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Agreed. Adding something dry to a wort that is saturated with dissolved CO2 will provide dry surface areas (“nucleation points”) for the CO2 to come out of solution. (That’s about the only word I actually remember from high school chemistry class.)

Howdy. Depends a lot on the beer, gravity, temperature, yeast strain, yeast viability and pitching rate, ... anything else? Some of my beers are racked after a week (Bitters and most standard strength beers), while some (Saisons, barleywines, big Belgians, etc.) are left in primary for 10-14...

My tap water has chlorine and is very high (~400 ppm) in dissolved solids. The output from my RO filter has zero chlorine and <10 TDS. Depending on the beer I am brewing, I blend my charcoal-filtered tap water with half (for dark beers) to two-thirds (for lighter beers) RO water. For...

My brother-in-law and I each brewed a beer for our nephew's wedding last winter. I brewed a Munich Helles, he brewed a bourbon barrel porter. We used small 187ml (7 oz.) bottles which are actually very heavy weight glass, and each guest was able to take one of each bottle, in a small foil bag...

Thanks, this was my 3rd or 4th go at these eggs, and getting the boil time (and then the deep frying time) just right to leave the runny yolk inside has been tricky. Doing that many eggs at once for a large group probably won't happen again. But for our own consumption, or to take to the local...

Patience is required, sometimes they do churn slowly though I don't know that particular yeast. Ten days is not unheard of. If you have the means to do so, consider raising the temperature a couple degrees every day over the next few days, as high as 85F/29C. This has worked wonders on my...

Soft cooking them at first makes it a bit more challenging to peel the quail eggs intact, but it sure does make for some good eats.

It's a regional Pennsylvania / Delaware concoction, made up of pork parts, corn meal and spices, that is in the form of a dense, spongy loaf. Standard treatment is to slice it and pan fry it. It is sort of an acquired taste, but it is standard breakfast fare around here. For the Scotch Eggs...

52 quail eggs to be soft-boiled and peeled, then made into Scotch Eggs. I’ll probably serve them with a raspberry-mustard dipping sauce. They are way more work than is justified, but they’re just the right size for a bar snack, and the women are impressed and think they’re sooo cute. The meat...

That’s a beauty! I also like the idea of the magnetic removable drip tray. Initially I had mine screwed on and dealt with cleaning it by just removing the grate. But I tended to be lax on cleaning it, and in short order it became a breeding ground for multi-colored molds. So I took it off...

My concept of BIAB brewing is a no-sparge process, where all of the water is in up front. You squeeze the bag somewhat after lifting it out of the wort to get most of the free liquid out, then toss the grains. It is less efficient because of the sugars left behind, but it’s a simpler process...

First impression here is that your guess about the wort being more concentrated is accurate. If you added what appears to be a considerable amount of additional liquid to the wort near the end of the boil, the pre-boil gravity reading is not truly "pre-boil" because it did not include the full...

It's the thought (and the bill) that counts.

On October 14, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed bill HR1337, which included the federal legalization of home beer- and winemaking. Just thought I'd get that in before the day was over here. Cheers acheers.

Greetings. Assuming your dad's equipment (including the FV) was not still harboring any nasties, and the soap you used did not carry anything over (i.e perfume, etc.) after a starsan treatment, my first suspicion would be your water. Even decent-tasting tap water can turn out lousy beer if it...

Quite so. Or, just a small batch. I love making 100% varietal honey meads because they can be wildly different. One problem is, you are relying on the source for their description of the honey. At least if you are buying directly from the beekeeper, and they are being honest, they tend to...

And I always used to think that the creator was smoking wild mushrooms.

I am not familiar with that yeast, but I think it's too soon to start fretting over it. Mead fermentations look a lot different than beer. And if your bung is also holding onto a hop sack, it might not be creating a sufficient seal to be able to see CO2 coming out of your blowoff. I would...

Very helpful group here, thanks so much! Wife and I had a sit-down yesterday and committed to pacing ourselves rather than trying to do too much. Flights are now booked, arriving in Edinburgh on Monday morning and departing from Edinburgh the following Friday morning. So that gives us 11 days...

I'm hopeful for some insight from UK mead makers on using 100% heather honey for a mead. I've brewed many batches, and lately have come to use only locally-sourced honey. In anticipation of our trip to Scotland in Spring 2020, the notion of acquiring some Scottish heather honey to bring or...