Have you worked with those local versions of those hops before? I'm curious how much of Centennial's "Centennial-ness" is tied to being grown in the PNW, as compared to NE (or the mid-Atlantic). It's...

No, the box is deep enough that the shanks have enough room for the beer lines to naturally curl around to the front of the box without bending/kinking. depending on the setup, you could also cut out...

The brewery where I work has built a nifty box (with logos and stuff) that goes over the jockey box that we use at festivals that provide jockey boxes. It's basically three walls and a ceiling, with...

Second on Bru'n Water. It's a great calculator, and has proven to be very consistent in getting me to target pH levels.

But, let's get back to your water. What is it that you don't like about it?...

PM sent...

That's awesome... I'm jealous. When you see my setup, you'll have to promise not to hurt yourself laughing...

Wow, Scotty! Nice early start to the day!

I do like DGB, but unless he's put out a new version, it's probably not as useful from the "here's what's winning" perspective. Not that it's not useful, but his premise, from what I remember, was...

Agreed. Any particular books you'd recommend a beginner/aspiring intermediate? I read the Complete Joy of Homebrewing when I started, and have looked at "How to Brew" online, but most of my books now...

These days, I get most of my grain by the sack, at a local homebrew shop (funnily enough named "MyLHBS"), since it's near my office. I get specialty grains at a place in Leesburg (where I live)...

Honestly, there are two separate questions here: quality, and control.

Moving from extract to all-grain won't guarantee you better quality, but it will give you a higher degree of control....

It's a nice setup over there. The space is probably too big (it makes it look empty), but they've had what I've needed on a few quick trips over there. Plus, they're selling my friend's yeast line...

This guy lives near me. We've got a lot of mutual brewing friends/acquaintances, but I don't know him that well. Fits that "retired engineer homebrewer" profile to a T.
...

Heady Topper clone?

When I hear "Chico yeast" I think of 1056, or WL001 (the Sierra Nevada yeast). Am I missing a new strain?

(I only ask because I think of that yeast as a fairly typical starter yeast, since a lot...

I think you'll be happy with that choice. I'll look forward to hearing the results.

What's in the Pils? Pils malt and Saaz, or more? My latest batch of the Zlaty Rhino at Lost Rhino Brewing Co...

Yeah, I'm not super-keen on the 3-tier aspect of the Blichmann setup, but I've got one of their burners and it's really, really good. They make good stuff. My favorite aspect of going with a...

I just brewed on one last weekend (admittedly, an early version of the system). I wasn't that impressed. A friend of mine built his own setup with some of those controllers, and it's at least as...

Any reason you want to add coffee in the boil? I thought I remembered that it was a bad idea to boil the coffee, for some reason.

I've heard of friends having good luck adding "cold brewed"...

I didn't mean to suggest that brett was bad, or that it was a bad choice. Brett is a great flavor profile, but when I think "sour" (as opposed to "wild"), I think more of the lacto/pedio side of...

I love sour beers, but have to admit that brett beers aren't generally at the top of my list. Are you looking for brett character ("horse blanket"), or are you looking for more of a sour character...

I seem to remember a conversation with a local brewer who told me that he used some crazy amount of pumpkin in his mash only so that he could tell people he'd used a bunch of pumpkin in his mash. ...

I think that the whole notion of secondary, as it relates to relatively low-gravity American/British ales, is related to the use of bright tanks in commercial breweries. Obviously, if you're dosing...

Is it done? There's little point to moving to secondary if you've still got active fermentation going (presuming you're using it mostly to clear the beer or as a dry hop). If your hydrometer...

(a bit of a brag) Tomorrow's going to be a crazy day. I'm meeting with the owner of a local chain of beer-friendly restaurants, who is interested in talking with me about brewing a custom beer (as...

A local brewmaster here told a friend of mine that he puts 100 lbs of fresh pumpkin in each batch of his pumpkin beer. He went on to explain that he does this SOLELY because it makes it easier if he...

Khaki - what temp were you at? Which yeast were you using? Some yeasts really go crazy (the Weihenstephan wheat yeast, for instance, or some of the Belgian yeasts) and if you're not keeping the...

Wow. 2 oz of Summit? My chart shows that as 17.5%-19.5% AA. That's a *lot* of hop.

I might suggest something closer to 1 oz of summit at 60, 1.25 Chinook at 30, and 2 oz of cascade at flameout....

well, without knowing what hop you're looking at, it's hard to recommend how much you should use. Do you have a preference between high alpha hops and lower alpha hops? Using a high alpha hop, you...

Basically, specialty grains have little or no diastatic power, meaning they can't convert starches to sugars. So, the only sugars you get out of them when steeping are the ones that are already...

I know you said that you're using the ingredients because you have them on hand, but I'd think about going with all light extract (DME or LME), and adding color/flavor with specialty grains, like...

I've only used oak chips once, and that was ~10 years ago when the Brewer's Best IPA kit included them (might have been Brewer's Gold - it's whatever homebrew kit they sold at the health food store...

I'm jealous. I'd love a tiered system like that. Did you build it yourself?

I've got 10 gal of O'fest fermenting downstairs, but when I can clear those fermenters, I'm doing a more-or-less-clone...

I brewed a basic dubbel-sort-of-thing recently that was also fairly close to a base recipe for a Flanders brown. It's now sitting in an Elderberry wine barrel, where it'll be for the next 1.5-2...

I went ahead and did it. The brew shop's owner was selling his old one (used 4-5 times before he bought a bigger setup), and sold it, with the legs, for about what it would've cost without them. ...

Ah, Charlie Papazian. I lent my copy to someone years ago and haven't seen it since. Hopefully, he's paying it forward. The "soup" analogy is a good one.



To achieve this, I'd say the most...

I'm trying to justify one of these:

http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/product_images/r/floor_standing_burner__63331_zoom.jpg

It's not inexpensive:...

Using 1056 (the "Chico"/SN straing) or a similar yeast?

Yeah, when I lived in an apartment, I used to have an electric burner, and it was MISERABLE. I've got a propane burner now that I use on my...

Careful, it's an addiction! What's your first attempt? Extract? Mine was a red ale, and I don't even like red ale (but I was swayed by the fact that the brochure said "there is no...

Near Leesburg. Find it, drink your fill!

15 gallons of festbier (maerzen), 10 of koelsch, 10 hefeweizen, 10 schwarzbier, 10 helles, and 10 IPA (for the hophead contingent). Been brewing since...

Just brewed a Blind Pig clone (10 gal, but this recipe's for 5). Didn't oak it, but it's still delicious.

Just part of the 65 gallons I'm serving at my Oktoberfest/wedding reception in 4 days. ...

Got a yeast starter in the fridge for 10 gallons of Maerzen (ok, a little late) for my big O'fest party in September. It will be followed by 10 gallons of helles or pils, 10 gallons of hefeweizen,...

+1 for Star San.

I never used One-Step, but I haven't heard anything bad about it (most of my friends use Star San, too, but used other stuff early on). I also don't think it's officially...