i am planning on brewing a christmas porter next weekend, and so far the hardest part is deciding how much bourbon and wood chips to use in my secondary phase of fermentation. As stated before, sanitization is key because you are introducing new things into the beer. For me with the wood chips...

All of the malts used in there seem to be fairly roasted. My experience with Carafa 3, is only a little is needed. Maybe 1 oz. When reviewing the BJCP guidelines, they refer to the make up of a dunkles style beer to be at least 50% wheat, with the remainder made of of vienna, munich, or pils...

Being in the UK, with the humidity such that it is an island, I would expect the boil off rate to be on the lower side. I would bet that if you were to mash in with 13.2L, and sparge with 6.6L, Your boil start volume would be closer to 19.7L. I would suspect, with these calculations you would...

I'm also brewing 13 litres right now. The recipe looks good. A nice spread of malts and good break down of base and other malts. I also like doing FWH. As for your mash in volume, is that your normal volume? I am normally mashing in at 6-9 L (between 2 and 3 L/Kg), so that seems quite high to me...

I learned this year that the wider the mouth of the kettle, the higher your boil off rate. My new kettle is just about 2 inches narrower than my old kettle. So the volume calculations I had so carefully figured out for that kettle, are gone and out the window!

After discussing this topic with a former professional brewer in town, he said he likes the FWH because of how it is a little more delicate on the hops initially. I've started using this as I feel i get a better extract and I don't have to use high AA hops at 60 minutes to achieve target bitterness.

I was advised that it would drastically affect my boil off rates, so i'm excited to try it out. I'm a little concerned that my hop basket wont reach the wort though. Most of the time i do first wort hops anyways, and very few boil additions. That said, I now have 2 kettles, and 2 coolers. So i'm...

Makes sense. I just ordered a 30L kettle from OBK to replace my current kettle which is 22L...i never knew the diameter of the kettle would play such a significant role. I just thought, i need a massive pot to boil the wort...

Clarifying question, maybe i'm confusing it as well...it sounds as though using other buckets to collect the wort that wouldn't fit in the kettle for the boil. Does this mean that the boil would start with what could safely fit in the kettle, then the remnants would be added to that as room...

As i understand it, you want the pale malt to be around 80%, and fill the rest with other stuff, like the munich, vienna, c-10-c-30 depending on the colour you are going for.

All of these things being said, and without much information on your fermentation control if any, I have had similar issues. When I bought an inkbird, and heater blanket to go along with it, that alone drastically improved my FG. It's not the end all be all, but brewers always say, temp control...

Like some others here, I have one burner I use outside. As I do not have any garage or over head cover, my brewing goes inside during the winter. My setup has 2x5 gallon igloo coolers, and 1 kettle/HLT. I find I only need one kettle as I have the 2 coolers for my sparge water and mash in. That...

I thought a California Common lager yeast was a little higher fermenting temperature? I thought i read that somewhere, but i could be mistaken. You could also do a lagered ale as well. sorry, im a little late to the party on this thread!

Now that I have more experience it works great! While i was gaining experience I struggled to find the perfect mash in ratio. Through some interweb searches, I was able to find approximate boil off rates. So using the approximate boil off rates, I was able to calculate that if I start with...

I made a smoked Hefeweizen this summer which was pretty cool. I kept the recipe and tinkered with it but a rauchbier is one of my favourites. I’m looking forward to trying to make my own! That’s a great idea, to use up that extra malt! I made a wee heavy 2 months ago that same way and it is...

I have a few 8+ ABV batches but most of them are between 5 and 7%. I have a lichtenhainer recipe I’m curious about. A Smoked sour beer sounds very interesting to me! Plus I want to make a Munich rye beer with caraway seeds in it. A brewery outside town here make an experimental hefe this...

They have food grade specific buckets.

Thankfully my wife is pretty supportive of my new hobby...though she reminds me when i come home with beer, that i have a basement full of beer. Craft beer and brewing has some pretty cool articles on "making your own" recipe. I've used those, in partnership with the BJCP guidelines to create...

I've decided to change from proper fermenters to home depot buckets for a few reasons. The biggest is how much easier to break down and clean. It's a simple modification to install a bung hole (hahahaha), and if you want to be really fancy, you can install a drain spigot. Second reason, is they...

Makes sense. I have some TSP but thought it was a pretty strong cleaning agent. What ratio of each do you use?