Recent content by Witbier

Find a recipe for a good barley wine. That will get the alcohol up there :D

Would that translate to "end of the world?" I've never heard of it. Got to agree with Janx... that recipe does sound interesting. Is the original more like a wheat beer? You might want to increase the wheat extract and decrease the barley if maltiness is a problem.

What size is the conical Roger? Have you had a chance to use it. It looks like they greatly simplify that part of the brewing process.

I actually add an intermediate racking. When I'm down to about 10 or 12 bubbles a minute in the primary airlock, I rack to an intermediate carboy and let the primary fermentation finish. After that I rack to the "final secondary" and use the intermediate carboy for the new batch. What is...

Can you ever have too many carboys? :D I have several 1 gallon glass apple juice jugs, 3 3 gallon carboys, several 5's, 6's and 6 1/2's. I've picked them up over the years so now I can handle just about any odd sized batch.

I always cover my carboys with an old shirt or something. Don't want to take the chance.

This is the first fall I've missed in a few years. But I usually buy grapes from one of the local home brew shops. They're shipped out from California to a market in Boston. I've had my best luck with reds but have done a couple of whites from juice that came out pretty nicely. What are you...

I like to time a batch for kegging right as I'm emptying one of the Corny's I use. I pop the cover, clean it, and rack right into the keg without having to sanitize it. The keg's cool from being in the beer fridge and filled with CO2. I thoroughly clean the draw hose and tap though.

Ditto that. I've done this a few times myself and never noticed any off flavors. I have read though that you don't want to do this more than 4 or 5 times because the yeast mutates and its characteristics change.

I found this site by doing a google search on "home brew forum." It came up at the top of the list.

I had a blow off tube get clogged on me once. It blew out the stopper and left a nice brown circle on the white textured ceiling and a little river of brown ale running across the floor :D I had used leaf hops and hadn't strained them all out. Enough of them found their way to the hole in...

I've had a couple of yeast starters go bad. They had a odors that left no doubt that they had gone bad... very foul smell. As long as your batch smells ok, 99.9% chance it is.

Are they about a half inch high or so, open on one end with the other end being shaped like a cone? It sounds like the gizmo you push onto the end of your racking kane to keep sediment from being racked with the beer.

I'm guessing it was a coincidence. Not a dietician nor do I play one on t.v., but I think any fiber in the barley stays with the grain and doesn't get transfered to the beer? Anyone know for sure?

I've never done an Imperial... but I guess it goes without saying that you'd be using a blow off tube instead of an air lock for the primary fermentation ;) Sounds like fun... let us know what the primary is like?