Recent content by nate191

I think vanilla porters are one of the best homebrews to do. Commercial versions usually use only extract, or are underwhelming. Personally, i like a robust porter that leaves no hint of sobriety after a few pints, but i'm guessing your going for something a bit more sweet? I would add a few...

The flocculation of hefeweizen yeasts tends to be very very very slow, so i would guess you should be the least concerned with bottle conditioning issues with this brew than others.

I use a probe thermometer. Bed, bath and beyond sells a pretty good cheep digital. Just make sure you tape it into a ziplock bag or something to keep moisture out. They are resistant, but high temperature moisture skewed my readings permanently with my first one. Stay away from the beyond section.

I always end up with plain tasting wheat beers when they are "Green". In my experiance wheat beers need at least a month or so of conditioning to develop flavor and body. The carbonation will add to what your expecting as well. You wouldn't have to ask if you had oxidation issues, its quite...

can't think of what your LHBS could have done to wreck your efficiency up. any adjuncts? BIAB? batch sparge? If the IBUs were not to your liking I would bottle it, maybe wax the cap and forget about it until next year... could turn out amazing.

friends don't let friends make mead without a nutrient schedule! Its a MUST!:cross: If you do have a nutrient schedule you might want to try lalvin k1-v1116. It works like a charm to get a difficult fermentation really rollin.

Glad to hear your brewing ESB! When I have friends who want to start brewing I usually don't recommend BIAB. In my experience its difficult to nail mash temp with BIAB and with the high water to grain ratio its easy to have a lot of dextrin in your finished beer. The dextrin levels could be...

I had a similar experience with Wyeast Munich Lager 2308. was unable to control my temps and the stress must have slowed the fermentation considerably to the point that i thought primary was finished. harvested and noticed a similar thick krausen with the harvested yeast. any action from the...

12-18 $ for 5gal at my local airgas but I trade homebrew for co2!

You shouldn't have much difficulty adding sterilized water to your fermenter as far as the yeast is concerned. Personally i would take the loss rather then water it down. you can use this calculator to find out what the added water will do to your SG...

I have noticed that using a muslin bag when dry hopping almost guarantees i will get a lacto infection. Besides not doing a secondary, I also have a small fleet of cony kegs that I have ready to take any infected brews. First sign of an infection and I rack it keg and hit it with gas and leave...

If that boob could talk...

I know your frustration all too well but from what I have read contaminations this persistent are rare. I have dealt with my contamination problems in several ways. First I always keep head space to a minimum, and I do not even consider a secondary unless I'm filling a carboy to the neck or I'm...