Craft Forum / Winemaking / Brewing / Brewing / January 2007

Anyone have a good extract recipe to fuggles?
I bought 6oz pellets a while back and haven't
touched them in over 6 months.  They are well
preserved, vacuum sealed in the freezer.. I'd

I am contemplating brewing a stout for the first time. As I thought
through ingredients, procedures, etc. a question came to mind...maybe
dumb for you advanced types, but rather basic for me. I have never had
much trouble avoiding yeast, trub and misc. gunk when racking from

I've made homebrews from kits once before. I read in "beer for
dummies" that you should not add sugar to the mixes, no matter what
is said on the box. The cooper's instructions mention kilos and kilos
of sugar - what is the best method for making this beer yourself?

I've got a great tasting red ale, with added finishing hops that has
been bottle conditioning for 12 days. It is getting carbonated although
I wish it were a tad more carbonated. The trouble is, there is very
little head. Clean glass, etc. so I'm kind of at a loss. Perhaps a few

Howdy folks,
I have been thinking about an aeration system for my brewing
(currently just shake the carboy agressively) and am curious if anyone
has build one using the oxygen tank from a welding torch?  I see that

Here is a current homebrew situation.
1) 2 gallons Wort put into plastic pail. Wort cooled to 100 F then water
added to 5 gallon mark.
2) Cooper's dry yeast (1 pkg) added to 62 F 5 gallons.  Original gravity at

Hey all,
I use a Rubbermaid 10 gallon cylindrical cooler for mashing, like many
others do.  I just mashed my 9th batch in the thing, and it warped
after adding the hot sparge water and boiling water to bump up the

I have found that my beers this season have just not turned out as
well -- they are both less malty and drier than they were last year.  
I upped the malt bill to 11 lbs of Maris Otter per batch and still I
am finding that they dont have that rich malty flavor that they did

A page describing the cider my friend Ben Polito and I made this fall:
http://www.positron.org/cider/
-Holly Gates

Two general questions:
The other night I made a starter with a Wyeast activator (the big one)
smack pack. It was very fresh since I pulled it out of a cold fridge
and it swelled within an hour of smacking it. The starter was 100g of

Howdy folks,
I have been thinking about an aeration system for my brewing
(currently just shake the carboy agressively) and am curious if anyone
has build one using the oxygen tank from a welding torch?  I see that

My CFC has not been as efficient as could be desired, to get my wort
chilled to yeast pitching temps required slow wort drainage and high
water flow rates through the system such that the waste water exiting
the CFC was only lukewarm. So, I added an immersion copper coil to the

I have two single dual gauge CO2 regulators.  It looks like I should be
able to unscrew a couple of connections on each and combine them to
make a dual regulator.  But my efforts to disconnect the parts have
been frustrated.  They look like normal brass gas plumbing, but I'm

Any help on OG?
5 gallon
6lbs Muntons amber DME
4 oz. crushed chocolate

I am doing an Irish Ale and am really tempted to try dry yeast for the
first time.
My  thoughts are to try the US-56 for my Irish Ale then use the cake a
week later in an IPA.  This would be my first foray into the dry