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Finally got around to brewing this last month, tapped a couple weeks ago. Holy crap, this is good beer! Across the board raves, craft beer and bmc drinkers alike! I undershot the mash at around 146, and had a sorta crappy efficiency (1.038 OG), but it fermented (vigorously, spraying through...

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Some great stuff. Want literally every single thing on this list.

Update: In case anyone's still following this, I finally bottled it last night (brewed 2/27, dry hopped in secondary 3/13, bottled 4/2). It took about 36 hours to get going, but I got a good vigorous fermentation in the primary. Had almost a full pint uncarbonated/room temperature last night...

Aerated it a little (got antsy when it hadn't started after 24 hours), but now it's bubbling away. I guess time will tell. I'll have to go by the brew store later this week, so I'll get another vial. I don't want it to attenuate early.

This is fantastic. I might use it as an excuse to vacation in Maine this summer. I'd love to set up a small system and sell only on-site without the hassles of distributing - sounds idyllic. There's even a vacant little corner storefront two blocks from my house I've been eyeing as a future...

Ugh. It's probably even more underpitched than just a single vial, since the vial didn't even empty all the way because it was so foamy. Is it worth re-pitching? It's fairly well aerated, but do you think it's worth opening it to do a better job? Dunking your hands is a good idea. I don't know...

Sort of crappy brew day today. Making a dark IPA - first of all couldn't get a good boil outside on a windy cool Chicago afternoon. Just weakly roiling without a hot break for over an hour. Eventually brought it inside, started a real boil on the stove, hopped appropriately, cooled, etc, etc...

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The most intimidating part of commenting in an online forum is picking a screen name. Glad you like it - I might start using it everywhere.

I'm in Chicago, but I have to throw my work children's holiday party from 12 - 2. Is there anyone who wants to go do the buying? I'd LOVE one of those.

I currently have a batch of fresh hop IPA that's been conditioning for two weeks. I primed with DME for the first time. Opened one last night (couldn't wait), and it had only a tiny whiff of carbonation. I'm hoping the DME just takes a little longer than corn sugar to make the yeast happy, but...

Acetone's not a bad idea i guess. I'll try some stronger ammonia first though. Then maybe xylene.

It doesn't seem like glue residue. It's kind of a dusty salty residue. I was wondering if it could be some kind of ammonia salt that formed after reacting with the glue or something, though it's not all that soluble. I tried soaking them again (in a fairly strong Oxyclean solution), and it...

Hey all- I recently soaked maybe 150 bottles in a dilute ammonia solution to get the labels off, but got sort of busy and let them sit for almost a week. After drying (labels came off great), I noticed that nearly all of them had a deposit of some hazy, powdery stuff on both the inside and...

Thanks, good to finally be on here. How old are your vines? I planted mine two years ago, but this was the first time I really had enough to do anything with. Excited for next year's harvest.

This is what happens when I have a bunch of hops sitting around. Five varieties with a fairly complex hopping schedule (6 additions!), long boil time mostly because of distractions during the process. Bottled this on 1/11/11, so Five to One IPA (ya know, the Doors' song?) California Ale WLP...

Oops, recipes now in production: Historic Gobbler Mild Ale (brewed on Thanksgiving day!) This was easy, at least. Billed as easy drinkin' session English Mild. 5# maris otter 3# pale malt 0.5 black patent 0.25 chocolate 8.75 lbs grain, mash with 3.25 gal water Strike 164 Temp at 60 min...

Longtime lurker, finally registered!