Recent content by BarryNL

For me the main consideration with every choice in brewing in sanitation - nothing will ruin your beer as fast as the wrong organism. I went the IC route simply because maintaining sanitised conditions is so much easier - you just plonk the IC in 15 mins before flame out and that's it. With a...

I think the long running debate over racking to secondary basically shows that any benefits are minor to non-existent. If it really made beer that much better then everyone would be in agreement that you should do it. Personally, I think that any benefits from secondary fermentation are...

Top product - turns grains into perfect grist with just a bit of elbow grease. Price Payed: $175.00 Recommended? Yes

Top product - turns grains into perfect grist with just a bit of elbow grease. Price Payed: $175.00 Recommended? Yes

The thing is, this doesn't apply with CO2 tanks because the CO2 liquifies under pressure. If the CO2 was obeying ideal gas laws then a typical 2.6 litre cylinder containing 2 kg of CO2 would be under around 770 bar or 11,000psi of pressure. Far more than those things could stand. But, as the CO2...

How well kilned is the 2-row? I would normally expect APA to be entirely Pale Malt (which is basically just another name for Vienna) plus a little crystal. If you're sticking significant Munich in I'd go with pilsner to balance it out a bit.

Dang, even that worries me - I can buy weed and magic mushrooms in my local shopping centre - damn, I love Holland. Still prefer the stuff I can make at home though - just like with beer.

In cervisia veritas... never give up on a batch until you've bottled and aged it first!

Have you ever seen a similar film floating on a glass of beer? If so it's probably just very fine CO2 bubbles.

Well, you have my advice for hopping rates above - I wouldn't dry hop the pilsner until you've tried it in an ale first and are sure you like it. The whole .88oz of Cascade in the pale ale for a couple of weeks should give you a strong citrusy flavour - certainly stronger than something like...

I'd second those choices though personally I don't mind dry hopping with pellets - if you put them in at the end of the primary fermentation (after about 5 days) most of the junk will get trapped in the trub and yeast at the bottom. Whole hops are a better choice though. As for use, I'd be...

The three most important points are: sufficient yeast, sufficient aeration and sufficient nutrients. Get these three right plus hold the right temperature and your fermentation will work 99% of the time. For aeration shaking the fermenter, using a stirrer on an electric drill or a fish tank...

Getting all the wort into the boiler and firing up both elements is normally my time to crack open a homebrew. Given my usual brewday this tends to be about 1pm which is quite early enough :)

The bitterness will certainly gradually mellow over time. The sweetness might be more of a problem. Did you use an Activator or Propagator pack of yeast? and if a Propagator, did you make a starter? I've generally been happy with #1084 but it does need a good pitch rate - probably not the best...

Hmm, buying cheap often tends to work out very expensive. I originally had a cheap digital probe which had a tendency to go wild on occasions (especially if a drop of water got on it) and has screwed up a mash and a pitching for me. In the end I invested in a high quality fully waterproof and...