My water provider's published report doesn't include many of the measurements in the water calculator. Does anyone have a good recommendation for an at-home test kit that can determine those numbers? Thanks

Can StarSan neutralize PBW residue? If there's a touch of PBW left behind left in a vessel, and you fill the vessel with StarSan without rinsing it first, will that be sufficient? I'm trying to decide how panicked I should be because I don't remember if I rinsed between the wash and sanitize...

Let the flames begin. ;) Read a recommendation last night somewhere to use Sweet Mead yeast for Apple Cider as it leaves a bit of sugar and the apple character in tact more than some other yeasts. Last year I used Nottingham, and was initially left with something very much like a delicious...

Every once in a while, I don't know it it's an adjunct I've added or just dumb luck, but occasionally, I get a stuck sparge. Since I often don't mash out, this can mean unintended continued conversion (I effectively ruined a beer this way). The first time this happened, I turned off the valve...

Won Best in Show for my table strength Saison, "Sarah" at the Carolina Quarterly Brew Off last weekend. First major award as a homebrewer, and it made my day. Got some really good feedback on the rest of my beers as well, which was the entire point in entering. Felt I needed to share that...

The description says slow starter and slow fermentation. Judging by my experience with the 1.4L starter I made, no kidding. Took 48 hours when my last starter took half that. Anyone have experience with this strain that can share some notes? I'm not going to get my normal 72 hour turnaround...

I had a leak in my kegerator CO2 system that was coming from the shutoff valve of my regulator. I have one of the 2-headed regulators so I can carb one keg and serve another keg each at their respective pressures. I found the leak to be in what looked like an improbable place - but upon...

Last year I made a saison, bottle conditioned it for three months and was very happy with it. Since then I've upgraded to a kegerator and was wondering how one might keg something typically bottle conditioned. My plan is to just rack to secondary at the appropriate time and then put the vessel...

So, I had an idea. It occurred to me the other day that one could keep a supply of starter wort around in the following manner: mash an amount of base malt. Sparge, lauter and collect runnings. Boil for the greater of 5 minutes or past the hot-break. pour into prepared mason jars, seal up...

Been making 2.5 gallon batches for a while now, but was hoping to make a full 5 gallons and split it for some exbeerimentation. Can I fit 14.5# of grain and requisite amount of water into a 5 gallon cooler mash tun? Obviously, I could try, but if I fail, I'd have a mess and no easy way out...

How does one know how much slurry to use for a given gravity and volume of wort? I've been pretty religious with using dry yeast packets for my brews. Since this is obviously somewhat limiting, branching out into liquid yeast makes sense. The reason I generally don't is because I've gotten...

Did my first decoction last Monday for my Christmas Ale. I actually liked the process, and of course I made some notes for what I could change next time. One of the things I noticed was that I had a really slow sparge (uncharacteristic for my equipment.) I think the slower sparge helped my...

I've got a 4 keg system on a 4-way distributor. I usually keep it set at about 11psi for serving which seems to work well. The system is only four months old, and so I'm just now starting to rotate taps. I had three kegs on originally, and when I added the fourth, the line pressure seemed to...

I haven't made an IPA in nearly a year because they never turn out quite right. After listening to John Kimmich from The Alchemist talk about limiting hop material to reduce vegetal flavors, I'm leaning toward using a small amount of super high alpha at 60 minutes for the bulk of the bittering...

Had some fun putting together a Belgian Golden Strong Ale over the weekend, but now that it's happily bubbling away, I realize that I may be unprepared for the inevitable packaging stage. I want to try for as much authenticity as I can, and from what I can tell, most Trappist ales are...

So I bought brand new kegs. Is it necessary to do a caustic wash? Or can I just start with a StarSan rinse and drive on?

I'm not sure the hop utilization is correct for partial mash recipes, and i suspect it has something to do with not understanding how to tell the recipe calculator what goes in when. Is there a trick to it?

I know there's not a magic pill to homebrew success, but so far I've only had one beer I've felt turned out "right." Most of the beer I make is drinkable (not all, sadly), but I think I formulate a recipe that will taste a certain way, and I'm typically a bit disappointed. I've been brewing...

Does anyone know the fermentation range for Danstar Abbaye? The product info sheet doesn't seem to have it, and the calculator here doesn't have it.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/214758/olivia-s-ii-chocolate-milk-stout I'd like some feedback on this. What I want is a stout with a noticeable chocolate flavor with just enough sweetness from the lactose to balance the bitterness. I would expect some coffee notes from the...