WhoZiT

Recipes 

A friend described the ale malt as being Maris Otter-like.

__________________
--------------------------------------------------

"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things." --George Carlin

surume

Recipes 

WhoZiT, that's good to know! Thanks

I think I'll order a bag of the ale malts, get me some fuggle, EKG or willamette and start making some SMaSHs...

WhoZiT

Recipes 

That's a lotta fuggle.

Are you going to smash compare the different malts? Whoa. Good to know.

__________________
--------------------------------------------------

"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things." --George Carlin

WhoZiT

Recipes 

Ok, hops from somewhere else, right? Gotcha.

__________________
--------------------------------------------------

"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things." --George Carlin

surume

Recipes 

Yeah, hops from elsewhere. I'm still at the stage where I need to get familiar with the brewing techniques/process and messing around with recipes isn't going to be as effective as making a SMaSH with the same hop and malts each time and comparing the results.

surume

Recipes 

Ok, currently building a magnetic stir plate prototype.
The materials used costs 1391 yen, excluding super glue (which I had to buy, but I think most people should have around the house) and the external power supply (because this one runs via USB power and so you can just plug into a pc for power).

Posting vid here.

http://s1268.photobucket.com/albums/jj561/surumesmellman/?action=view&current=00208.mp4

The problem is that the stirring rod/bar is also a magnet and I'm not sure if its okay to be sticking magnets into what would be going into your mouth.

Also, the whole thing is rather unstable and I need to fine tune magnet positions as well as buy some screws and washers to keep the fan in place. Total budget should come down to around 1600. I also bought steel rods to experiment with, but couldn't get them to spin properly.



EDIT: I got a bottle of the Sankt Gallen brewery's 2012 Barleywine, just released today! ;D 1050 yen, ouch.

OppamaBrendan

Recipes 

Nice. You just reminded me to make one too. I did from stuff lying around the house (usb fan & daiso magnets and super glue, probably around 1000 yen). I want to have a variable resistor on it though and have nothing I can use at the moment. What kind of stir bar is that? Its moving a bit too fast :-) I have a bunch of tiny powerful nickel plated magnets from Daiso. Maybe if I jammed them in some tubing that would work. I should be able to boil that to sterilize. Nickel plated magnets are OK in my opinion, I don't believe there will be enough dissolved into the starter culture to be a risk.

Baird's Country Girl Kabocha is out today too, Im looking forward to trying it and comparing my own kabocha ale which just finished carbonating in its bottles. I am itching to start another beer but don't have a lot of free time at the moment so my next will be an extract pilsner with some pellet hops added.

yoshiie

Recipes 

I've heard of people making a stir bar out of tubing, but that usually is a last resort. You can buy lab grade ones here for 2-300 yen.
http://www.tech-jam.com/science-equipment/stir/index.phtml

This is where I got mine, and you can even boil then in the starter wort to make sure they're sterile. Easily worth it even paying for shipping.

mpearce

Recipes 

Wow, great job!

surume

Recipes 

Hmm, looks like I should get a proper stir bar instead

Yeah, I know its spinning too fast, but I can't find a speed controller for the right price at the moment