ok, so 5% alcohol and the absence of air isn't enough eh? not a problem. i'll just make a short and shoddy tincture. fire in the hole. thanks.

hey everyone. i made a batch of 5.4% cream ale and ended up 6.5 gallons instead of 5. The extra 1.5 gallons went in a second keg and is carbed up. Since it's got alcohol and CO2, do i need to worry about sanitizing any ingredients that i might want to throw in the keg to experiment with...

Update:. I cracked open the first bottle from this batch and was expecting the plastic taste but much to my amazement...it wasn't there. 5 weeks bottle of conditioning and carbonating did the trick apparently. It would seem that the yeast activity to carbonate the hefeweizen cleaned up whatever...

Thanks. I'll do that tonight or tomorrow then. When you skim the yeast and put in a sanitized jar, do you cover with spring or distilled water like you were washing the yeast? Not sure I'll do this bc I'm not sure when I'll brew another hefe. I've got 10 gallons already. How long have you kept...

I brewed a second batch over the weekend. Same recipe but changed to Wyeast 3068, increased my mash duration to 90 mins and kept the 90 min boil. Also, went with an open fermentation (loose foil tent over the main opening of the spiedel). My question about open, when should I screw the lid on...

as i mentioned above...twice actually :)...i dose with potassium metabisulfite (1/4 tsp per 5 gal) every batch. and i pull the water the night before. i'd be very surprised if it's disinfection residuals. no issues with my other beers either.

I started at 64 and stayed there for 4 days and then ramped up slowly to 70. Took a few days. I thought I read that low temp at the beginning promotes phenols and then the warmer finish can encourage the esters (banana). I'd like to change one variable so I can track a change more easily. After...

yes, public water. water report indicates chlorine, not chloramine. as i mentioned, i dose with potassium metabisulfite and also pull my water the night before. shouldn't be residual disinfectants, regardless of type. no issues with any of my other beers. the thought of the local authority...

great article. thanks for the link. i might try underpitching slightly on my next batch and see what happens. possibly ferment a few degrees warmer over the first couple days.

much appreciated.

just to clarify, this would be prior to sealing the keg or could i seal the keg and just pull the vent as needed (once a day?). any duration in mind? a week while carbonating maybe? i'm having a springtoberfest party with a sh*t ton of german beer so i do plan to make another batch that...

Morning folks. I brewed a hefezweizen in January of last year (bottled). Overall, it turned out ok but there was a little bit of an off-flavor and aroma. I'm really bad at associating a title to a taste but can pick up on a lot of tastes. it was a little plasticy but could also have been a...

i don't cold crash as a separate step. In other words, I rack directly from my primary to my keg, added gelatin, seal, clear headspace w/ co2, and place in kegerator for 24 to 48 hours before beginning carbonation in earnest (i burst carbonate). when i think carbonation is complete, i pull off...

I see a fair number of posts asking how best to mount regulators within a traditional kegerator. Typical responses usually consist of cautionary tales of being sure of drilling locations and finding out where the coolant lines run, etc etc. Well, I'm happy to share that you don't need to...

Previous times, i just put the lid on, added Saran wrap to seal it, and let it sit in the porch for a day. could cool quickly with my immersion chiller or hit with a bit of heat to pasteurize. Not sure which would be better.

Did some research online and saw a pretty split crowd on this topic so I figured I'd post here for your thoughts. Any issues with collecting all of my wort one day and then boil the following day? I wouldn't refrigerate either. I'd put the wort in my basement that is currently 68 deg F. I...

i'm not all that familiar with the HERMS system, but would your lauter pacing impact the OG? i vorlauf/lauter manually out of my mash tun and pace is my single greatest variable when achieving my target pre-boil OG. like so slow it's barely a trickle coming out of my tun. if slowing your...

vanilla post-fermentation for sure. whether in keg or secondary. yeast activity will strip off your vanilla aroma. same with the boil. too expensive for that to happen. i've had good luck with zests in the boil as the boil releases the oils similar to the hops and the citrus does carry...

Here's my experience so far with yeasts... -Imperial: pouches have 200B and that is reliable, even for older pouches. i've used 200B when recommendations were up to 300B without off flavors or lagging fermentation. -Dry: i agree with JA. results are closer to 200B per packet than stated...

i have a 10 gallon pot and routinely boil 8.5 gallons without boil overs, or at least minor boil overs. 3 major things have contributed to the reduced boil overs. 1. Fermcap (or other silicon anti-foaming agent). This also helps with keeping high krausening yeasts from going super crazy...