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West Branch Brew & Tap. Kind of self explanatory. I live on the West Branch River and we converted our kitchen into a tap room where I also brew. It's the same house I grew up in. I try to name the beers I make after local landmarks, people or things I remember growing up. Just makes it fun.

I just tried the swamp cooler idea since reading this. The real high temps are about over now though but thought I'd try it anyway.

Airborneguy, I was hoping that might be the case. The fermentation did start pretty well before the heat set in so I'm hoping for minimal impact. I'm going to be transferring it to the secondary tomorrow. This is the 2nd time I've brewed this particular recipe and the first time it came out...

OK, so I brewed a 10 gallon batch a week ago which was last Friday evening. Here in the northeast we've had a few days of mid to upper 90 degree heat. Our old house doesn't have AC and the room where I keep the fermenting brew got up to at least 80 for the past few days. Not good, I don't think...

I wasn't sure where this should go so I put it here. I was just thinking about making a single tier brew structure after my last 10 gallon batch and the challenges it gave me. Having everything organized and right there would be pretty nice. If it did do a brew structure I'd have to do my...

One broken, probably due to letting PBW sit in it too long. It was empty and had been sitting there some time since I last used it. Went to pick it up and the bottom stayed on the floor! Checked 3 other glass ones I had and 2 of them had cracks in the bottom. Got a Better Bottle but screwed up...

I've been brewing for a few years now and I've always put my hop additions in a muslin bag. I mostly use pellets but last year grew some of my own hops so have started to use some of those on occasion. My question is would I get more hops utilization if I didn't put my additions in a muslin...

That brings me to another question I was going to post on here but I'll start a different topic so as not to hijack this thread.

Golddiggie, what do you do about the cold break. I whirlpooled before I started running it through the chiller. If I recirculate it I won't be able to separate the cold break, will I?

I just purchased a 20 plate chiller from Keg Cowboy and used it for the first time on Saturday. So much better than the immersion chiller I was using. I brew 5 gallon batches and if I had to do it over again I'd get at least a 30 plate chiller. I'm in MA and my water is cool enough but I had it...

On Friday I picked up ingredients to brew on Saturday and at the last minute decided to make a yeast starter. I put the vial of White Labs yes next to a floor register which is over our wood stove to bring it to room temp. As I prepped the starter I forgot about the vial and when I remembered it...

I posted this same thing on another forum and thought I'd try it here too. I don't know if this is the spot for this question or not but I'll start here. I've been brewing 5 gallon all grain batches and batch sparge for awhile now. The way I do it is I place my hop additions into the boil...

My older brother and I both brew. We started doing it separately many years ago then stopped for a long time but a few years ago we both got the itch again and started brewing together. Over the past couple years we've started brewing separately at our own homes but still share recipes and...

Do either the Megapots or Polar Ware kettles have the volume graduations on them or do you need to measure everything out if you don't have a sight glass?

My brother has a Blichmann 15 gal pot and loves it. He does fly sparging whereas I do batch but it really doesn't make any difference when it comes to the brew pot. I do use an immersion chiller but am also considering an in-line chiller of some sort too. I normally try to leave as much cold...

I'm seriously considering getting a new boil kettle. I'm trying to decide which way to go between a basic 10 gallon Mega Pot with a valve or the Blichmann Boilmaker. I know, both ends of the spectrum. I really like the Blichmann but I'm thinking it's probably more than I need for using as...

I use muslin bags for hops. I just keep adding whatever additions into the same bag then just toss the bag after I'm done.

I've been reading threads about cold crashing. I brew 5 gallon batches and use a wort chiller to cool the wort down to pitching temp. This also ends up basically acting as somewhat of a cold crash as I get a cloud on the bottom. My problem is when I siphon I still end up sucking some of it into...

I'm not sure if whirlpooling will make much of a difference. It looked like the cold break was already pretty well coagulated together and I siphoned as far away as I could. Just that as the wort gets lower the cold break spreads out. I'll just have to go with making a bigger wort, I guess.

I just finished brewing up Northern Brewers all grain Three Hearted Ale. I pretty much hit all the temps I needed to and all went well. I use a wort chiller to cool the wort and there seemed to be alot of cold break when it reached temp for transferring. I didn't take out the chiller so as not...