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I ferment in buckets submerged in a tub of water in my basement. Ambient temperature is 66-68, the tub of water tends to be a few degrees cooler unless I augment with ice. My question is, without a thermowell how can I determine what the actual fermentation temperature is? I understand that...

I tore down and cleaned my 525SS's last night, after assembly I had no leaks but the tap handles move so freely I am afraid they will just fall open. Before the cleaning they seems to have more resistance, not sure if this was just from crud or I reassembled incorrectly somehow. I tried...

Read this great article today Strange Brews: The Genes of Craft Beer and the part that talked about how DRASTICALLY different the same recipe was when simply changing yeast got me thinking I am in a yeast rut. My LHBS does not carry Wyeast products, they do carry White Labs and lots of...

I have been trying to get better with my fermentation temperature control. For my first 5 or 6 batches of ale I simply put the fermenter in the basement where ambient temp is ~68 year round. The results were decent but in the quest for better beer I decided I needed to lower the temperature...

Trying to use up some of the freezer stock this weekend, I have 5oz simcoe, 8oz Columbus and 4 oz Centennial in the fridge - any good recipies come to mind? I can add/augment as required but would like to burn through some of this. I found a pliny recipe that seems within reach but am a...

Not sure if this is the best forum for this but I well. So long story short, I have been making 5 gallon all grain batches for a while and have always kegged. Recently I decided to start taking kegs to parties; to facilitate this I purchased 2 3gallon kegs. I typically wait for my beer to...

I have heard mention and even seen a picture of a keg to keg transfer where both kegs were under pressure, one was simply higher than the other and it caused a siphoning effect to move the beer. I have inferred this to mean that there is no pressure relief burping and would mean little to no...

Are all Corona mills created equal? I see prices all over the board, are there any brands or specific vendors that a home brewer sould deal with?

A local beer spot in my area recently built a brewery. The beer they are producing is decent (nothing magical, but good, clean and very drinkable). I noticed that they are doing 2 things that amaze me: 1) They are turning around beer in just over a week - and its good! How do they do this or...

I left a few feet each of various hoses in a bucket of starsan after cleanup on Sunday. When I retrieved them Tuesday I did not notice anything wrong and just left them on a rack to dry. A day later I went to put them away and discovered they are sticky or gummy as if the starsan (diluted 1oz...

I have searched but could not find an answer. When yeast manufacturers give recommended temp ranges are they talking ambient/room temps or internal fermenter temps? For instance, I plan to pitch Nottingham to or row which has a range of 57° to 70°F. My fermenter is in the basement with a max...

I have had a couple of batches recently not turn out to be quite as good as I expected, others have. Once example is a cream ale that I brewed ~4.5 weeks ago that is just not right, has a sort of tang to it that makes me go "oh no, is it infected!" In reality I suppose it could be someting...

Looking for a food safe / food grade nylon bag for BIAB. None of the hop or grain or wine bags I find at my LHBS or online are large enough (well I found a few but they are very wide mesh). I found a few people in AU that sell premade (one size) bags that are listed as Food Grade but they...

I know it sounds contradictory but I have noticed in my first few beers that the up front bitter hop flavor it very strong but the beer is not really hoppy. I had and old favorite Bear Republic Racer 5 and really noticed how hoppy it was without the upfront bitterness - just very smooth. Is...

I always have heard that there is no need to sanitize the brew kettle because boiling will kill off anything which makes sense. What about when one goes to transfer the cooled word to the fermenter, assuming a kettle that is only partially full the wort will have to pass across a portion of the...

I wanted to order new popets for a keg I have, trying to figure out which type to order when I got really confused. The keg clearly has Cornelius stamped on teh size, but the posts look to be Type A as opposed to Type B - how is this possible? I thought the threads were different, they posts...

Brewed a Citra IPA three weeks ago. Things went well during brewing, no mistakes that I can think of. I had a great fermentation @ 67ish degrees and all visible signs of fermentation finished in 3 days. I waited 4 more days and checked the gravity - it was right on. The beer however tasted...

Are there any companies that produce ball lock kegs in the US any longer? If not do folks seek out Italian made as the next best thing?

Yesterday I attempted a partial mash for the first time, I ended up missing my OG by a mile (target 1.067, actual 1.053). My calculated efficiency was ~30%. My method was not traditional and I am sure was the cause but I dot get exactly why. I started by bringing 1.25 quarts per lb of water...

Went to pour a beer last night and found that the co2 tank was empty. Only one force carb and 2/3 dispense on the fill. All had been well for weeks, then earlier this week I shut off the gas, purged the keg and put the gas real low to fill a few growlers. Once done I dialed back up to 10 and...