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Today I went shopping at the hardware store to pick up parts to make the T-siphon that's on this forum. I needed more tubing, so I decided to get it from the hardware store instead of at the homebrew shop. I asked one of the employees there which type of 3/8 vinyl would be foodsafe, and he...

I use a spritzer full of Starsan, after soaking them in Oxyclean and rinsing with water to remove the Oxyclean. I swirl the pool of starsan at the bottom and then pour it out, which I think gets any spots the spritzer missed clean. As the Starsan is no rinse, I can go right ahead and bottle...

Sweet! Now I just need to find a recipe worth the electricity costs!

Hi, my family has an old refrigerator that I decided to hook up to see how cold it is on the least cold setting. It came out to 45 F steady. Is this safe for lagering? Could I unplug it during primary fermentation so that it's cold and insulated, but not too cold? Or should I invest in a...

I have some flakes of agar agar I bought from the health food store on a whim a while ago. Right now, I'm making a stout, so clarity is not so big right now, but in the future I know I'll be making lighter beers. Some of my friends are vegetarians, so I don't want to use gelatin for assisted...

Ah. I guess I'll just learn to let go. I'll just flush some wort every once in a while so that the yeast I've abandoned won't go hungry.

I flushed my last yeast cake, and I now feel guilty while reading this thread. Would it be possible to wash the yeast from the bottom of my beer bottles?

For quick sanitizing jobs, I have a 1 gallon bucket of StarSan. 1 gallon of StarSan can be made with 1 and 1/4 tsp (~1/5 of an ounce) of StarSan and distilled water. You can get a bucket for free from a supermarket bakery or donut shop. Just ask them if they have any leftover frosting buckets...

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Hearing that the wheat stouts tend to be a bit sweet, I'll probably see how the hydrometer samples taste and then make up my mind on the amount to add.

I kinda do wanna, so I asked. :confused: Do you think it'd throw the flavor off balance? If there's more to a milk stout than just adding lactose, I'll just go ahead and do it dry. I'll use the lactose for something else. After all, I do like Guinness as well as cream stouts. Or was it I...

Er, I meant, does it affect flavor, as compared to adding it durring the boil instead of at the end? Thanks.

Some people say they add lactose along with the priming sugar, so that they don't have to worry about hydro readings being changed. Does that affect the flavor?

I ordered the promotional wheat stout kit from AHS and a pound of lactose, with the intent of adding some lactose to make a cream stout similar to the Deception Cream Stout in the stout recipes page. Is this a good idea? How will the lactose effect hydrometer readings? I'm thinking I'll add...

Well, I'm still scared, but I guess that's what the box and bags are for. I'll try one after a week, I guess.

I bottled my first beer (a hefeweizen) yesterday, and I think I waited long enough and used 5 oz of priming sugar (in a premeasured bag from the LHBS) for the 5 gallon batch. However, I found out today that my hydrometer gets an inaccurate reading (1.005 in distilled water at 65 degrees). The...

Thanks for the advice, I'll dry them off once I get home.

I bottled a batch of beer yesterday (my first :rockin:), and I put all 144 bottle caps into a 1 gal bucket of StarSan, mixed properly with distilled water. I don't feel like drying the remaining amount and finding a bag for them, but I also don't want them to rust. Since the water is...

It shouldn't, but it's preferable to cool down the wort quickly so that there's less time (and thus less chance) for an infection to start before the yeast is pitched. I doubt your beer will be infected, it's just a good practice. Plus, who wants to wait around all day for gallons of liquid to...

That's a blowoff tube, used when there's too much krauzen or CO2 for the airlock to handle. An airlock, of course, is smaller and more convenient, so the blowoff is only used when needed.

Well, I went ahead and bottled it. Can't wait until it's ready!