Recent content by marc777

Russian Imperial Stout. I used Omega Labs OYL016 yeast with an 18 hour starter. The fermentation took off like a rocket. I hit gravity numbers and liquid volume numbers right on target. Our beer club, NUBS (North Urban Brewing Society out of Lake County, Il) is having this beer as the beer of...

Any thoughts on a better the top lid gasket? I notice that my gasket (about 6 months and 10 batches old) now partially goes under the lip of the screw-on top lid and probably is a CO2 leak site. I do get bubbling in the huge air lock for the first 24 hour or so of a fermentation and then it's...

Thanks again. The info available from the veterans here is terrific.

Will the CO2 exit easier through an air lock and is that a better procedure? I guess I don't understand what effect, if any, the gas has on the wort in the fermenter, i. e., is it better to get rid of it in the most efficient manner. Thanks again.

New Brewer here. My beer is on day 8 in the fermenter and the bubbles are now one every 2 minutes through the blow off tube. Is it "harder" for CO2 to get through and exit the blow off tube at this stage of fermentation versus through an air lock? Thanks for this great site.

Thanks for the tips.

New brewer here. Do you put the wort chiller into the boil pot with a few minutes left to go on the one hour boil or put it in Star San for a moment and then put it into the boil pot at flame out? Seems like the plastic tubing might melt if it's put into the boiling wort. Thanks.

Does anyone have any good tips or tricks for getting all of the LME out of the plastic bag into the boil pot? I soak it a hot water which loosens it up, but it's still difficult to get it all out.

New brewer with a question. Everything was going perfectly well with my first 5 gallon batch. 17 days in the fermenter, FG was where it should be. Put the sanitized priming bucket under the fermenter, opened the siphon and quietly began to fill it. Looked great until I heard a sucking...

New Brewer here. My first 5 gallons are in the fermenter bubbling happily away. I'm now thinking about the bottling stage. I have a Williams kit. The bottling bucket has an inverted valve much like those described here. Does anyone have any tips/tricks for the Williams rig? Great site for...

New Brewer here. Brewed a 5 gallon Porter yesterday afternoon. By this morning I had a good amount of bubbling in the airlock. Called home about 3 pm (24 hours after pitching) and wife said bubbling out of the airlock. My brew partner son came home and sent me a video of the fermenter...

I'm a complete newbie and brewed my first 5 gallon batch yesterday. I used two sawhorses and a couple of old 2X4s for my stand. WOW, is this what I have to look forward too?? What a beautiful work of art. I've found these forums to be a terrific wealth of knowldege, very glad that you...

Fellas: I certainly didn't intend on getting into a brew ha ha with this question. I do appreciate all the info. The kit directions came from one of the big well known commercial sellers. I did call them and ask this specific question. The response was that their testing showed that the...

I'm new to home brewing and find this site a wealth of information. The brewing books I've seen say to dissolve priming sugar in boiling water before adding the wort. The kit that I have now says stir the pack of included priming sugar into the priming tank with no direction to boil first...

New to this great hobby. Glad to read that you stuck your arm in. My first batch was siphoning so slowly that I took a glass, washed and sanitized it and my hand and dipped the glass into the priming pot and then poured the beer through a funnel and into my bottles to condition. One more...