Recent content by BigRedBrewer

The people who have changed their process to control oxygen pickup have experienced the change in beer quality. Just like the first time you use precise temperature control, water chem, control mash and boil ph, etc. All of these little things make up a quality beer. I would actually say the...

I just assume the manufactures are being fairly accurate when they state the number of cells per pack. So a 100 billion cell white labs pitch should be 100 billion cells when it leaves the lab. The calculator then takes that 100 billion cells and applies a fairly predictable death rate based on...

Also, if you use the brewers friend calculator it is going to get you very close to the calculated amount of yeast. I was using a microscope and hemocytometer for a while and my experience was that the calculator was always within about 5 to 10% of what I actually counted. For that reason I've...

For an ale, the general rule of thumb is to pitch 750,000 to 1,000,000 cells per mL per degree Plato. For a lager shoot for 1.5M. So if you have a 1.040 beer (10 Plato) and your volume is 4 gallons (15,141 mL) and you were pitching at a rate of 1 million cells, you would want to pitch 151.5...

I know Kunze is a pretty reliable source of info, however according to the yeast book, page 78 at the bottom it states: "excessive usage of oxygen results in high levels of fusel alcohols, increased acetaldehyde and other flavor problems." Aeration at the correct amount will help with yeast...

You can definitely have too much O2 in your wort. Typically too much O2 is going to increase yeast activity which will be similar to a high temp fermentation. You could potentially see an increase in byproducts like Acetaldehyde. Chris White and Jamil recommend 8-10 ppm in the yeast book. I...

Good quality white wheat and pils malt. Do the decoction mash and ferment with 3068 at 62 for 4 days, 65 for 3 days and 68 for 3 days then keg/bottle. You won't be disappointed

Xico--have you had any luck with your install? I am having the same issue. Just started another topic on the software forum looking for help.

Thanks, and you're right it feels like being stuck on a lonely island. It's hard to get an answer to a question that doesn't include a bunch of other topics/language I don't understand. I'm not sure why they haven't spent more time to make this user friendly or even just create a simple, easy...

I might be in over my head. I purchased a Brewpi spark v2 and I'm just waiting on the raspberry pi before I can set it up. The issue is, everything on the brewpi website is kind of a mess. I can't find a simple setup diagram anywhere. Can anyone explain in simple terms how I go about setting...

+1 on the temp probe on side of carboy method. It works well with glass. I just use a few layers of bubble wrap to cover the end of the probe. Beer bug looks awesome! You'll have to let us know how you like it.

I'd be pretty skeptical after 48 hours if nothing has changed. I've never used 500 but that's a good amount of time for any yeast to get going. Could be that the viability was way low which would make it slow to start. 48 hours is a fair amount of time though

I started using bottled water a few years ago to remove those variables. At first I was using distilled water, but something wasn't right so I switched to spring water since it still has all the micronutrients in tact, and very little ca/so/cl/na/mg. Arrowhead spring water posts a water report...

100% agree. Wouldn't be able to say for sure unless i had the water report, volumes, weights, and grain types. Ph meter is a great investment, and a decent one can be found for $50-$60. However, using EZ water calculator, I get real close, and my Ph meter is really only used to confirm the...

I find that you can way over calculate your ibu and bitterness won't be as high as you think. Remember some of those ibus will be lost during fermentation. A 6oz late hop addition is pretty solid. For 5 gallons I typically use around 6oz for dry hopping as well. That should be enough...