I realized I forgot to add that I'm not partial-mashing, but using all grain. (No local home-brew store, no access to DME, so I'm reliant on a big sack of grain).

Hi everyone, Thank you for your advice on various matters. Here's another one. After the big winter storm, it's been frozen here in Illinois, and it looks like things will stay beneath freezing for the foreseeable future. This raises some challenges / opportunities. Challenge: so I use a coil...

So a quick update: the beer did not attenuate as much as I would have thought during fermentation (though it's still okay) so I'm thinking I did have a higher mash temp than planned. But I think what's happening is its shading into American Brown ale territory rather than Pale Ale. Just in...

Thanks everyone. It's bottled.

Just saw this: and I will start using a thermometer to measure mash temp (duh!). I for some silly reason hadn't thought of it.

Hi folks, Happy Thanksgiving! Sadly, I live in a homebrew desert since our store closed, so I always have to plan in advance and mail order things in. But sometimes my planning fails, as in this weekend. I need to bottle, and am a little low on priming sugar. Thankfully, I think I have just...

So it happened again: I had some friends over, was working on brewing while also explaining (what little I know of) brewing and I made a mental error because I wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing. (Too much 'beer mastering,' not enough brewing!) I mashed with too much water...

So I'm getting into mashing and I notice that my efficiency is not good. I'm guesstimating I'm getting like 55%, where I'd like to get somewhere in the 65%-70% range. Or am I dreaming? Mashing in a nice pot surrounded by a custom made cozy for warmth. I go in at the right temperature. I'm...

Thanks! So you mean to scoop the bugs out? Or to use like a splatter screen to keep them out?

So this may seem obvious, and I thought it was obvious, but I'm starting to be a little confused. What are the kettle thermometers that get mounted into brew kettles (the ones you screw in through a port and have a probe that goes into the kettle) for? Here's why I'm confused. Obviously, you...

Thanks!

So I'm setting out tonight to brew a lovely small batch, and as I'm setting up outside I see there are a ton of gnats flying around. I've got a fan to blow them off a bit and will keep an eye on it, but I'm pretty sure there's going to be a gnat or two in the beer (or ten), at the boil phase...

Hi — So a friend of mine went to Japan and, as a present, bought me some hops. They’re pellet type. He ended up buying me a lot — a kilogram! It’s been great playing around with them, but the bag wasn’t labeled and what label there was wasn’t very informative. In Japanese, it says...

Thanks everyone. Sounds like there are some questions involved, which already helps me out.

Hi all. Rank beginner here again. So I just gave in and bought myself a stainless steel fermenter (7 gallon). Meanwhile, on a separate track, I'm thinking about brewing some Kvas. It's basically a very lightly fermented drink made out of bread. So here's the question: if I brew Kvas in my...