Recent content by Banzai

That's very cool (sorry :D ). I"m going to replace my 18 gallon water filled tote with that, should help keep the ice utilization down quite a bit.

Might have to drop some coin for these.

Nothing fancy, just Beer Labelizer and some public domain artwork. Laser printer onto regular copy paper and milk for glue. Works well.

OK, I've brewed a few batches with kits and LME/DME, and everything has come out pretty good. I'm very pleased with the Light and Cream ales that I've made, but many of my friends are asking for something a little lighter. Here's what I've found (on here as a Coors Lite clone when lagered)...

5 is good, 7 is better. ETA: Home Depot routinely has the 7 on sale for $179.

I got one of those $5 18 gallon plastic toats and 4 gallons of spring water from WalMart. Open the water gallons and pour out about 3 cups, recap, and place in the freezer. Place the fermenter(primary or secondary, bucket or carboy) in the toat and cover the fermenter with an old Tshirt...

I haven't oaked wine, but with my mead I simply wash the oak chips in vodka. Never had an issue, seems to work well. Boiling before adding would place in the boil water what you're wanting the wine to extract naturally. I'm thinking that would be significantly less than ideal.

Ton of bricks, or a ton of feathers.....volume might be different, but it's going to weigh the same.

595. Not sure what happened. Came back from vacation, and it's still in it's tube, sitting on the shelf where I left it......broken.

...and another note on that...not all runs of the same bottle will use the same cork, too. I recently bought two cases of bottles, same brand and supplier that I've been using for quite some time, only to find out that my usual 8s were too loose, and I need to use 9s. Bottom line, measure...

I agree with the above posts, fruit in the secondary, either as fermentation has finished or just before. I find that too much of the aromatics and fruit character are lost when putting the fruit in the primary. Just watch that the natural sugars (however much or little) in the fruit may...

Just be aware that not all caps, and not all cappers, are created equal. All of the commercially available caps today have a bonded rubber gasket on them, so rust shouldn't be a problem at all. Not all caps will seal tightly, and not all cappers will crimp sufficiently to ensure a good, tight...

Somewhat, yes, depending on the yeast and what it's fermenting. What you put in the airlock will also help influence that, too. I use 80 proof Vodka, some use sanitized water. As long as whatever you use you don't mind possibly getting into your batch of goodness! I've never done a cider...

It'll let you know when it's done fermenting.