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Suds on the shore beer festival here in Michigan this past sat. The first brew I tasted was one of the best I have ever had. It was a honey rye beer. Being a bee keeper I rounded up the local Micro brewery Brew Master and had him try it. He was very impressed and had the other members of his crew try it. This will be another outlet for my honey and I cant wait to see if he can make something close
I can get the fruit from two hop plants, but the variety is unknown. I don’t know that I want to go through the trouble of harvesting them, if they’re ones I don’t like to use. Should I be able to tell from smelling them on the vine, whether they’re citrus/NW, English, noble, etc.? They’re not free but they’re cheap. Is there some way to tell what kind of hops these are?
10 gallons of Orange Cherry Hefe (modified version of the Blood Orange Hefe) everyone seems to love this stuff and I usually get the comment “Wow, you should really sell this stuff” when someone drinks it for the first time 
Anyway, first brew on my new brew sculpture. It’s a bit crude at this point.. I have a control pad, but nothing is hooked up to it. My pump isn’t hooked up but I’m only doing extract for this so I don’t really care… I have dreams
Sounds cool. Can’t wait to see ‘em…
I need to update my burner, Does anyone know if I can use the the banjo burner above and mount it in my old Banjo cooker without any modification to either?
This is a pic of my burner.
The burner is just attached with one bolt directly under the center of the burner unit.
Looking for a recipe for Heart of Darkness any one know of one that is close or right on?
I have had a stainless fermenter for a couple of years and this is the first time that I have noticed a white film on the inside of it. It just looks like fog adhered to the walls. It is very stubborn. I tried getting it off with a PBW soak which usually cleans the heck out of everything. Is there a cleaner that i should have on hand for this type of stuff. I recently moved so the water may be causing it.
I’m brewing today so I hope it doesn’t mess up my beer. I think I try to attack it with a scotch pad as I brew and see if I can get it off. Aside form that I’ll just hope that a good soaking with starsan will do the trick.
Thanks
Zac
Posted: by HopNuggets (22 hours ago)
Posted: by BZero007 (1 day ago)
Posted: by StoutsMcgee (11 hours ago)
so i got my kegerator kit in last Friday and got it all set up and i even got the the fridge painted. i think it looks nice for what i will use it for, but my frustration is i saw no leaks when i set it up but i came out and checked on it a few days later and i was down to 400 lbs as appose to the 900 my 20lb tank had when i started. i re-checked everything and only saw a small leak on one of the tanks but that was only after i depressurized it and re-pressurized it. so i reset the seal and no leak again.. one faucet seems to be a bit finicky but it does turn off. now i have everything pressurized and separated hoping i will see what depressurizes first. what should i be looking at first?
Edit: went out an checked the gauges and the high pressuer gauge now says 700 lbs and the low pressure is holding steady for the last few hours.
I will recheck in the morning
As a tradesman and an Engineer I put a lot of stock in experience. I look to my peers a lot for guidance when I know that I need it. I have come to this forum quite often and found only the best of advice. My experience this weekend (brewed 2 beers) reminded me of something that I thought I would share:
Trust the Wyeast Smack Pack - even if the damn thing doesn’t inflate.
I love using both White Labs and Wyeast for my liquid yeast. Both have been great. I have mostly used White Labs simply because on my first use of Wyeast I did not get the bag to inflate. I buy a lot of kits because I am always learning and a good majority come with Wyeast. Of all the smack packs I have used (many) I have only ever gotten 1 to fully inflate. ALL have performed awesome. I do make sure to aerate the wort well (I use pure oxygen) so that I am giving it the best shot possible.
So, for everyone that may be fearful of using Wyeast because it doesn’t inflate (like I was), trust that even if it doesn’t you are still getting a great product. Follow your procedure and make the wort a great environment (temp and O2) and it will not fail. I had massive blow over today, from a pack that didn’t inflate…
Similar experiences?
Hello everyone, I had a question about the math involved in conditioning my beer. I asked many forums and never found a satisfactory answer. So, I found out on my own and posted it on my website if anyone is interested.
Hello-
I am going to try to brew a pumpkin oktoberfest this week (extract recipe). I have a couple questions about my pumpkin though. First, can I use a regular pumpkin or should it be a pie pumpkin? Do I put the shell in as well or do i have to dig around the shell? And lastly, should I bake the pumpkin first (the recipe adds the pumpkin at the start of the boil and about halfway through)?
Thanks
Huzzah! Once again, Byggvirs Big Beer Cup will at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival with judging on September 11th-12th.
Got that special historic beer recipe that you have been meaning to try out? We are accepting entries for historic beers, as well as other styles (including mead and ciders) appropriate for the time period. Entries accepted through Saturday, September 4th. Drop off/mailing locations at Midwest Supplies, Northern Brewer, and Still H2O in Minnesota.
Last year, we had over 150 entries, with pairs of hand-made drinking vessels, gift certificates, and other prizes given out for Best of Show, as well as First and Second Runner-Up.
We are also looking for judges or stewards of all skill levels to help at the contest, which will be on site and you get into the Renaissance Festival for free the day you help out.
For more information about the contest, including a list of accepted brewing styles, entry information, and judge/steward sign-up, check out our website: www.rennfestbeercup.com.
We hope to see you there dont forget your codpiece.
Gera Exire LaTour (aka crankycat)
Organizer, Byggvir’s Big Beer Cup
Minnesota Renaissance Festival
Posted: by Dcv (14 hours ago)
The latest brewday conversation led to a discussion about whether you can ferment a lager in the kegerator. Size limitations would make it much better if the fermenter could be a Corny. I found a keg lid that’s made for fermenting. It has an airlock attached.
Have any of you used this for fermentations? What’s the maximum volume you can use? I’d imagine you can’t ferment 5 gallons of lager in a Corny without clogging up the airlock.
The Underground Brewers of Connecticut will host the 2010 Southern New England Regional Homebrew Competition (SNERHC 2010) on October 3. This is a BJCP-sanctioned event accepting beer, mead, and cider in all BJCP categories. Points count toward the New England Homebrewer of the Year award.
Complete information, official rules, on-line entry forms, and on-line registration for judges and stewards can all be found at http://www.undergroundbrewers.org.
Posted: by brewdoc75 (22 hours ago)
I’ve heard multiple times that when dry hopping there is no need to worry about bacteria from the hops and that you can just pitch them in to the secondary as needed. Is this true and if so, why? It would seem that there would be all kinds of potential bacteria on them.
My guess is because by the time you dry hop, fermentation is effectively over and that there is not enough healthy yeast to “interact” with the bacteria.
If this is true, how about finishing hops? If you are using whole hops, I assume you need to jsut pitch them in during the last 10 minutes of the biol or so which would kill any bacteria.
Thanks
Hey everyone,
i have heard of barber shop businesses that offer free champagne with their haircut services. legal in Ca? they are technically not selling it. now what if it was Homebrew? is there a loop hole? does anyone have any info on this subject?
thanks.
My wife accidentally unplugged my beer storage locker (a 18 cu.ft. chest freezer) from my Johnson controller and plugged it back into the outlet bypassing the controller! Now, three days later, I go to get a fresh keg only to find out that I have beersickles instead. I also had a variety of bottles for guests that are all frozen as well.
What are my options? I am more concerned about the bottles as I do not want to serve anyone a flat beer. I am assuming that when the kegs thaw I can just re-check for CO2 and re-pressurize if needed….or am I wrong.
This has never happened to me before and I’m hoping someone has had the experience and can share their solution.
This weekend I was able to bottle up 6 separate Mr. Beer recipes in just under 7 hours, including kitchen cleanup! I bottled up 2 gallons each of the following recipes:
Father’s Day Cream Ale, Classic American Blonde Ale w/Pale Export, West Coast Pale Ale w/Pale Export, High Country Canadian Draft w/Pale Export, Cowboy Golden Lager w/Pale Export and last but not least one of my favorites Whispering Wheat Weizenbier w/Golden Wheat.
This time I also used my new Bottle Priming Calculator to determine the correct amounts of priming sugar to use for each different style of beer. I no longer followed the default priming sugar amount recommended by Mr. Beer’s instructions. I targeted 2.5 volumes for the Pale Ales and 3.6 volumes for the Weizenbier.
Posted: by UnDeadly (21 hours ago)
I made a starter Friday, planning on brewing yesterday or today (1 to 2 days later)
I’ll not be able to brew until Tuesday.
Should I feed my starter some more wort before Tuesday?
Would another 1/2 cup or 2 oz. be enough? (mixed into boiled & cooled water of course)
Should I pour 1/2 of the current starter out to make room for the addition of 2 more cups of wort?
thank you for any answers
I already have a CPVC manifold for my 72qt Coleman Xtreme 5 day cooler.(Roller Cooler)
I want to try a perforated stainless false bottom.
I asume no one makes these so I will probably have to fabricate this myself.
www.onlinemetals.com has small pieces of perforated stainless for sale which gives me a good place to start.
I am looking for tips from someone else who has already done this.
The bottom of this particular cooler is a little odd shaped due to the recessed wheel wells.
Posted: by WilliamLee (17 minutes ago)
Posted: by alcurtsinger (13 hours ago)
Posted: by ocelot2500 (18 hours ago)
After force carbonating a keg to the desired (12 PSI @ 40F for a 2.47) level, I serve at 2-3 PSI, which means I purge off the 12 PSI, dispense, then I go back to the 12 PSI. I feel like I’m wasting a lot of gas, especially when the keg gets down to about 1/2 or lower.
How long will I maintain my desired carb level (at 40F) if I leave the pressure at 3PSI? Does anyone have a better method? Ideas, suggestions, recommendations?
