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My two cents: Did my first brew with the GF last weekend, and for the most part it's AWESOME. For convenience and ease of use, it's hard to beat. The ONLY downside is the less than vigorous boil. That being said, the wort was technically boiling. In 4 weeks if the beer tastes fine, I'd say...

Bobby_m, if I built a drop in heat stick for this purpose (augmenting the existing boil), would I need a controller or would I just plug it directly into the wall and have it always on? I am guessing I'd want the lowest wattage you offer, the 1375W @120V. To be used in combo with the...

Bobby_M, do you offer the Hotrod heat stick pre assembled with a chosen heating element?

How vigorous was the boil? I am this close to ordering the Grainfather (US version), but I have read about and seen videos of the boil being a little weak. Wouldn't want this to affect the final quality of the beer.

Hi guys, looking to jump to 15 gallon batches. Is a 20 gallon boil kettle big enough? Specifically this one from brewer's hardware: http://www.brewershardware.com/20-Gallon-TC-Fitted-Boil-Kettle-with-Tangential-Inlet-and-Temperature-Port.html I'd rather not jump to 30 gallons unless...

Hi all, I kegged a low-gravity blonde ale last night, about 5 weeks from brew day. It still had a bit of a green apple taste- will this go away with cold conditioning, or should I leave it out of the fridge for longer to keep the yeast active?

I have noticed the same thing. So far I haven't had a beer that I kegged that was as good as my bottled beer that conditions for an extra 3 weeks at room temp. I'm starting to think the beer benefits from the extra time at room temp.

Thanks for the help guys.

Oh yeah, it's quite clear and there is a thick layer of yeast at the bottom. Never thought of it being already dissolved Co2 degassing...I didn't think there could be any dissolved Co2 from the primary fermentation and thought it all escaped out the airlock.

Really? Almost two weeks since transfer and CO2 is still degassing?

Yes, I did take a reading before transfer and it was 1.011.

Hi guys, anyone ever had their carboy still bubbling well into the secondary? I had this beer two weeks in the primary beforehand, and it's going on 2 weeks in the carboy now. It bubbles every 45 seconds or so. It had a relatively modest starting gravity too, about 1.048. It was 1.011 when...

I recently purchased two used soda kegs from a homebrew store, and forgot to order replacement o-rings. Can you find these o-rings at Home Depot?

Do you guys ever find yourselves "double pouring" a bottled beer that's super carbonated? I've found that I enjoy the taste of relatively lightly carbed beer, and I've had a number of home brews turn out too carbonated. I've found that after the initial pour, if I just grab another glass, pour...

Any tips for keeping oxygen introduction to a minimum when bottling? I've always wondered about that, I hate having my bucket of beer exposed to the air as long as it takes to fill 50 bottles...

Another good point- what's a bit interesting to me is that people don't seem to stress fermentation temp when it comes to the bottle...maybe cuz it's so mild it doesn't really matter? Or because it would just be too difficult without a temp controller? I wonder if a steady ~66 degrees bottle...

This is why I've seriously been considering going to a kegging system. Taking great care and patience to clarify and condition the beer beforehand and then having to induce a fresh fermentation making the beer green (somewhat) all over again is a big drawback to bottling. Lately I've been...

If you say the off-flavor didn't exist before bottling, but is obvious AFTER bottling/priming, wouldn't that imply that it's due to the bottle fermentation, not a pre-existing condition? (like "extract twang")

I guess we also all need to be aware that IBUs and hop utilization are two different things- IBUs are a measure of bitterness in a volume of beer, whereas hop utilization is just a percentage measurement of the amount of alpha acids fully isomerized from the hops... ...so...hop utilization...

Does Brew Smith account for the fact you're topping off after the boil? As in, is there a spot were you input boil volume and then a spot for "final batch volume"? It seems like if it doesn't then your final value of 47 IBU would then be cut way down again after you dilute, as SquirrelMaster said.