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There are "food-grade" trashcans? Anyway, during primary fermentation there shouldn't be a problem as long as the room it's in is fairly clean and the can is well sanitized. This is called open fermentation, and plenty of commercial breweries do it. In the case of a trashcan I would say just put...

Ok, I get your question now. For practicle purposes it is entirely dependant on the amount of grain of a particular rating vs the dilution of the solution, in this case the wort. The color compounds solubility is pretty uniform over a wide temperature range, and there is no enzyme conversion...

If you want to make consistent beer you should be getting all the info you can about your actual ingredients, and not using the defaults the software uses. You should keep an inventory that has this information and update your recipes everytime you brew them. This includes hops, alpha and beta...

Things are slowing down, wait another 3 weeks and you should see another drop. The Bret is going to work slowly at this point, it is in a stressful environment and the ph should be dropping, but that's what helps create the flavors.

Fruity could be from the hops also, especially in an IPA.

As I'm approaching the year mark, and getting ready to brew some more Wild Ales, I thought I'd make an update. There hasn't been much to add since last September, PH stabilized and flavors started to change very slowly. I just tasted it and though the PH is the same it seems less sour but more...

If you have access to a drill you should be able to make a hole easily if you're worried

Jessup, that beer is fine, those clumps are not unusual when using irish moss. What temp is that beer at and what FG were you shooting for? My suggestion is to slowly ramp up the heat and shake the carboy until fermentation ends. The krausen may not fall if it's made up of clumps of proteins...

jtakacs - If Brett really was the primary yeast you caught, it will act a lot like Sac when it is dominant, and won't produce nearly as many of the flavors associated with it when it is under pressure.

Statseeker, I've done starters from many sources, including fruits but I wanted to get a lambic like blend and let the lacto have a chance to drop the ph some. That is part of the reason I let the wort cool slowly and stay between 100 and 80 so long, so lacto could start working. As DannPM...

I want to apologize to anyone following this thread. I have been helping a new brewer and my brewing time, including making posts, has been used up by his needs. So here is an update. 04/28/2011 1.022 Smells and tastes great, has a slightly 'soapy' flavor 05/14/2011 1.018 06/24/2011 1.010 PH is...

I can't think of any reason why the beer won't carb, it's jut going to take 1-2 weeks like any other bottle conditioned beer. You basically used your keg to fill bottles, which would reduce oxygen exposure I suppose, but it seems like a lot of extra effort. As Bobby_M said, if you fill bottles...

mackinskor, you're supposed to either prime with sugar or add c02, not both. I suppose if you primed and then checked the pressure and found it to be low you could add some c02 to get it where you wanted it. But if your measurements are right when you prime you shouldn't need to do that. Also...

Are you using a stir plate for your starter? If not, how often are you swirling the starter? You need to make sure there is lots of oxygen and as much yeast as possible stays in suspension, this is likely the cause of your slow start and maybe even your noticeable separation.

Daver, this is nothing to worry about. The krausen doesn't always fall, it's not going to hurt the beer and it won't effect drt hopping. Take a hydro reading if you're worried.

Ok, that system of doing a solera with a single barrel is pretty cool. I agree with Oldsock about just filling a barrel as quickly as possible if it was freshly emptied, if you want to preserve the taste of what was in the barrel or if your looking for a sour/funky character. If either of these...

Yes, the barrel needs to be wet so that the staves expand and hold water, this is usually done by soaking it with water. As far as chemicals, I would add sodium metabisulfite to the water when you are soaking it, then rinse with hot water. As for filling the barrel, if you don't have fermenting...

The pillow case was bleached and washed in very hot water before it was used, but that is a good thought. I would rather have used cheese cloth, but couldn't track any down in time for brewday, something else to add to the list for next time.

It took at least 12 hours to get from 140 to 75, which would have allowed plenty of time for lacto to get a good footing, I took two ph readings 8 hours apart after that, and it was falling pretty quickly so I wanted to bring the temperature down so yeasts would have a chance to start taking...

Thought I'd start a thread about my first wild beer in the Bay Area, Mountain View to be exact, in case anyone else in the area was interested. The base wort was really simple, to make sure the yeast and bacteria flavors were dominant. 10lbs Pale Male 1oz Chinook in the mash .5oz Chinook in...