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A few months ago, I left some odds and ends in my bottling bucket, which I had filled with water and PBW or Oxyclean, I can't remember which. It had tubing, a blow-off rig with tubing, my auto-siphon, a starter flask, that sort of thing, plus the foam stopper for the flask. Today I was finally...

A friend and I are going to make a 10-gallon batch. Can I make a big enough starter for our big batch using a 2 L flask? How? Thanks!

I am moving up from a 4 gallon pot to an 8 gallon, so can do all-grain now. But I need a lauer tun. Can I turn my 4-gallon pot into a lauter tun? Details? Thanks!

I decided to add some more concentrated wort to my fermenting batch on day 2 to raise the ABV a little after missing the OG mark with my partial mash. Yeast is WL 570, and fermentation had chugged along the first day, then dropped off so that it was barely noticeable. I put a drop of olive oil...

Here comes a crazy newbie question--but I'm asking in case it's, you know, crazy like a fox. (Doubtful.) I got terrible efficiency with my partial mash brew yesterday, which I didn't realize until I pitched the yeast and then remembered to take my hydrometer reading. It was supposed to be 1.058...

I now have a nice big kettle, so can boil the full amount of water I need for a recipe. If I'm making a 5 gallon batch, how much water should I start with? The friend who gave me the pot marked it at 6.5 gallons; is that a standard starting quantity? I am planning to do a partial mash instead...

My fiancee has stemless dried hops ready to make boutonnieres. Now, how is it done? Any videos or even written instructions that you know of? I can also supply hop cones if the dried ones bite the dust. In that case, do I need to dry them or otherwise prep them? Thanks much!

My third brew was fully carbonated (with priming sugar solution) and conditioned in an keg that I hadn't yet refrigerated. I decided I needed that keg for batch #4, which I think is going to be better. I moved batch #3 from the keg into bottles using the "we don't need no stinking beer gun"...

I found the shards of a bottle bomb this a.m. among my Petite Saison bottles. I had bottled them 5 1/2 weeks ago. I am pretty sure the problem is that the sugar/honey priming mixture I made stayed at the bottom of the bottling bucket I didn't stir it, and instead depended on the swirling motion...

Some friends will help me brew tomorrow, and I'd like to prepare the partial mash before they get there. Can I do it the day before or the morning of brewing in the afternoon? If so, what's the best way to keep the mash for the hours before the boil? Fridge? Thanks!

Newbie here, brewing with extract or partial mash. I have a recipe that includes Munton's light malt syrup. Is that any good? I usually get LME from Northern Brewer or Midwest Supplies, and that's been good. Will this be even better or a step down? Thanks!

Newbie here, getting ready for my fourth batch. I have about 2 1/2 to 3 months to get some special home brew ready for an event. I'm wondering how much time it would take for me to get a batch of Duvel clone or Ommegang Hennepin clone ready to bottle, bottle conditioned, and then chilled...

Prepare yourself for a very basic question, please. I'm getting ready to make batch #4. I aerate my chilled wort by whisking it (and the water addition), pouring it back and forth between brew pot and primary bucket, and swinging and shaking the primary bucket. My question is about a sanitizing...

My first batch was Midwest's Noble Trappist, and I loved it. For my fourth, I'd like to repeat it, but maybe do it as a partial mash. (This would be my second partial mash.) Is there some formula for converting a recipe from extract to partial mash? Here are the ingredients: 6 lb. Pilsen...

I did my first partial mash tonight, and that part (the partial mashing) went very well. Pitching the yeast was another story. My Wyeast 1214 pack didn't seem to be inflating as much as the smackpacks I had used for my first and second batch, but I thought, well, maybe it's just because it's a...

Occasionally I see a recommendation that people use a heating pad to heat up the primary fermenter. I'm brewing today and would like to put the brewing bucket in the basement, where it's a bit chilly today, probably in the 50s. Do I just wrap the heating pad around the bucket, or what's the...

Confession: I'm a new brewer, but I think this question belongs here. My apologies in advance if I am in the wrong forum. Here goes: I'm getting ready to brew a clone of Brooklyn Sorachi Ace using the extract recipe from BYO magazine, Dec. 2011; I'll paste the recipe below. The recipe doesn't...

I actually have several questions about my brew #3, starting with this: Is it possible to use too much grain for steeping in an extract recipe? I'm going to make an extract clone of Brooklyn Brewery's Sorachi Ace, but was thinking of mixing up the steeping grain bill a bit after looking...

Newbie here, about to brew my third batch with extract. I add cold water to the boiled wort since I don't yet have a pot big enough for a full boil. The first time I used bagged ice to top up the wort, and the second time I prepared my own cold water to add to the wort. To prepare the cold...

I have a Northern Brewer Petite Saison that has been in secondary for almost a week. OG was 1.041; FG when I moved it to secondary was 1.002. It may have changed over the last few days, but I was a bit underwhelmed when I racked it and tasted a sample. Could I raise the ABV and give it a more...