I just wanted to share a tip to make your brew day go super fast. I'm quite pressed for time and before I invented this method I didn't get to brew nearly as often as I wanted. After coming up with this method I can brew all the time and it's so much fun being able to try out ideas without a massive time investment, it's amazing!

Here's how I do it.

Let's say we do a 30 liter / 8 gallon batch just so that I can explain the process easier.

1. Heat the water for your mash. (15 minutes)

2. At the same time as you wait for the water to heat up, fill your fermentation vessel with 10 liters / 2.6 gallons of cold water. Throw in 2 campden tablets to prep it. Prepare your grains.

3. Mashing and boiling the hops at the same time (60 minutes)

At the same time as you mash, boil your hops in a small kettle on the side containing about 2 liters / 0.5 gallons of water.

4. Sparge (15 minutes)

5. When mashing and sparging is finished, add your hoppy water to the wort. Now your brew day is basically done!

6. As the final step, pour your 20 liters / 5 gallons of wort into the fermenter that you prepped earlier with 10 liters / 2.6 gallons of ice cold water. When the wort mixes with the cold water, it will automatically cool down to about 30 degrees and you can pitch your yeast straight away.

Honestly this is such a time saver and I can't believe I wasted so much time in the past doing everything the traditional way. I hope this helps some of you people out there that are pressed for time!

Let me know what you think 🍻

Does anyone here have experience making smoked beer? I'm going to throw a 5 gallon wort on the trager for the boil. Anything I need to be aware of? Will the smoke throw off the pH and affect fermentation?

TLDR: I don't know when I should call it quits and it's been longer than the time it says. Also, how does priming sugar work if I'm leaving the yeast behind? Will hot/boiling filtered water be enough to sanitize my implements?

As the title says, it's my first time brewing cider. I bought a kit from craftabrew, and have been trying to follow the steps quite closely. Sanitized according to directions, aerated thoroughly, added the cinnamon sticks and the spice packet on time. It's now day 10, which is supposed to be bottling day, but it says to ensure airlock activities have stopped before bottling. The cider is still off-gassing, did I do something wrong? Is it okay to leave it longer? Should I have been stirring once a day? Should I not have been bringing the carboy out into the light to show people?

Second topic, carbonation and priming sugar. I know in a basic way how yeast functions, and how it's supposed to work. Yeast eats sugar, puts off CO2 as a byproduct as it ferments that sugar into alcohol, which carbonates the cider. The confusing part comes from the act of siphoning; wouldn't that leave behind the yeast in the sediment? Do I need to leave it longer since the cider is taking longer to ferment? Is the cold of the fridge supposed to kill the yeast that's transferred over?

Last thing... when I run out of these sanitation packets, will filtered water at/close to boiling temperature be enough to sanitize the siphon, funnel, bottles, carbon, etc? Or do I need to buy more sanitation packets?

Thanks everyone for the help in advance :)

Hi! It’s clementine season here and my tree puts out around 100 new ones a week. Thinking of ideas of what to do with them (vinegar, marmalade), and thought of turning them into cider. Can’t find any recipes online for this - anyone have any ideas?

I've successfully brewed three or four batches of ginger beer. I usually ferment the batch in a one gallon carboy for seven days - I tried a shorter fermentation, but it didn't turn out how I liked it.

I put another batch to ferment on Sunday, and then realized that we're flying out on vacation Friday morning and will be gone for six days. Would y'all just bottle on day 4, or would you let it ferment for ten days (six days unattended!) and hope for the best? I don't know what happens if you leave it too long!

I'm considering making a spiced christmasy porter, so I tried to look around online at some different recipes.

I'm considering using:

50% pale malt

30% Victory Malt

10% brown malt

5% black malt

5% Carafa Special Type 2 (1100-1200 EBC)

I'm aiming for a pretty strong, but still light and pleasant porter.

I'm not sure about the hops yet, but I'm thinking about adding a tinincture of some cardemom, cocoa nibs and nutmeg.

New-ish home brewer making 2.5 and 5 gal batches in a carboy with BIAB method. I bottle condition and have no interest (or space) to keg. My question is when cleaning the tubing used to rack beer or bottle beer, what is the best method? I have been shooting hot tap water thru the tube for about 60 seconds hoping to rinse any residue clear. Is soaking it in StarSan or PBW needed? Just looking for input and best ideas to prevent nasties from growing in the tubing between batches. Thanks for your help.

Anybody know where to buy the ABE Shaft seal repair kit NOT from ABE for less than $91.70??

Thanks!

I'm using ale yeast to carbonate a sarsaparilla I'm making, I've never done this before and I'm wondering if this is normal?

So there's a bar I'm interested in purchasing. One of the includes is a "nano" brewery, it looks like 3 X 200L fermenters, plus the other bits and pieces.

Though I homebrew and have my recipes, I have zero interest in brewing at any commercial level, it's my hobby and I'll keep it that way.

My question is, if I decide to purchase said bar, what would be the best way to find a freelance brewer who could run it for me?

The bar is in Sydney, Australia if that makes any difference.

I wanted to find some brewing gifts for my roommate's boyfriend for Christmas and I really don't know what to look for. I know he primarily brews mead and as far as I know he has a majority of the supplies for it. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!

I have tried sheets of paper taped to my brews, but it sucks. I tried a notebook and it's better, but definitely not great. I tried pictures and the notes app, but it's easy for stuff to get lost in the sauce.

I would love to know what yall do to track, try new ideas, review how your brews come out, and alter recipes for next time.

I wanted to attempt to make historic farmhouse ales from around the world or at least approximations.

Do you know of any I can add to the list?

I know of Saisons, Biere De Garde, Grisette, and a Sahti. From Brewing Nordic I found "koduõlu in Estonia, Sweden’s gotlandsdricke, the maltøl of Norway, and kaimiškas in Lithuania." I also found Heimabrygg and Vossaøl from Norway, Gammeltøl from Denmark, and some vague and hard to figure out info on a Georgian one.

Do you know any from other countries? I don't have high hopes for finding any info on any outside of Europe but if anyone has any I'm open to that as well.

I am about to drop in my yeast to make my mead, but I forgot to get nutrients, and I am hoping to avoid a shopping trip.

I have the yeast sludge from an old brew-up (2 years or more ago) sitting at the bottom of sealed jars holding the very last bit that was in the vessel, although they have been at room temperature the entire time.

If I separate the sludge from the liquid, could I add this in a day or two after pitching yeast to serve as nutrients?

Thanks all!

Edit: The sludge is actually more than 4 years old and from a beer brew, and when I opened it smells vinegary, so I am fairly sure that there is nothing live in it.

It's me again with another question. I just remembered the second time I tried making mead my stomach and a friend's got a bit stirred up after we drank 1 or 2 glasses(0.5L) mine even hurt a bit it lasted for an hour and it went away, no nausea. I didn't add anything to the mead after it was done fermenting (or at least I think it was done). Can the cause be the fact that it didn't finish fermenting and it was still fermenting inside our stomachs? Or what can it be. Thanks!

Hi there, I'm new to brewing and I'm looking for the best way to source juice for brewing. For reference I live in Vancouver BC. I did a quick search for orchards and wasn't able to find much nearby, I don't know if it's too late in the season or not. The other option I was looking at was ordering frozen concentrate from a food service site. I'm not sure if this would even be viable and I haven't been able to find what ratio of concentrate to water would be used. As it stands I have 19 1 gallon glass jugs and 1 5 gallon glass carboy to work with.

I have a batch of mead and its fermenting, close to stopping, it's been going for 3 and a half weeks. But I need to stop the fermentation. How can I do that quick and effective.

i’m brewing 2 gallons of cider in 1 gallon carboys. i pitched my yeast and literally an hour later they were going to town. the next day and subsequent days, even after shaking up the carboys there has not been another bubble. my house is pretty cold, (57°f, 13.9°c) but i put them near a heating vent so they’d stay warmer. should i try and warm them up or drop a campden tablet and re-pitch in 24 hrs?

I’m just about to start brewing for the first time and have got all my stuff ready but forget to take into account the temperature needed for the yeast of about 20-22c. It is the winter and My house sits at around 15 c and the cabinet I was wanting to store my demijohns sits around 12 degrees. I assume this will not be suffice by to get anything going?how do you guys brew in winter

I've been brewing mead and cider for a couple years now and a couple of friends are telling me that I should start selling what I make. I'm looking into getting a microbrewery license in the upper peninsula of MI. Has anyone here been through that process and have any advice?

Made a yeast starter on Wednesday morning with NB Fast Pitch with plans to brew and pitch on Saturday morning. No stir plate. I need to move brew day to Sunday. The starter foams up when I swirl it, but there is no activity on its own. It's under 70° in the house since it's November.

I put the starter in the fridge for tomorrow. Question is, do you think it's viable or should I just pick up a new pack of yeast for tomorrow's brew day?

not gonna sugar coat it, used a lot of bleach to clean out a carboy with a dead mouse in it. how can i safely make sure there’s no bleach residue so i can start my next batch? thanks.

I just disconnected this old water tank. Based on calculations it's 450-500 gallons. I'm not a brewer, but thought it might be useful for someone who is. It's very clean. Should I scrap it or seek a buyer?

Hey hey, first time brewer here, I bought a make my own beer pack to try the new hobby and I have a question. The instructions of my kit say I should leave my wort in a dark space for about 3 weeks and the temperature of the space should be about 20 to 22 degrees Celsius. Where do people who brew at home put their bucket of wort and how do I keep such a space warm?

Any tips and suggestions are welcome.