Recent content by commonsense

Thanks guys, should have known starter was the way to go. Never thought of it since I've been avoiding doing it all these years.

Longtime Ale brewer here, finally getting ready to brew some lagers. Started formulating some recipes and noticed they call for 4 vials of yeast as opposed to the typical 2 vials. This would be for a standard German style lager at roughly 1.048 OG. I'm a White Labs user and I always go with 2 or...

Haha yeah, I will certainly offer to help him out and drink it quickly. How long does it take for the oxidation to start shining through? I don't think I've ever had a problem with it. Also, I read where if you bottle carb the beers with sugar the yest will actually eat up the oxygen during...

So I had a friend of mine borrow my auto siphon over this past weekend to bottle his beer as he is a new brewer and doesn't have all of the equipment yet. I assumed he knew how to use it but as we were talking today it turns out he placed the auto siphon in the carboy and just hand pumped the...

Interesting. I wonder how much of that to use though for my 5 gallon batch of homebrew. Surely not the entire 32 oz

Got a wheat fermenting away that I am going to add elderberry to. Made this last year with elderberry puree and it turned out good. However, it seems the interwebs have run dry of elderberry puree somehow. Does anyone know where I can order such a product or if I can use a concentrate or...

3 days after placing back into 70 degree environment I have had no more bombs. I'm chalking this up to a flawed bottle.

Just an update for those interested. Got home from work, opened a beer and it seemed to be fully carbed. Longer than usual sound of gas escaping when I opened the bottle. Immediate head forming in bottle neck, would have overflowed if I didn't pour into a glass. Once in the glass the nice thick...

Thanks for all the ideas guys. Just some notes: I DEFINITELY sanitized thoroughly..... outside of the bottle wand hangs in starsan bucket then I spray it to double sanitize it right before filling. I am a sanitation obsessed spaz! Bottles were also overly sanitized. Bottle bucket was taken...

Yeah I confess I never take multiple readings anymore. Don't wanna risk infection. I've developed a good feel for when activity is done and my FG was actually lower than expected. I did not factor in the extra yeast I pitched though. There is no way this beer is carbed after only 7 days...

Been brewing for many years and never had a bottle explode. Woke up this morning and heard one go off. I'll give the details and hope to get some feedback. So the beer is a hefeweizen. 5 gallon batch. I used my usual online calculator and was shooting for around 3.0 so I place about 5.9...

I just had one bottle explode. So I threw them all in the fridge before I left for work so I don't come home to a huge mess. I won't know if they are carbed until I get home today.

Been brewing for many years and never had a bottle explode. Woke up this morning and heard one go off. I'll give the details and hope to get some feedback. So the beer is a hefeweizen. 5 gallon batch. I used my usual online calculator and was shooting for around 3.0 so I place about 5.9...

The Nut Brown is one of my better recipes. All the recipes you see on my Brewtoad page have been brewed at least twice and I update when I have a better variation of the beer. Do yourself a favor and check out my Van Pelt Pumpkin Ale. The yeast I use is only available in July-August so if you...

Thanks for all the info. I think I will try throwing in a pound or a little more at flameout just to experiment and see what I get. That's part of the fun of brewing. And since I always love reading the bottom of people's posts to see what they have in process here is mine: FV1: London Fogg...