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Seems to me that either a 1-piece or a 3-piece airlock will allow air to come back in, just as easily as it lets air out. I don't understand what it is about either design that would make air travel one directional. I cold crashed in my primary for years and just recently switched to cold...

I didn't say you did. What you did is caution against a hypothetical that doesn't reflect how people batch sparge, generally speaking. I could offer that the OP's beer may under attenuate if he pitches his yeast before he collects his full volume. That also wouldn't be describing how to batch...

I've never heard of batch sparging being done the way you describe. I don't add bittering hops until after I've collected my full volume and until after it's come to a boil so this would never be a problem for me.

I used to have a problem with my beers attenuating too much. Once I started heating the first runnings right away they usually attenuate right in line with the yeast manufacturer's estimates.

I started as a winemaker and got into brewing later. If you are going to make kits, you probably already have about everything you need, except maybe a degasser stick thing, a corker, bottles and some extra carboys. Kits are a fun, easy way to get started. But like brewing with extract, I was...

I'd consider "The Way to Make Wine" by Warrick or "Techniques in Home Winemaking" by Pambianchi to be the wine equivalents to "How to Brew" by Palmer. But these are really focused on making wine from fresh grapes. I'm not sure how helpful they would be if you make kits. They're ideal starting...

I'm sure any type of noble hop like crystal or liberty would be great. At 15 IBUs you're really not picking up much hop character, but still, I'd probably avoid any of the 'C' American hops. And yeah, 2 lbs of corn looks kind of scary, right? For me, that was the hardest thing to dial in...

Thanks! It took me more attempts than it probably should have but I'm finally happy with this version. It was the first time I wasn't constantly thinking about what needed to be tweaked as I was drinking it. Kind of reminds me of the Little Kings we used to sneak back in high school. But that...

:off: Wayne, any chance you could post your Cream Ale recipe?

Profile: OG: 1.049 FG: 1.011 IBU: 15.1 (Rager) SRM: 4.1 ABV: 5.0% Recipe: 6.0 lbs 2-row 2.0 lbs Flaked Corn 4.0 oz Victory Malt 4.0 oz White Wheat Malt 0.6 oz Willamette (4.6%) at 60 min 0.4 oz Willamette (4.6%) at 2 min American Ale II (Wyeast #1272) 78% efficiency Mash at...

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I've been brewing for a little over 5 years now. Started with extract, moved to partial mash after a few batches and then on to AG after a few more. This progression was driven by my interest in improving the quality of my beers, having more control over things like color and body, and in simply...

You definitely want to correct your FG reading before you enter a number into BeerSmith. My refractometer measures in brix so I always use a spreadsheet calculator to convert my readings to OG and (corrected) FG, and then I enter the results into BeerSmith. I'm sure the BeerSmith tool is fine...

Torilen, you're not hurting my feelings at all because I think we're still talking about two different things: your personal hatred for Bud (and maybe the style in general) vs. the reason why some brewers nonetheless try to brew the style. We get it, you don't like Bud. And that's fine. But it...

I think you're confusing style of beer with mastery of craft. You indicate you haven't even brewed a batch of beer yet. I'd suggest you hold back on your criticism until you try to brew a lager that's as perfectly clean as a Bud, and then try to do it exactly the same over and over again. Then...

I'd say start with any/all of these that you can manage: good hot break, whirlfloc, rapid chill after boil, cold crash. If that doesn't work, then try gelatin. My beers didn't get super clear quickly until I started using gelatin. Good luck.

If it were my beer, instead of crystal, I'd add some Munich or Vienna malt to get the color I want, and to pick up a touch of extra maltiness. I have a Paulaner clone recipe that calls for 0.25lb Munich and I've heard of people getting great results using all Munich in place of 2-row or Pilsner...

To confirm, yes, my intent in adding lactic to my mash/sparge water was to establish good mash pH. That ship has sailed so the reason for my question was to determine what, if any, benefit there would be in adding the lactic just before kegging. From the replies, it seems like flavor is the only...

Thanks for the replies. I'll do a bench trial to see what adding lactic does to the flavor.

I blew it. I forgot to add 2.5 ml lactic to my brew water. Now the beer (a Mirror Pond clone) is being dry hopped and will be kegged in about 4 days. My target pH was 5.45 (room temp) and my spreadsheet estimates it should be 5.67 without the lactic. Is there any reason to add it now? Flavor...