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I've done a couple of beers that were 100% oak smoked wheat malt (well, and a good helping of rice hulls). Neither of them got stuck, but the sparging was a little slow going. As for the beers, I enjoyed them both!

I wouldn’t worry about it. probably just enough krausen rose up so that a bit got blown out the airlock. Much better than checking on it and finding your fermentation was so vigorous it plugged the airlock, blew it off, and covered the entire inside of your fermentation chamber... because let me...

Well it came a week ago, but finally got my 10g Anvil Foundry. Was really fun to brew on it, even though it looks like I’m going to need to adjust my numbers on some things.

Yeah, bits of grain will get through those bags, not a lot, but seeing that in a fermenter will happen from time to time. It won’t do anything to your beer, and probably won’t see any of it make its way to the bottles.

I’d guess it was little bits of grain that got through (assuming you’re doing a partial mash or all grain.. or one of those kits that comes with a handful of grain and a small sack). I mean it just looks more grain-like to me than hop bit, though I could be wrong. But I’m pretty sure it’s not...

yeah, more than I need, but I like having it on hand. I do a lot of dark English milds and porters and always use a good amount in those. Plan on also using some in an espresso stout I plan on brewing soon... need something to get the day going in the age of the plague.

Had plenty of base grain on hand after a club group buy, but some specialty malts were lacking. Today a package arrived with 5 lbs flaked corn, 5 lbs Simpson’s golden naked oats, 5 lbs crystal 150, 5 lbs brown malt, and a couple pounds of Black Prinz malt. Also a pack of S04 and S05, and a pack...

Seems a sensible route to me. While I’ve never done the brew in a bag, lots of people swear by it, and I’ve had plenty of good beers brewed by folks who use that method. It’s not the equipment, but the brewer! But anyway, going that route leaves you plenty of options and allows for future expansion.

I absolutely agree with this. I used to use Accuflex, but got rather tired of its more ridged nature... I also always had trouble taking it off when I was replacing lines. So I switched to the EVA barrier about a year or so ago and it has been much better. Easier to coil or move it so that it’s...

Basically everyone noted why I’d go with the Anvil already. I also talked to the guys from Anvil at the last HomebrewCon and they kind of won me over. It just seemed the best option that fit within my budget. Waiting a month or two to get it was the only thing that did make me waffle a bit, but...

I wish that was enough to get places licenses pulled. As for my taps, yeah, I have a bottle of sanitizer by them and I’ll spray them out and wipe them down after I’ve poured my last pint of the evening.

Nah, all the lines are in the freezer so stay chilled, and I’ve never had an issue with anything bad coming out. I mean it’s not weeks passing between pouring beers from them or anything, but sometimes a few days pass where I haven’t pulled anything from the taps. A lot of the bars I’ve known...

I clean mine every time I change the keg that is in that line. Okay, I’ll be honest, on occasion when I switch a keg I get lazy and just run water through it to flush it out. But I do try to actually run some cleaner and then sanitizer through a line anytime I change the keg. Every few changes I...

I get some yellow jackets that buzz around in the summer, but fortunately never had any give me real trouble (other than occasionally fishing one out of the wort). But the frozen hoses thing, ugh, yeah that sucks. Pretty much halted my brewing from December to February. Plus cleaning up when...

Good call. When I do take it from the fermenter there is always a little beer left over in the bottom, and I’d use the distilled water to just help make sure I could get it all in suspension so I can get it all out, but yeah, I should probably just leave a touch more beer in the bottom instead...

Personally I never mind the waiting as for me the brewday is a chance to have some quiet time and futz around in the garage. More important than ever for my sanity as I’m having to homeschool my kids for the foreseeable future.

I’ve messed around with different ways of doing this in the past partly just to try it, and partly being a cheapskate. The first method I tried was to make a batch of beer as normal, then after racking the beer, taking that yeast slurry with some distilled, swirling it up and then transferring...

Maybe something like Great Western Pale ale malt (I think Briess has one called pale ale malt or something very similar). They are kilned slightly differently than the standard two row and might have a little more of that toasty/bready character. I’ve never tried the pale ale malts so can’t...

it’s not so forward a flavor that I think it’s going to compete with a very hop forward beer, but if you were aiming something where the beer was about the hops and nothin but the hops I’d tend towards things like an American 2 row that tends towards a more “neutral” malt flavor.

It’s a base malt (Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter) I use in pretty much any ale I brew. Just the other day I did a SMaSH beer with it, featuring the HBC-692 hop. Even in my hoppy beers I generally prefer at least a bit of a malt backbone. Though a good majority of my brewing skews towards English...