Recent content by Beernik

Thin mouthfeel?

“Visibly clean” is your friend. If it isn’t visibly clean, sanitizer won’t work. Scratches are your enemy. If it’s scratched, it can harbor bacteria. Other thoughts: 1. You have crud crusted to the bottom of your bottles. Very possible if they were donated from friends. 2. You have crud...

Drinking a Hefeweizen with the lees is called, “Mit Hefe,” and is totally a normal thing to do.

It almost makes a 6-pack.

I’ve used Kolsch yeast in a wide variety of styles and it’s my go-to for stouts when I don’t want any yeast flavors. I use 2526 & ferment in the mid-50s. The only problem I’ve had with it is the beer tastes dusty until all the yeast settles out.

I’ve taken a couple long breaks and now I’m back to brewing about once a year. Reasons: 1. I don’t have the time I used to. 2. I don’t have the space I used to. 3. I drink about 1/8th of what I used to. Even then, I’m usually reaching for whiskey instead of beer.

I think I’m going to give it one more week (4 total) to carbonate before re-lagering it. It’s darker than I expected for a 100% Pilsen beer. That probably has a lot to do with burning my bag to the bottom of the kettle. The flavor is good: lemon-lime with a little bit of herbal plus something...

Riverly games will move into the first couple weeks of the season and might not be every year. That’s what happened when Utah went to the PAC-12 & BYU went independent. It was weird because I woke up one morning excited I was going to get to watch Utah play more games (because I refused to buy...

The rubber gaskets aren’t a matter of how long they last, it’s a matter of storage. If they are stored open & in a cool, dry place, the gaskets can last over a decade. When I bottle, I put the sugar in first & then rack in the beer. It results in better mixing without needing to stir.

Mr. Beer makes some 0.74L (25oz) PET bottles with plastic screw caps. That’s probably your best bet if you don’t want 1L or 2L swing tops.

It’s been a couple years, but we mostly hang out at the beaches and drive to lighthouses. My cousin used to live in the area. I’d meet him at Seaside Brewery.

I just saw a rant against drinking “plant based beer” and it was not a parody. Which one of you broke the space-time continuum?

Finding a mini-fridge that would hold a 5-gallon fermentor was my biggest problem. Once I found one, I gently tilted the freezer plate down so it would turn the whole interior into a freezer. (Don’t break the refrigerant line) Then I used a temp controller to set fermentation & lagering temps...

Bummer

Man, I can sooo identify with this. I’ve had tinnitus since I was about 10 when a firecracker went off near my head. The ringing comes & goes but it’s always worst when everything is quiet. A year ago, I went through a couple bouts of severe vertigo. It was so bad at times I’d have to lie...