BeerTools Discussion Forum

The first thing you should do is pour yourself a cold brew and relax. Once that is done I would try to rouse the yeast by shaking up the fermenter. Another idea is to pitch more yeast. You may not have aerated the wort enough or you may have pitched too little yeast. If you used a dry yeast you may ...

Yes they are very similar. The porter was made popular with train porters in 19th century England. Stronger, highly roasted porters were introduced later as stout porters. The name was then shortened to just "stout". Either way you go both styles are very tasty. Enjoy the brew.

Joe,
Congrats on the beer. I am glad to hear it tastes good. Sometimes our mistakes will lead to an even better beer than we had origianlly planned. Enjoy the brew.

Rich

I bought the CounterPhil Counter Pressure Bottle Filler about 3 years ago when I started kegging and I have found it over the years to be a waste. I think I paid about $45 for it. Most of the time I just keg the beer and don't bother with bottles at all although when I do bottle, I have found that I...

A B-Brite soak might do the trick. Good Luck.

Generally speaking yeast do not like rapid temperature changes. This is the reason that white labs recommends letting the yeast sit unrefridgerated for 3-6 hours before pitching. Therefore going from 40 degrees to 75+ degrees in 3 seconds can cause the majority of your yeast to lose viability. That ...

Great point vtterror, I can't beleive that simple solution eluded me.

If you can spare the space, madhatters idea will serve more than one purpose. You can not only store your kegs in there, but you will also be able to brew lagers in a full size fridge. I got one at a garage sale for $10 and purchased the temp controller for $50. It makes brewing lagers a snap.

The main reason so many home brewers lean towards the corny kegs is their ease of use. It is very easy to open and clean a corny and nearly impossible to really clean a sanke without professional equipment. I would recommend that you stick with the cornys and if you want to brew more just by used co...

Just make sure that the fridge will fit a corny keg. Most compact size fridges will not. Like I said the only one I have ever seen was the Danby brand fridge that I converted to a kegerator.

You will have a hell of a time carbonating a keg at room temperature because it takes a lot more pressure to force the CO2 into solution. I may have a solution for you though. After scouring the globe I finally found the best and least expensive homebrew keg fridge. I think I paid about $160 for it ...

If you were brewing an extract batch and you scorched some of the extract you may have a noticiable difference in taste. I guess it will depend on how much was burnt though. I wouldn't worry about it because you may have just developed a new way to brew porters!! Anyway I think that in a porter the ...

Freon I built a really inexpensive ($70) and simple 3 tier system from wood and I have had good success with it. I have pictures on my website and could send you the plans if you would like. Took only a few hours to assemble and it is extremely helpful with all grain brewing. www.kuenstlerbrau.com (...

I think that any brewing system whether it be an automatic 3 tier R.I.M.S system or a simple bucket and sparge bag is fair for brewing competition. I agree with Brewer2001 that it is all about knowledge and not so much about equipment. The fancy equipment is simply a convienience and does not guaran...

An immersion chiller should not be in the kettle during the whirlpool, as it will severely impede the crucial velocity of the whirl. However putting the immersion chiller in the kettle after the whirl risks disturbing the delicate trub cone. Therefore I would whirl after the chiller is removed from ...