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thanks for the feedback, won't worry about the headspace and will nix the yeast starter for an easy brewday some of my brews are extra tasty (usually the heavier stouts/porters) and others are fine but not as good as the store bought IPAs I love so much not at a point where I feel I have...

realized it has been one calendar year since I last brewed so going to get back to it this weekend with one change bottling and drinking 5 gallons of mediocre homebrew has lost its luster so am planning on decreasing the amount to 3 gallons and see how that works out, have a couple questions...

my last brew was a maris otter SMaSH and I loved it got me thinking I wouldn't mind using it as my base malt but I'm a cheap bastard and would rather direct my limited homebrew funds towards hops does anyone ever split the base malt between 2 Row and maris otter/golden promise (say 6...

just an update, brewed a SMaSH before the Super Bowl, 12# of Maris Otter with Galaxy hops ran the grain through the mill two times, used a grain ratio of 1.75 and stirred like mad during the mash multiple times got my highest ever OG of 1.058 for an efficiency of ~70%, all other batches I...

another question: I plan on making a 1L starter, sitting it on a stir plate for 12-20hours, then pitching the entire thing in a 5+ gallon batch of wort due to the use of the stir plate, will my starter be oxidized and if so will the 5% volume I am adding to the wort effect my final product?

thanks, that homebrewdad calculator looks handy 1 liter of water to 100grams DME is a good target?

all it needs to do is (slowly) get to room temp beforehand? I assume I activate the smack pack right before pitching it to the starter?

about ~10 batches in and want to start preparing yeast starters (since it seems like the thing to do) I have a stir plate, 1" stir bar, 2L erlenmeyer flask, iodophor, foil, DME and the ability to boil water - that is all the equipment I need right? my concerns at looking over the protocol...

appreciate all the advice, here is my take home message: -run the grain through the homebrew store mill two times and not worry about what it is set at -stir the mash like I'm getting paid to do it -increase my water to grain ratio from 1.5 to 1.75 will be interested to see what...

thanks for the feedback I use the mill at the homebrew store which I assume is preset to their liking, there is no downside to running the grain through a second time? if so I will try that I have been taking gravity readings and volume measurements at first runnings, preboil and post boil...

have brewed about +10 all grain batches so far and was hoping for some advice on increasing my mash efficiency if possible I am using a rectangular cooler with a stainless steel braid, after draining the initial mash water I add ~190 degree water, let sit 10 minutes than drain again my...

thanks for the replies RoundKid - only took a prefermentation gravity, will try to collect more data in the future, thanks for the link, looks like I have some reading to do hop hop - may try to break my sparge into two washings, is there any reasoning behind that? I don't check my pH yet...

just brewed my third all grain and need some advice to increase original gravity using a rectangle cooler with stainless steel braid, 3.4 gallons strike water and 5.2 gallons sparge water with 11lbs grain, target OG 1.054 my first two batches were poor, I was trying to fly sparge and I...

good stuff, appreciate all the calculator cheat sheets take home message - switch to batch sparge and climb my way back up to fly sparge last question, when I drain the grainbed the two different times for batch sparging, do I need to worry about drain rate or just open the ball valve completely?

thanks for the replies I was using 1.3qt/lb ratio with 9.25lbs grain so added 3gallons of water to mash, then I used 1.75gallons strike water to bring the temp up to 170 before lautering, unfortunately I couldn't reach that temp so kept adding hot water so used up most of my sparge water before...

howdy, built myself a sweet mash tun using a rectangle cooler and stainless steel braid, have now made two batches and have some issues that I would like some feedback on I am using the two equations from Palmer's "How to Brew" to determine water volumes: Initial Infusion Equation: Strike...

gravity yesterday was 1.018 (72hrs post), things seem to be fine appreciate the advice, sure do like seeing all the bubbling and foaming though

thanks for the advice, I'm only able to compare this batch to the three previous which had robust krausen/bubbling so the take home message is to evaluate fermentation through gravity readings? makes perfect sense it is <72hrs from pitching, should I wait the two weeks and check gravity when...

my first partial mash (fourth overall batch) is demonstrating a weak fermentation brown ale, OG of 1.052, wyeast 1056 (first time using it but the snap pack bag was pretty firm when I pitched it) very small krausen after 24hrs, decent airlock activity which died off by 48hrs, still small...

posted this question in the Beginners forum but thought I should put it here as well: new to brew and am unfamiliar on how yeast behave in the carboy trying to justify my transfer into a secondary carboy after fermentation but lots of folks insist there is no need, that 3 weeks in the...