I use two, one for primary to secondary, the other for secondary to keg. I just used the latter today. I noted that the beer going in was "smooth", but coming out, it had tiny carbonation bubbles. Oh, well, a 57 day old beer should be finished. Anyway, I run Star-san through the racking tube...

Some years ago, I tried growing hops in buckets. They grew, but did not grow back the next year. This time, they are going in the ground! I picked cascade because they are supposed to be forgiving.

After cleaning and sanitizing bottles, and going to kegging, I swore I would never go back. But was it really that much effort? Maybe nostalgia is picking at me a bit now, but it was easy to share bottles with friends. And it was easy to have many examples of my batches ready to go. And bottles...

You probably want to sanitize the outer part of the valve. If you attach your tube to the valve, turn the valve upside down, and fill the tube with sanitizer, this should be easy. When I used bottles, I used a bottling cane, a tube like a racking cane with a spring valve at the bottom. I just...

Uh, yeah. Thanks for reminding me... Need to clean the brew pot.

Okay, I am going back some decades in time. One of my first brews was a try at an English Ale. I used amber malt extract and fuggles. I really liked it.

Looking at my notes, I turn down the heat just after the hot break (from HI to 7), then add my boil hops and start my 60 minutes. I did not turn up the heat when inserting the chiller and adding the boiling water. Since the chiller is dry at this time, I would not expect a lot of thermal mass in...

Yes, I think the boil over is what is happening. So anytime anything changes, I have to be alert for this.

It acts like a hot break. I do not know the exact meaning of "boil over". The effect does seem to be connected with the temperature going down and then returning to a boil.

I just did another brew this morning. 6 pounds liquid amber extract, 4 pounds sugar (bigger beer), 1 ounce Southern Cross for boil and 1 ounce aroma (planned 5 minutes, actual 7). Just before inserting the chiller, I added maybe half a gallon of boiling make-up water. The top of the boil was...

Yes, I have one handy. I remember some monster hot breaks in the past, but so far recently, they have been mild. But I am not using dark malt now, just amber, light, and wheat (Briess extracts).

Yes. After I turn off the water flow and remove the tubes, I put the chiller into a bucket of PBW. Later, maybe the next day, I take the chiller out of the PBW and give it a good rinse under the shower. Then I put it on my clean work table until next brew. The chiller is stainless steel and I...

I am once again getting back to brewing, and now I have a happy-fun wort chiller :) Yay! Now I am seeing something new. I insert my chiller at ten minutes to end of boil. The wort is not covering the top rings of the chiller, so I add make-up water from a smaller pot of boiling water. And then I...

I have brewed off and on from the 1980's, but mostly off. I did about sixty about ten years ago, and that's when I moved from bottles to kegs. Then I got distracted. Now I am getting back in again. I have always brewed from extract, but did experiment with adjuncts. Right now, I am getting back...