I am making my fist batch of Honey Mead. I had followed the "fast mead making" recipe on " Stormthecastle", added the orange and the raisons, the balloon with pinhole first inflated and has now been deflated 2 days. The honey has disappeared and sediment is on the bottom. Total time elapsed has been approximately 6 weeks. ( I made the rookie error of not marking the start date but I know the approximate weekend) I am now lost! I …

What equipment is required to clean and fill a commercial keg (not one adapted for homebrewing), before paying for a full blown keg washer and filler? Is this even possible?

What is the difference between a lager and an IPA in the brewing process?

How long should I cold crash a mead for? Is it possible to get haze in the mead from being cold crashed too long? The yeast is 71B, and it is one gallon. I had to take the airlock off to put it in the refrigerator, but I covered it in plastic wrap. I do not believe that it will oxidize while in the fridge. Will it be clear in about a week?

So i decided to try grape wine last year since my friend had a backyard full of grapes that were going to go to waste. My process ended up a little complicated and now I wonder if it’s still ok. I harvested as many grapes as I could around the end of September. I took as many as I thought I’d need to fill a 25L Demi, crushed and started fermenting a must and froze the rest of the grapes. …

Was given a 1/2 bucket of crystalized honey and so made Mead. Used Champagne yeast, Original Gravity 1.092, Final Gravity 0.996. My sort of problem is : there seems to be a 'sediment'. AT THE TOP! After racking, the mead is clearing from the bottom upwards! I assume this is beeswax, very fine, and so will turn in a sort of reverse Champagne treatment removing the wax/scum with a suction tube (turkey baster?) Any comments please.

For many years, I was getting efficiency at about 81% after backing into the numbers with Brewers Friend doing simple non-recirculated infusions at 2qt per lb with continuous fly sparge. About a year ago, I built a electric RIMS 240 volt, 5500 watt, PID controlled system, so that I could do some step mashes and manage temps better. I like the set up, but my efficiency has gone down to 61% with continuous recirculation and the RIMS firing as needed …

I’ve taken to making Cider and quite enjoy it. I now finalize my fermentation (temp controlled) at 1.015Gs before bottling or kegging. In the case of bottling I still prime with sugar and then test after two weeks - once I’m back at 1.015Gs I pasteurize the sealed bottles to halt fermentation. I am interested in hopping my cider now but I’m unsure of the process to follow. I imagine it’s all dry hopping, but what hops, for how long …

What tools or tricks is everyone using to cool their wort down after the boil? How long does it take you to get down below 70 degrees? I am using an older copper wort chiller (hooks up to a garden hose) that a friend of mine made and has worked okay in the past but its getting kind of beat up and losing its nice coil shape so I was thinking of an upgrade. In the Michigan winter I am …

I have noticed that many microbreweries centrifuge their beer in order to remove yeast and hops. These machines, e.g. from Alfa Laval, GEA and Andritz, are huge and not something you would have in your kitchen. Industrial machinery are just too big to have at home. Is there any products for home use? Can you easily make one?

One of the biggest hurdles I came across when switching to all-grain was learning how to sparge. I honestly still don't think I do it 100% correctly. There are very detailed descriptions online, but they are pretty confusing if you haven't done it before. I'd love to see a detailed, easy to understand explanation of sparging, the different techniques, tips, pitfalls, etc. And where the word "sparge" came from.

I`m brewing a pilsner at slightly higher temperature levels and has been two and a half weeks. Can I rack and then bottle if my hydrometer reading are stable? Or should I rack and then store in fridge for extended period before bottling?

I often see recipes (usually for fruit mead or beer) warning against boiling fruit for fear that it will release pectin. I know that this is important for making jam, and bad for home brewing. What I don't quite know is why it's a bad thing. Does pectin have a negative impact on the fermentation process? Is it bad for yeast? Does it negatively affect flavour? Does it affect aging? Why is it so important to avoid pectin?

Given the limited space of an apartment, what tips do you have for storing your equipment? Do not consider budget to be a factor. This is the first question in a series of discussions about small-space brewing. Please keep the discussion limited to equipment storage. See also: Mashing | Steeping | Boiling | Chilling | Fermentation | Packaging | Cellaring

My first home brew beer is ready to be bottled but I've been busy and haven't gotten around to it yet. The beer was in a primary fermenter for 2 weeks, then I racked it into a secondary fermenter (carboy with airlock) where it has been for about 3 weeks now. Do I need to bottle it immediately or can it sit in the secondary for another week or so?

I'm pretty new to home brewing. I made a 1 gallon Belgian Ale kit which came out pretty good and then did a 5-gallon Strong Belgian Ale recipe I found on the internet which also came out pretty well. There were a few funny flavors in it but overall it was pretty decent considering my lack of experience. So I'm trying to make that same beer again but there were some mistakes made. I also need to verify some information …

I m a beginner in wine making, kindly suggest should we stir the brew? If yes, after how many days? Should I stir or shake the brew every day or after how many days I should open the container and stir?

I've been thinking about making a wheat-beer with bananas and a little bit of chocolate malt. My question is can you mash bananas in the mash-tun to convert the sugars/starches and get more banana flavor into the brew? I got the idea from my wife while I was looking at a dark wheat recipe. She was making chocolate covered frozen bananas for our girls and the wheat recipe had a little chocolate malt in it. I thought 'why not accentuate …

I live in a country where alcohol is banned and of course all equipments and materials related to brewing are banned as well, I tried turning non alcoholic beer into beer a couple of times but the results weren't so great, so I'm trying another method now, but I feel I'm doing something wrong, here are the ingredients I'm using: 3x370g malt extract (bought from health food store, the brand name is Meridian) 2x500g dextrose 50g hops baking yeast I …

I will be boiling corn cobs and I was thinking about reusing this water to make a brew batch. I know some commercial breweries use corn as an ingredient, but I am unsure how. I am thinking that a light blonde beer would work well, like a Corona. It could be an all-grain batch, where I would use the water to mash my grain... Or it could be an extract batch, where I would used this "tinted" water in the …