I use floating dip tubes like @Yooper 's for serving. Haven't had a clog issue in 20 or so batches using the floater, but I also don't typically dry hop. I haven't been using gelatin and have pretty clear beer within 2 weeks for lagers.

You should be happy with the 2-1 first leg from Friday against Coventry. I've had a soft spot for Sunderland after seeing their mini-series on Netflix. Seems like a great fanbase that really suffered through a lot with fickle ownership. They had an American playing for them for years also -...

Checked on my fermentor this morning and it's bubbling away less than 12 hours after pitching. This is a "strongish" bitter (1.052 OG) that I brewed with a friend yesterday afternoon. I've made starters for the last few batches (most were lagers), but decided to just go with the pouch alone and...

Brew day complete - 3.5 gallons of dark mild in the fermenter.

1st full year back in the hobby, I did 12 batches in 2024 (plus 2 in late 2023) that were a mix between 3 and 5 gallons. Started with mostly Brit style ales (where I learned that recipes matter), did a Steam beer, a Kolsch or two, moved on to some lagers and decided I really like making Belgian...

Brew Day - Belgian Golden Strong

Thanks. Ocracoke is a really unique place, definitely worth the trip if you can make it. Cool little town there with a few restaurants and beautiful, pristine beaches with very clean water (rare for the East Coast IMO). Good brewery there too - 1718 Brewing.

This is the last of a batch of "Ocra-kolsch" I made to take on a trip to Ocracoke Island, NC in July. I bottled a few 1L swing top bottles from my keg before the trip and this is one that I left behind and saved for 9-ish weeks in my fridge just to see how the beer would handle a few weeks. It...

Happy brewing! I'm coming up on a year of brewing all grain, so I'm fairly new at this also. I use a brew in a bag (BIAB) approach where I really only use a kettle to mash and then boil. Works out great and saves on cleaning and gear. I see you're going with a 3 vessel setup (mash tun, sparge...

As an aside, it sounds like a good opportunity for a goofy beer name to me - which I try to never miss. :) "Dead Gnat Ale," or "Fly in the Ointment?" I thought about something similar when I caught a gnat in an airlock recently.

Thanks - I'm close with the recipe I picked up yesterday, 4.5% melanoidin malt. Glad to hear I'm in the ballpark.

All the festbier/marzen talk on this thread has helped convince me that a festbier is my Labor Day brew tomorrow. I have some Novalager that I'm going to try. Thinking of starting fermentation in the low 60s, allowing a slight rise as fermentation slows. Probably will be a helles-like grain bill...

A small piece of 3/8 tubing will also fit on the end of a picnic/cobra tap. Like @Craigerrr said, just cut it to fit to the bottom of the bottle, fill from the bottom, and cap on foam. I've been doing a lot of this lately, and it works well. There's a blog post about doing this very thing here...

Started with big cans of Munton and Fison extract decades ago - actually when I was underage. Extract felt like the only game in town back then unless you were very serious. Stopped brewing after 25 or so extract batches, and quality was hit or miss. Started back again with all grain BIAB in...

Welcome from someone with a similar story. I took a few decades off from brewing before getting going again last November and have brewed about 12 batches in that time. Two things really opened up the hobby for me again: "brew in a bag" techniques and recipe calculator apps. Brew in a bag works...

5 gallon batches, which means (at least in my case with BIAB and usually what seems like a lot of trub) ending the boil with 6 in the kettle and 5.5 into a 6 gallon carboy fermentor. I started off with 3 gallon batches, but found I was kicking kegs too soon. Planning to still do some smaller...

Best news of the survey is they had 1000 more responses in 2024 than 2023. That's a nice positive indicator to see after all the doom and gloom about home brewing. Seems like they doubled the number of survey responses from 2023 if I'm reading it right.

I think that's the "initial" figure. The "Current" version of the graph is 96% all grain. Not sure when "initial" was...

This is what I did for my most recent batch. I used my usual filtered water left out overnight, followed by campden. Kegging it today. I'm not expecting any issues.

Cal Common/Anchor Steam pseudo-lager is up next for me. I'm thinking of calling it, "Thank Your Spleen." Brewing something else that I can't buy anymore... Also starting to look into making some flavored sparkling water for my wife.