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Cool! Thanks for the heads up on the tubing, hadn't even thought about it becoming brittle. Cheers from Milwaukee!

Getting back into brewing after taking a few years off from the hobby. 1. How long can I use the same old bottle of Starsan (unmixed)? Would the bottle I bought in 2012 still be, erm, potent? 2. I'm about to brew on equipment that's been in a basement for 2 years, so I'm going to clean...

Sorry for not responding earlier, but someone bumping the thread gave me an email reminder. I am happy to report the awful sulfur/sewage aroma that accompanied the red was totally gone inside 3 weeks. It was by far my best beer to date (granted, it's the only recipe I have repeated). Since...

I realized with horror that if I keep up at my current pace I'd be up for 180 gallons in 2012, creeping up on the legal limit of 100 gallons per person per household. Only IT'S ALL ME. :drunk: Awesome.

I really doubt the bag makes a difference as I've made a lot of successful IPAs with great aroma using a bag. Also getting loose, soggy whole hops out of a carboy is a PITA :D

I'm not sure how you would heat up enough sparge water or where you would put the hot mash wort while you were using the mash/boil kettle for sparging. Really there's no way a large economy pot costs more than 2-3 all grain batches so why not just save yourself the work? Order it from Northern...

DON'T FEAR THE FOAM! Seriously, Five Star should trademark this and put it right on the bottle.

I am hearing a lot of people talking about trouble carbing this one up in bottles. I am surprsied. I've done a lot of 7-8% ABV brews and have never had trouble getting bottles carbed. By this recipe if you got the OG they shot for (1.087) and a reasonable FG (I got 1.017) then you end up in the...

Hey, I'm in Shorewood just south of Capitol... you should give them to me and I'll test them, let you know if they're worth drinking. :D No seriously, they're probably fine. What do the "chunks" look like?

I think the answer you're looking for is yes--start kegging. If you try using a drilled bucket or something, most of the CO2 will just gas off and you'll have flat beer.

Uhh... I'm a little confused. Is this a nutritional yeast marketed as "brewers yeast?" Yeast nutrient should not be expensive. Moreover, I think most homebrewers agree that great beer can be made without any yeast nutrient.

So last week I allowed SWMBO to brew an irish red "on her own." I did the recipe, mashing, and advisory work, and she was very proud. We fermented it on Notty, which kicked off within 6 hours and fermented at a very reasonable 68F. Last night I took a sample and found it was down from 1.058 to...

Update: 72% efficiency, hit my estimated OG EXACTLY :mug:

I mix up some Starsan, squirt into each bottle and dump right before filling. No rinse necessary and no bottling problems. Of course, if you really wanna be quick, you gotta keg. :D That said with one helper I can bottle a 5G batch in around an hour, provided my bottles are already clean.

Just wanted to say DB, I used this method for the first time this morning doing a small partial mash and got a nice efficiency--probably close to 70%, I'll know to a higher degree of accuracy at pitching time. It was also lickity-split simple, very clean, and didn't involve any new equipment for...

Food processors don't crush grain, they chop it up. A great amount of the starchy endosperm you want to mash remains inaccessible behind the husks, which are left more or less in tact. If you haven't brewed with this grain yet, I would go at it with a rolling pin in a plastic bag--laborious, but...

You can make beer with perfectly gorgeous heads using the right (reinheitsgebot-compatible) ingredients and good techniques. Who needs additives? Chemically, that molecule is an ester, which means it will almost certainly have an odor.

Wish someone had told me you can't save money by homebrewing. :D

Doh... I have no idea why I haven't made one of these yet. I feel really silly now. Easy IPA brewin' here I come.

Three days is a long time to see no visible signs of fermentation. I would repitch. Was your yeast packet old? Or did you pitch at a high temperature?