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I've been wondering this for quite some time and I can't find any discussion on this online. Everyone talks about oxidation and most brewers use PBW or Oxiclean. From what I understand Oxiclean is an oxidizer. So my question is if you don't fully rinse the oxiclean off of your equipment, do you...

Hey folks. I haven't been on here in a couple of years. I got back on just to post about this to see if anyone else has stories about this. I was in the kitchen brewing, and I heard the loudest hiss/white noise sound I've ever heard in my life. I had no idea what was going on. In the other room...

A few years ago, I bottled some imperial stouts and dipped them in wax, made from crayon and glue sticks. Not sure if anyone has tried doing that. I'll say right up front that this isn't the source of the flavor. I think it's one hell of a coincidence... So I did the homemade bottling wax thing...

The sample port on my fermentor is both a blessing and a course, as those who have them probably know. I love taking samples regularly to see how the flavor changes. I have been brewing an extra 1/2 to 1 gal more lately to account for random losses of beer, including my liberal sampling. Well...

I did a forum search and didn't find anything. Does anyone have experience with this tester? This one has a single point calibration at 7.0. The Apera pH60 has a three-point calibration. It's nice that there is only one calibration pH needed, but I imagine the calibration is not as effective...

I decided to try aging sour beers on fruit puree from Vintner's Harvest. Seemed like a great idea, allowing all of the fruit to be exposed to the microbes. The cans come in 48 oz, and this seemed like a decent amount of fruit. (It wasn't really enough, but that's not the really the point of this...

Hello all. I have been using a conical fermentor for a little over a year now. What I have been doing for my beers that undergo two dry hops is the following: First dry hop occurs toward the end of fermentation. I figure, although I am allowing oxygen in when I add the dry hops, there is still...

I recently kegged and force-carbed a couple of sours beers. I am sterilizing (boiling) the hose and ball lock connectors that I used for these sours. I don't fully understand how pressure might allow, or not, microbes from the beer to reach the C02 regulator. Should I be sterilizing the...

I am making an English-style barley wine. Some details: OG 1.119 Mostly UK 2-row Mash at 153 Primary yeast: WLP005 (British Ale Yeast) Secondary: ?? something neutral with slightly higher attenuation I made a 2L starter and oxygenated (pure) twice. Once before pitching and once at about 18...

I've starting making sour beers about a year ago and I have quickly realized that my method is going to be evolving over time as I learn more and more about this type of beer. I have a bunch of carboys (6 or 7) and a lot of kegs (15 or so). I was given the kegs by someone who used them for sour...

I (and a couple of friends) recently did a dry-hopping experiment to see what hops might go with ginger beer. After primary fermentation, we split the beer into seven different 1L canning jars. We added a single hop (0.25 oz) to each of the jars. After 12 days we got together to taste the beer...

I'm really at a loss here. I wanted to brew a big imperial stout. I did an all-grain batch with an OG of 1.100. My intent was to feed it a little bit of sugar at a time toward the end of fermentation to get a running OG of close to 1.130. I'm sure I under-pitched with only two packs of San Diego...

I have a CF10 (14 gal nominal) conical fermentor. I got the chilling coil that sits inside. Originally, I wanted to have a keg inside my small fridge and have the tubes go through the fridge water and into the keg, where the water would always be kept cold. There are now two reasons why I...

Hi all. I have a 1 gallon batch of a saison, to which I added fruit and soured with bottle dregs. It smells absolutely amazing! I'm really excited to drink this one. I don't know if I should bottle condition or force carb. I was going to bottle condition, however, I am considering a couple of...

I haven't really been messing with my sours in the basement. One of the larger batches (about 6 gal in a 6.5 gal carboy) was starter from dregs of a Quetsche Tilquin bottle. The starter smelled amazing, and the first time I took a little whiff from the carboy, it smells really nice like the...

I'm surprised that I could not find a single thread with the word Vichy. Maybe it is typically called something else, but after searching for a specific type of 330 ml bottles, I came across the word Vichy. https://unitedbottles.com/product/vichy-330-ml-bn018 For not reason other than I...

I was motivated to purchase a relatively inexpensive microscope having x1000 magnification so I can start looking at microbes after my brews, to look at microbes of commercial beers, and to perform cell counts. The last couple of batches have given off a strange plasticy smell. Actually, the...

I am looking for a hemocytometer for counting yeast cells. There are inexpensive ones and ridiculously expensive ones. Here is an example of an inexpensive one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Improved-Neubauer-Hemocytometer-Hemacytometer-Blood-Cell-Counting-Chamber/390737198723 Some of the...

Would there be any benefit from harvesting yeast from a bottle of high ABV beer to inoculate high gravity wort? Since the remaining viable yeast, if any, has been "selected" to handle high gravity and high ABV, would building a starter from a beer like Black Tuesday or World Wide Stout make sense?

I got some grains from my LHBS and I didn't know that someone (likely a customer since the employees were unaware) changed the gap so that the grain was crushed sooooo fine. I ended up getting a pound of rice hulls to ensure I didn't get a stuck sparge. Turns out a pound of those take up a lot...