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Oddly - I think the simpler the better. Just the straight up long play IPA was a big hit. I only offered one bottle of novacaine because it is only 5 months old. That was a hit with me as well as my friend who is an actual brain surgeon. If you like beers like Bell's expedition stout, you will like novocaine! Going through the tasting, there is definitely a consistent taste to the Mr. Beer brews I served. They differ but in many there is sort of yeasty taste. I may need to adjust my process. Again, the long play IPA tasted the most like a commercial craft brew. Others like Klondike or Voodoo ale or even the stout had a sort of sweet back bone that I don't usually get from commercial beers. It made me think that the effort put forth for a simple brew, like long play IPA, may provide the best bang for the buck. The more complicated brews are harder to "land". I guess that is what makes them challenging to make.

Beer tasting party came and went was a great hit! I appreciate all the help to prepare!

Many Brews to serve!

What was the hit of the tasting? And how's the Novacaine? That one's in my brew queue.

All my fermenters smell like beer. They still ferment fantastically

This is what I use; it's the perfume- and dye-free one, of course. I only use it when I have some really stuck-on residue. A little goes a long way; I use about 1/8th of a scoop. Fill the LBK most of the way with warm water, add the Oxiclean, shake it up, and let it sit for about ten minutes. Then pour out the liquid and if there's any wort residue still in the LBK it should easily wipe away with a paper towel. Then rinse it out really, really well. Normally, though, I just do as you do and use unscented soap. That's usually good enough. As I normally brew right after bottling, the next step after cleaning is to go straight to adding the sanitizer into the LBK.

I'm going to wild <CENSORED> guess that he is going to use cooking extract, the stuff that you use when making stuff like cookies, cakes, etc. If that is the case, from what I've been told, it doesn't have sugar but is VERY concentrated. If the bottle of the extract comes with an eye dropper, I *personally* wouldn't use more than one drop per 740ml, but do some bottles with two drops (mark each bottle as to how many drops each has). You don't want to overpower the beer. You want to enhance the flavor subtlety

Klondike Gold will be on hand!

I just tried the long play straight up as well,,thought It was really good as is.... I probably wouldn't do a thing to it....but I do wanna try Mr beers tangerously hoppy recipe that uses the long play....sounds like a good tasting party to me.... Good luck!!...?

Disaster averted. The milk has been force fed to the cat, the 5 gallon jar of pickles have been consumed. And room has been made. T minus 38 hours and counting until the first bottling.

Pour the milk into tupperware

Cold crashing is a simple method that accomplishes 2 purposes. First, it allows the trub (layer of dead yeast and byproducts on the bottom of the LBK) to compact. Why is that good? Because more beer comes out of the spigot before the trub SLOWLY makes its way to the spigot. Second, cold crashing allows the beer to clarify, as particles fall out of suspension and settle to the bottom. I personally don't care about clear beer, but I do want to get every drop out of the LBK. If you're making a wheat beer, the second goal probably isn't something you want to have happen. How do you cold crash? Well, it's very difficult so I'll lay out the steps below. Please study them carefully before undertaking this difficult task. 1) When your beer is ready to bottle (determined by waiting 3 weeks and or testing with a hydrometer and getting matching readings 48 hours apart), pick up the LBK. 2) Walk over to your refrigerator. 3) Open the refrigerator door (or have someone else do it so you don't drop the LBK). 4) Put the LBK inside the refrigerator. 5) Close the refrigerator door. 6) Leave it in the refrigerator for 24 - 72 hours (it will thicken in 24 hours, takes 72 to settle the particles). On bottling day, prep everything and remove the LBK only when you're ready to bottle - you don't want to warm it up and undo all the difficult work that you accomplished. Questions: 1) Does cold crashing kill the yeast? - No, it just puts them to sleep. 2) Does cold crashing impact how my beer will carbonate? - No. Yeast wake up and it carbonates fine. Remember to angle your LBK during fermentation, and cold crashing (and bottling) to keep the trub away from the spigot. See this post: http://community.mrbeer.com/topic/32908-propping-up-your-lbk-no-trubal/ First picture below shows the inside of my LBK after bottling my latest brew. I have about an ounce, if that, of liquid left in there with the trub, which you can see in the 2nd picture (a little milky at that point because I sloshed it taking the pic). I had 5 gallons of liquid split between two LBKs, and that gave me 600 ounces of beer or 93.8% of what I started with. The most I've ever gotten is 614 ounces.

Welcome... You may want to take a look at the Mexican Cerveza extract...