to my hand. Without knowing it was on my hand, I switched hands to grab onto the autosiphon and the piece...

Well, I think I finally got an infected or oxidized batch of beer. A few weeks ago I did the BYO Stone Pale Ale clone (AG). Fermented 2 weeks, then in the secondary for another week. I kegged it last week and tasted it this weekend and it just tastes stale and of cardboard. I don't think it's...

Wow, just pulled a sample from the fermenter and it tastes really nice. I don't know if it's finished yet as it's 1.012, but my OG was 1.050 which was much higher than what the recipe said. It's been fermenting for almost 2 weeks. I just wrapped a heat pad around to help it finish out, maybe...

No, after each of your runnings you'll probably have a little wort left behind in your mash tun...that is the dead space. I usually have around a 1/4 gallon leftover in my round 5 gallon Rubbermaid mash tun. You can "precalculate" it by draining some water before mashing and see how much water...

I've made two batches of beer since I got my BC a few weeks ago. I kept factory settings. First batch made with it was an APA and had no problems; got 75% efficiency. Second batch was this past Sunday, it was a Belgian Wit with 50% flaked wheat and it was the first stuck sparge I had to date. I...