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Hi folks, Thanks for all your replies. It's been two weeks now and I just measured the gravity. I'm at 1.024 down from a starting gravity of 1.075. That gives me an apparent attenuation of 67% (and currently an alcohol content of 6.7%). I eventually switched to a brew belt on the carboy...

Hi Folks, I recently decided I'd like to brew a Belgain Saison. What I didn't realize is that the recommended fermentation temperature (for a few days at least) is 85 F. This is clearly not the right time of year (temperatures outside are in the 30's) for me to be brewing with this yeast...

I have looked around here for info on the pros and cons of different refractometers. From what I have seen in most of the posts, people generally have only tried their refractometer and are happy with what ever it is. I am interested in people who have tried more than one. For example the Vee...

Is there any way to stop the yeast in their tracks - filtering, pasteurizing, or something? Has anybody tried this?

Are there any tools, resources, etc. anyone can recommend that help you determine the ratio of fermentable to unfermentable sugars vs. mash parameters (temperature & time) and ingredients. Does Beersmith do this?

Hey guys, I would like to brew some great flavorful low ABV beers. However I tend to prefer strongly flavored beers like IPAs and Belgians. So how do I pack that big flavor into a small beer? Do I just cut back on the base malt in a recipe and adjust the BU/GU ratio to match? How would...

Not right now, but most of the day I was listening to Tyler Jakes. They have a great sound - like blues meets punk, classic rock sound that is new. Great bass riffs. Check them out.

1) Water never seemed like a good idea to me because it does not guarantee a bacteria free barrier. Vodka seems like a waste of a perfectly good shot. I use StarSan in my air lock. I keep a squirt bottle of it handy for sanitizing my equipment so it is easy to put a few squirts in the air...

I had this happen to my last batch of Hefeweizen. It was my first time using one of the Wyeast smack packs. Very aggressive primary fermentation. It wort was bubbling out through my air lock for about a day. When it stopped I replaced the airlock with a clean and sanitized airlock and waited...

To clarify: I have a really solid gas stove so I am not worried about the weight of the liquid. I am looking to do two parallel 6 gallon boils. I am typically starting with 6 gallon boil volumes on the stove's so called power burner which is about 50% larger than the other burners. This...

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for doing big batches on a kitchen stove. I am familiar with using an auxiliary heat stick. I don't want to run a new circuit so anything i could use would be limited to 110 volts and maybe 1000 Watts. What would be cool would be an oblong (as...

Thanks tre9er, Have you used/seen one of these kettles. I current kettle is the MoreBeer heavy duty one. It is really solid, heavy (in my mind that's a good thing ), and has a nice brushed finish that does not scratch. Are the spikebrewing kettles of similar quality? How do the cooler...

Hey everyone, I am looking for suggestions on what to buy to upgrade my brewing setup. I am looking to spend around $300 and am looking to get the most bang for my buck. I would hopefully like to take my brewing to a new level. I currently have an 8 gallon brew kettle with spigot...

Hi there, I have a batch of milk stout that has been in secondary for a long time (since October). I am about to bottle it and I am wondering if I am going to have problems getting it to carbonate. Do you think the yeast has fallen out of suspension too much? Is there anything I can do to...

that would be great if it is just the yeast! Lumpher - the temperature of the house has gone up a bit with the warmer weather. The air lock is bubbling away - one bubble every 5 - 10 seconds or so. I guess that would indicate active fermentation has resumed. There are bubbles floating to...

Hi Guys, So here's my situation. I am brewing a 5 gallon batch of Northern Brewer Extra Special Bitter (using White Labs English Dry Ale Yeast - think that's what it was). I put it into primary about a month ago. It fermented away vigorously for about a week and or more and then settled...

About 12 days into my primary fermentation my two year old managed to wrestle the air lock free of the stopper. The stopper remained in place in the throat of the carboy. It remained like this from anywhere from 1 to 24 hours. When I discovered it, I promptly replaced the airlock and refilled...

I was wondering if I'm ready to bottle or should I wait. This is my first batch. I'm brewing a 5 gallon Light Ale from MoreBeer! It started with 6 lbs Malt Extract. Initial Gravity: 1.042 on 10/9/10 Check Gravity again on 10/15/10 when I transfered to secondary - 1.018 Today's Gravity...

Thanks for all the suggestions. When I compared the hops I picked to the hops that came with the beer kit I noticed that mine had significantly less aroma. They were also much more brown. Given that this is my first batch I decided it's probably not a good idea to just go throwing everything...

Hey everyone, Poland Springs just came out with a new series of 5 gallon bottles. They are made out of PETE type 1 plastic which is the same plastic as better bottles. The other feature which makes these new bottles nicer than the old bottles (and easy to identify) is that they have a solid...