Recent content by bmurph

I used wyeast 1214, Belgian abbey, made a 2 L starter and think I aerated the wort pretty well, don't have a stone or anything. Also I don't have sophisticated temp control yet so I'm hoping the yeast are fine with ~72 F. I guess I'll give it a taste after a few weeks and see where to go from...

It probably exists but I haven't come across a discussion on quite what I'm looking for. Made my first foray into high gravity brews, made a Belgian strong/abbey ale with an OG of 1.082, and want to ensure it does well from here. Is there an optimal primary/secondary schedule for bigger beers...

Just tasting the finished product and it is damn good. The only thing I did differently than outlined in the original post was add a couple tsp of lactic acid to the starter to get the pH down to 4-4.5. Added 3 oz Amarillo to the fermenter for a week after the yeast settled down and the result...

I recently brewed a dry-hopped gose that I'd like to put into a competition but I'm not sure what category it would fit into. Definitely not "gose" itself, since the style guidelines read "NO HOP FLAVOR," and I'd like to maybe win, or at the very least avoid scathing comments on the judge's...

Just got to the souring stage last night- the starter had great activity a real nice, not too funky, aroma to it. After straining out the grains, a buddy of mine actually tasted a few of them (which I never would have been bold enough to do) and liked it, so then we were all grabbing handfuls...

I really like the sound of this recipe and I'm getting ready to try it out myself. Glad to hear results have been good. One thing I'm a bit unclear on-- you don't actually add a lacto culture? I'm assuming that's what the grains are for (At first I thought it was a typo that you say let the...

I unscrewed the wire nuts, and everything was dry, but will I know by looking at the wires if any damage was done? For the most part they look ok, but at the tips where they are twisted together they are not as shiny as before and have taken on a dull gray color--just the tip, mind you. The...

So I figured out my problem, only to create a much bigger one. I had the polarity of my switches reversed; a guy at Radioshack pointed that out and we got the switch lights to go off in the off position. I took the RIMS home for a test run with hot water, and it worked perfectly. I realize now...

I disconnected the switch to the SSR and plugged the whole system in. The SV was set at 800 degrees F (default setting), so of course the PID wanted to switch on the SSR. Apparently the SSR light goes on when the PID tells it to, regardless of whether the side with the heating element draws...

And i havent messed with the PID yet to set it for my purposes. I guess I will disconnect the SSR switch first to be sure I'm not running the heating element dry.

These are the switches I used. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3118987&filterName=Type&filterValue=SPST Each switch has 3 terminals to which I connected crimp-on connectors, labeled 1, 2, and 3. Terminal 3 is a bronzish color (the other two are silver) and I used that...

I finished with the wiring, and had an electrical engineer check the connections before I plugged it in. I thought that the lighted rocker switches I used would go off in the off position, but they both light up in either position. Flipping the one to the PID causes it to go on and off as...

And that depends on the power source not the device right?

So I'm finally sitting down to wire all this together, and I'm currently stuck on the heating element. No instructions as to polarity, no markings on the element itself. Do these devices usually have a polarity? Here is the one I'm using. http://bostonheatingsupply.com/SP10868LH.aspx

Thanks, I feel a lot better about this beer now. Only, what if I did have a stuck fermentation? One of these online calculators would have me believe the beer is fine... I bought the refractometer thinking it would make sampling the beer much simpler, but this seems to complicate things. Guess...