I've been using a pretty conventional process on brew day consisting of the Gatorade mash tun, a couple of big kettles, and a propane burner. I've recently treated myself to the Brewzilla in hopes of shortening up my brew days. After one brew day, I'm pretty comfortable with the process but am...

I have 5 gal of German Helles currently fermenting. It has been in the low to mid 50's for about 2 weeks and I am still seeing active fermentation. There is also a full head of krausen. In the past, the krausen has dropped by now and I can warm up the fermentation a bit. I have had some temp...

I was planning on brewing a batch of Munich Helles a couple of weeks ago but never got around to it. I put the yeast in a starter for about 24 hrs and then cold crashed it. It's been in the beer fridge for about two weeks now, still in with the starter. I feel like it should still be fine to use...

I've been on the hunt for an apricot product to make an Apricot Wheat beer. I've tried the liquid concentrate and am not the biggest fan and I'm not interested in the expensive cans of puree or whole fruit. A member of my local brew club recommended this brand so I thought I'd get some. I...

I'm going to make my first fruit beer and I'm looking for any practical advice. I have a good American Wheat recipe that I've made a number of times. I have used apricot extract in a couple but the flavor just isn't what I'm shooting for. I feel like there's no way to get a subtle flavor from...

I've come across a heck of a deal on some Colombus Cryo hops and am wondering if there is any reason not to use them for bittering. I know they are prized for eliminating vegetal material for later additions but why not on early additions?

This is brewing related but definitely a topic I haven't seen addressed. I got this pump for my camper a couple of years ago but ended up using it for brewing instead. It's just for circulating ice water in my wort chiller. My issue is that it came ready to wire into a 12v system and I've been...

I finally have temp control and a ferm chamber with heat, there is room in the beer fridge to lager, and the basement floor is consistently around 50F. Its finally time to try my hand at lagering. After I named my amber ale after my son, my daughter wanted a brew with her name. It took a while...

I need to whip up a base for my grain mill so I can use it over a 5 gal bucket. Right now I'm milling over an old cooler insert and the dust is a mess. I'm looking for any insight or recommendations on how to make the base. To me it's a simple circle with a square cut out for the mill but I've...

I recently got a big-mouth Fermonster fermenter. I can't say how nice it is to reach inside to clean. I still have glass carboys so fighting with that oversized test tube brush is still a struggle. Along with the fermenter I also got the mesh bag insert that fits nicely in the mouth opening and...

I'm sure I'm going to get a big list of varieties but let me explain what I'm looking for. I've really nailed down the recipe for my house IPA (Elephant Rock IPA) and am looking to add a little to mix it up. My hop schedule for a 5 gallon batch is as follows: Bittering - 1 oz Apollo at 60...

Let me start by saying that temp control for fermentation is on top of the to-do list because I fully expect it to rectify my issues. But in the meantime, I have an IPA that is just chugging along slow and steady. It's 4 gallons of a pretty standard IPA that has been in the carboy for 16 days...

After a couple of batches of 'less than stellar' beer, I've done some thinking about what they had in common and have come down on the topic of harvested yeast. Just like a couple of cleaning and sanitizing threads here lately, I don't think anything I'm sharing is new but it's always good to...

After recently abandoning buckets for fermenting, I'm in the market for a wide mouth fermentor. I see that there are a few varieties to choose from. Decisions on HDPE or PET, spigot or not have to be made. My main reason for wanting the wide mouth is to make dry-hopping easier. My set-up is such...

I'm working on learning all the tools that the recipe builder has and am getting better. One thing that I'm not sure about is the predicted, post-boil gravity that it gives. I've come pretty close to the predicted pre-boil numbers but never the post-boil. I looked through a few of my recipes and...

Well it finally happened. I've been brewing for the duration of 2020 with at least 6 - 8 good batches under my belt and this last one, ugh... I first got worried when I went to dryhop it and I got a whiff of the most astringent, boozy smell it burned my nostrils. I decided to save the hops and...

This is one topic that has been much too mysterious to me since starting to brew 10 months ago. I understand that different commercial packages have estimated numbers of yeast cells and that you can closely estimate how a starter increases that number. I've also come to find that buying a new...

I was shopping for some Munich 10 but my LHBS didn't have any. There was a variety of other Munich malts so I grabbed the one pictured. My basic understanding of Munich is simply the 10 20 and 30 , or light, medium, and dark varieties. Since I was looking for Munich 10 or light Munich, I grabbed...

Well, the title says it all. I'm looking brew a small, experimental batch and I'm wondering if it's prudent to use this big 10-gallon igloo cooler mash tun. The grain bill is around 7 lbs so @ 1.5 qt/lb, that's about 2.5 gal of strike water. I was reading somewhere about the height/volume of...

I've got a little digital, dissecting microscope that my kids and I love to play around with. The first and third shots are probably around 100-150x magnification and the middle one is closer to 250x. Does anyone know if looking at hops under magnification like this gives any clues to...