My advice to you is to try both, and see what you like better. It “boils” down to preference, so let the debate “roll” on.

Brew it outside, brew it indoor, either way you do it; you’ll always brew some more. Cheers!

Generally, as your beer ferments, you will see bubbling activity in your airlock. However, sometimes you will have no activity, usually from an air leak in a poorly sealed fermentation vessel. Your beer is most likely still fermenting, so don’t be too concerned. If you want to know for sure, though, you’ll want to take periodic gravity readings. Remember, this is a slight risk to your beer since you’ll need to open your fermentation vessel and expose your beer. Be certain to sanitize your brewing tools and hands prior to doing any gravity reading. When you see change in hydrometer readings, that will signify fermentation is happening. When you see no change, fermentation is over. You can also allow a certain time period to pass (7-14 days on average) and can be fairly certain fermentation has ended.

Celebrating the holidays with a homebrew is something to be desired. Nothing
beats a cold, homebrewed Christmas Ale or Oatmeal Stout to warm the belly
and soul. Homebrewing is getting more popular everyday, and the holidays are
a great time to “spread homebrewing cheer, by brewing loud for all to hear.” If
you are looking for some ideas to spread homebrewing cheer for a novice or
advanced homebrewer, no need to look any further. The top 12 homebrewing
gifts, brought to you by Homebrew School, are gifts that will keep on giving.

Brew That Stuff!

12. Basic Homebrewing Equipment Kit

11. Homebrewing Ingredient Kits

10. Bottling Tree

9. Glass Carboys

8. Wort Chiller

7. Outdoor Propane Burner

6. 10 Gallon Cooler

5. Stainless Steel Boiling Kettle

4. Stainless Steel Mash/Lauter Tun

3. Corny (Soda) Kegs

2. Kegerator

1. Conical Fermentor

Happy Holidays from HBS!

Michale and Anbrew

I tried experimenting in a variety of ways, including a heat blanket, keeping the mash on a low flame, or infusing hot water to keep temperature steady. The heat blanket helped, but I was wasting propane to keep the temperature. I always try to be economical when it comes to brewing. So, here’s what I decided to do.

I have an extra pot, a 7.5-gallon stainless steel pot without a ball valve spigot. I mashed in there for an hour, and was able to keep temperatures. I poured the mash into my combo mash/lauter tun, and sparged into that. I started to get great efficiency doing this, but still frustrated that I couldn’t mash and lauter in the same vessel. And then it hit me. Working on a collaborative brew, a 10-gallon IPA (Guntasco IPA), I filled up the whole mash/lauter tun with 25 pounds of grain and roughly 9 gallons of water. We mashed for an hour, and only lost 2 degrees. It dawned on me of why I was losing degrees. There was too much room in the pot for cold air to sneak in and drop the temperature of the mash for a 5-gallon batch. It all made sense.

So, the moral of the story is, know your kettle. Be sure to have appropriate headspace in your kettle. Too much headspace will generally lead to significant temperature drop. Having 2-4 inches of room will provide steady temperatures and great efficiency.

Here’s the story about bottling your homebrew…

First you have to save your bottles. And you have to get your friends to save them, too. Everyone loves a ton of poorly rinsed beer bottles lying around the house, right?

Oh, and then you have to wash them all, being sure to fully sanitize and making sure all the labels come off. Fun.

Then, when bottling day arrives, you have to fill and cap each one. On average, this is more than 50 bottles for a 5 gallon batch of beer. Forget making bigger batches…

And after that batch is bottled, there is no more brewing for you unless you go buy a bunch of bottles, drink a ton of beer or dumpster dive for recyclables.

Bottling your homebrew is a pain! You should keg it instead!

Check this out.

That’s a bare bones kegging system – just get a taller mini-fridge and throw the corny keg inside and you’re set. (A corny keg is 26 inches tall so don’t get a dorm-sized mini-fridge.)

We know you won’t regret switching to kegs. Have a party. Keg your beer.

Cheers,

‘Ale and ‘Brew

P.S. Here’s the link to the kegging system.

Happy New Year from Homebrew School! We hope the New Year finds you well,and you start brewing up some great batches. I know I will! Homebrew School has so many brews in the forecast, from Belgian Ambers to Hefeweizens, IPA’s to Irish Reds, the list seems endless.

On another note, we are very proud and happy about the revitalized look at Homebrew School, especially our All Star class. We hope it challenges you to become a better brewer, and you can share the greatness of homebrews. Our goal is to make those interested in homebrewing become knowledgeable and masters of their particular setup, and highlight the various ways to brew beer at home.

So, cheers to the New Year! May the mash be with you!

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We have step by step instructions for extract, partial extract and all grain brewing methods.

We’ve spent hundreds of hours learning the craft of brewing AND creating this rich multimedia site to help people like you learn how to brew beer at home.

Brewing beer at home is awesome – there’s no doubt about it. You can be creative and scientific at the same time – the best of both worlds. You can brew beer at home with friends and family, teach others how to brew beer at home and stockpile (hardest part) your closets with fermenting carboys. Maybe you’ll buy or piece together a kegerator and really take things to the next level.

So if you want to learn how to brew beer at home, there is an email form below. If you fill that out, you’ll have immediate access to the full Rookie Homebrewing class. This 15-part class will show you everything you need to get started on brewing your own beer at home.