Recent content by BonnieJ

Boiled off coffee? Eep. I'm going to try this but I'm going to use a cold brew because I can't imagine boiling being helpful to the flavor.

I guess it's immaterial to say that somehow without trying too hard I get crystal clear beers at temps down to low fridge temps. I don't know what temperature exactly. The things I've changed are using Whirlfloc 15 minutes before end of boil, getting a cold break (I pour the wort over ice)...

Aw, I thought you were in Portland, Oregon at first. I am near there and have found a great source for stuff fairly locally. But you're not in Oregon! I borrowed as much as I could when I started out, which basically came down to a pot and capper. I bought a plastic bucket and all the cheap...

1x5 better bottle 2x6 plastic buckets

My mom has always had a Kitchen Aid, and my grandmother did too. We have one of the Artisan models. I'm not 100% happy with it. It groans if I try to put a big batch of bagel dough in it - and who wants to knead bagel dough by hand!! One other problem is that if you put too much dough in it...

I'd guess for the normal person it would be a lot harder to make LME than buy it (unless you have lots of free time on your hand). I mean, think about it -- you have to make wort, PLUS put it in some kind of contraption to get it to condense in a vacuum. Sounds cool for a science project, but...

Hm. I noticed at the beginning, I was happy drinking beer after a very short time in the bottle, as in, a few days after! I really could not tell the difference, I don't think (or I was just so impatient, I couldn't help myself). About a month ago I cracked open a milk stout after about 10 days...

So, did I miss the citra hops? I guess I should have been looking for them when they were being harvested, but it just occurred to me to brew with them, since I liked the beer I had a few months ago with them in it.

I just made the extract version of this - I tasted on at 10 days and it's awesome! Thanks so much for the recipe. It shocked me how much it tastes like pumpkin pie. Next year I'll make some earlier for I'm drinking it for the month of November instead of January :)

Fermometers on all carboys/buckets! I would have gotten a normal hydrometer container to do measurements in, in addition to having a wine thief to get it out of the bucket. I still have to get one, actually. I hate having to balance it perfectly in the wine thief because it's so dang hard and...

Ah! If I was at any other school I'd ask to use it (also a micro student at the moment) but this school is crazy about alcohol. About students not using it, I mean. It's true, I'm not under the "ban" because I am over 24 and didn't have to sign the "lifestyle agreement" but they wouldn't like it...

Haha! Did you stain that bacteria? That's pretty cool :mug:

So the hops that get added later on in the process are not isomerized? What is the effect of this one the finished product?

I rinse things like my hydrometer and wine thief as soon as I'm done with them and let them dry. I spray them with mixed starsan before I use them again. I never wash them, really.

So there's no risk of bottle bombs as long as it's finished fermenting? I searched for this because a friend of mine just gave me some cider that is fantastic - it's dry and sparkling. For some reason I had always thought I couldn't make sparkling cider, but now I'm starting to think maybe I...