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I tossed both bottles in the fridge and the yeasties FINALLY made it to the bottom. I'm used to fermenting in 5 gallon carboys and totally forgot that I could make them go to sleep with a nice chilling. Both gallons are looking closer to "normal", but I can tell there is still a fair bit more...

You might have burned the sugars a little and what you're seeing is caramel color diluted by the volume. But as others have said, if it tastes good, DON'T COMPLAIN!

Prolly too little headspace, if you made that much of a mess. But ... no harm, no foul.

Even if there were no live yeast, and even if the OP pitched some yeast and sugar after killing whatever left over, there's no effective way to control fermentation, short of alcohol tolerance. And that's a pretty hard game to play. Were I to try, I'd carbonate with straight CO2, then bring as...

I use some kind of "pellet" that's a fixed amount of sugar. I mostly bottle 500ml bottles (heh) and two of the "pellets" work well. If I'm bottling 335's I use one. So it has less carbonation, sue me. I use priming sugar for 2l growlers, but that's the only time I get really fancy with all...

Have you ever made a beer?

Boil the bottles in the same pot you use the heat the wort. Dishwashers get hot, but boiling gets hotter.

I'd add a pectin enyzme -- I've pasteurized organic fruit juices to make wine, only to regret not adding something to prevent the the pectin haze. Other than that -- have at it.

It's winter. I'd do wintery things. Zest a couple of oranges, add some clove, maybe a bit of molasses for added flavor and sugar. The ounce of Cascade will add a touch of hops, but I'd go for other seasonings and try for a more seasonal beer. If it's good, make it again next winter. If it's...

1). Brew twice as much as you drink until you have "as much as you drink" in the amount of time it takes to takes to make more. 2). +1 for getting used bottles. 3). Discipline. Don't drink what you're making as you make it, only drink half. Meaning, if you bottle out two cases, DO NOT DRINK...

The yeasts aren't going to die or anything from the cold, just take a nice snooze or slow down. If the front doesn't pass and things warm up, try bumping the heat up a degree or three and let the fermentation finish before turning the heat back down.

If you had enough of a colony for the airlock to be bubbling away, you've already lost the battle. The wild yeast likely outnumbers whatever you pitched by several orders of magnitude. I'm with the suggestion to just let it ferment out and see what turns up. Some wild yeasts are okay, some...

Oh, swoon. Never made an IPA. I wanna make me one, except most of my friends think hops are yucky and too much hops is even yuckier. I need new friends ...

Thanks -- both of those look like they'd work, though I have better access to White Labs yeasts. What do you think of WLP715? I've used it before to make fruit (non-grape) wines and was pleased. I haven't a clue how the Mr. Beer mix is going to stand up to a Champagne yeast, but I'm willing...

I'm talking about the beer getting infected from something that was left in the bucket, not people getting sick or an infection from drinking the beer. HTH.

That was good for a chuckle. I've been brewing for 7 or 8 years, or something like that, and I wouldn't call it "easy"!

Not sure I get the comment about a too high OG affecting yeast growth. I've made wines with OGs well above 1.1 and they take off plenty fine, even with a less than ideal amount of yeast being pitched. Have patience. It takes a while before the yeasties get around to reproducing. If you're...

I've heard too many stories of infected beer fermented in plastic to think they are acceptable. Very seldom do I hear of someone with good sanitation practices getting a sick beer from fermenting in glass.

OUCH! And I thought I was pushing the limits of sanity at 9% ABV. I try to encourage people to invest in one or two one gallon fermenters, if they are into experiments. I've experimented using a 2 liter growler I've got, when I wanted to try something really weird. The key is -- the...

I've made beer starters on honey. Let's just say that this is a good idea for a STARTER, but a bad idea for an added flavor. Never tried ginger. Some day I'll make a Red Stripe knock-off and give that a go ;)