Recent content by thisgoestoeleven

What's a good fermentation temp for ciders? The house itself is pretty warm, but we've also got an unheated back room that hangs out around 55, so I've actually got some modicum of temperature control (whereas our old apartment was tiny and had 3 big west-facing windows, which made the whole...

I got married this summer, and we finally moved into a decent-sized place from our crappy studio, and so we're having Christmas with our families at our place for the first time. I want to have something on tap for it, but between moving, work, etc I haven't had enough time to get my brewing...

I know a bunch of people on HBT make their own tap handles, and I'd like to give it a try. Freshman year of college, my roommate knocked a guitar of mine off the stand, cracking the neck ever so slightly. Over the years, the crack got worse and eventually the neck separated from the body of the...

Doesn't it make your house smell?

Alright, thanks for the tip!

It's a used kettle from a restaurant, do you think I need to do that? I'd imagine that it's held boiling water already.

I picked up a heavy-duty 10 gallon aluminum pot from a garage sale for $15 bucks today. Can't wait to brew with it!

I made a simple Centennial pale ale (recipe here). I live in a very small apartment above a laundromat, which has dryer vents right below our windows. In addition, we've got 3 big windows that get a lot of sunlight. The result of these factors is a much warmer apartment than is conducive to...

I'll try this, thanks! Unfortunately, my schedule is such that I really don't get much time to brew, and so when I have a free Saturday I'll do a batch and leave it until I've got time to deal with it.

I brewed an IPA about a month ago (all of which has been spent in primary), and I'll probably be bottling in a week or two. The bitterness is nice, but after a month in primary there isn't much aroma left. I was thinking of dryhopping for a week or so and then bottling. Would that do that trick...

I've been thinking about this my past couple brew days, and I've found that much of the brewing that goes on isn't done on large-scale, propane-powered, electric-pumped rigs with lots of polished keggles, specialized equipment, etc. Most of the brewing that I've seen done, whether on here...

Okay, so here's the deal: I brew almost exclusively beer (with the occasional cider here and there), but I did a 1gal batch of mead a few months ago. My fiancé and I are getting married in June, and I had a plan to bottle the mead just before the wedding, and open a bottle each year on our...

so I racked it to secondary, I'll leave it for 2 weeks or however long it takes to clear, cold crash a few days, and bottle?

I brewed an IPA last weekend, and fermentation was all done so I got it off the yeast into a secondary this morning. My question is, since I'm not dryhopping or adding any adjuncts, and the secondary would only really be for clarity and time anyway, is there a compelling reason not to cold crash...

Oh yeah, it works great, especially given that I'm doing full-volume all grain in a small apartment kitchen with an electric stove. I'm planning to upgrade my mash tun at some point. I'm using a bottling bucket that I wrapped up in Reflectix foil insulation and lined with mesh paint strainer...