BeerTools Discussion Forum

Would a lager yeast even ferment @70 degress? I have never tried doing a lager as I don't have a fridge that I can dedicate to that task. Who knows what they included with the can. All I know is next time I am going to use liquid yeast and even make a starter with that. White Labs claims their vials...

I have no clue as to what kind or brand of yeast I used. All i know is that it came with the German amber malt extract that I bought. I proofed the yeast and it seemed to be ok, but who knows, maybe it was just feable yeast. Lesson learned. Next time I think I will simply add the yeast that comes wi...

I don't remember where i got this recipe from but this should be pretty close to what you are looking for. I haven't tried it yet myself, but is definalty one that I plan on trying in the near future.


8 oz. caramel malt, 30

This weekend I finally had some time to attend to the homebrew. I thought i should take a reading before i did any thing, just to make sure, and low and behold the S.G. went from 1.050 to F.G of 1.017 The weird thing about it is the fact that i didn't see a bunch of left over krausen on the sides an...

I guess it's time to make another trip to the brew shop then. I remember seeing some kind of rig using a small bottle of oxygen and a stainless airstone (i think). I thought to my self what a waste of money, i'll never buy something like that. Guess that's what happens when you say things like that....

The way i sanatize the bucket, spigot, etc is by soaking the whole lot in water that is mixed with the ratio of 1 gallon of water to 1 tbs bleach. I let everything soak about 45 min to 1 hr, and then rinse. The yeast i initally tried to use came with the cans of extract, which is why i rehydrated an...

I just cooked up a batch up Oktoberfest over the weekend. Everything seemed to go well except for the fact that i have absolutly zero action from my blow off tube. I made sure the lid of my bucket was on tight and that all of my connections to the blowoff tube were a nice tight fit and found nothing...

That would explian why one of my brews a couple of batches ago turned out so poorly then. I made an oatmeal stout expecting it to me thick and slightly sweet and creamy, full of body. What i ended up with was thin and watery, of which i wouldn't even really want to compare to a stout. The guy at the...

I know this is probably a dumb question but i'll ask any how. When using crystal malts the starches have already been converted to sugars. When i steep the specialty grains i am simply disolving those sugars into the wort. I usually heat the water to 150 degrees take it off the heat and steep the gr...

I am working my way up to all grain brewing but haven't quite made that leap yet. I do intend on using the acid malt, so hopefully i will come out with something reasonablly similar to Guiness. Just so you know the recipe that i am going by is out of a book that i just bought, "Clone Brew by Ma...

I am trying my hand at cloning Guiness for the first time and have a couple of questions. The first would be what does the addition of flaked barley do for the beer? The second would be acid barley or malt (don't have the book in front of me right now), just what the heck is that stuff...sounds kind...

I have seen a few different books regarding the prospect of starting & running your own microbrewery. If you seriously are interested, then i would advise getting a few books and do a little bit of reading. I think though, that if you have no personal experience brewing, then you would definatly...

Bean stout? I sure hope it isn't butter beans, did they mean coffee beans perhaps? I have seen a recipe where a quart of strong coffee was optional to be added into the wort. Supposedly would make a quite addictive tasting stout. If there is some other kind of recipe with just regular beans i would ...

Sorry just couldn't help but comment about the usage of prime tabs. The first and last time that i ever used the stupid things, i ended up with very much varied results. Most of my beer was about flat after all was said and done, one major headache to uncap, fix, and recap 5 gal of beer. If you only...

I know that you stated that you didn't want a kegging system, but there is a little thing that attaches to the top of 2 liter bottles called "the carbonater". Basically it allows you to hook up a bottle of C02 to the 2 liter for force carbonation. Not sure how much the bottle & regulat...