Recent content by Boston85

Thanks Brewkinger. I was using a hydrometer. My mash efficiency was 73%, while brewhouse efficiency was 63%. What I am wondering is whether I should include that .5 gallon in beer smith when calculating the batch size to get my efficiency. When I use 1.061 at 5.5 gallons I get an...

This may sound like a dumb question, but I am trying to figure out how and when to best take a gravity reading pre/post boil. I brewed the Zombie Dust recipe listed on this site, and had a targeted batch size of 5.5 gallons Yesterday I was brewing AG and got 7 gallons into my boil kettle...

Just took a sample of mine after it has been in secondary dry hopping for past 7 days. It finished at 1.014. Missed OG slightly and came in at 1.06. I was now going to cold crash for a day or 2 before moving into my keg. Unfortunately I have no gelatin. Is there any downside to not using...

I currently use an immersion chiller, and can get my wort down to a decent temperature (low 80s) within 25 minutes or so. Unfortunately my ground water isn't that cold, so it is hard to fully get it to 70. I have a couple of questions about whether I can try something new without negatively...

Thanks for all of the great replies here. This past weekend I used my new round cooler with false bottom. I also decided to pick up some campden tablets and threw it in with my water. Well something went right, because my efficiency went through the roof. Per beersmith I was shooting for 6.8...

I have been brewing AG for a year or so, and have usually gotten terrible efficiency, in the mid 50s. I know there are plenty of topics out there on improving this, and I have been reading them, but I had a couple of questions on some things that I could not find as easily. 1.) Water...

So i finally went and found my town's water report that is online, but honestly I have no idea what I am looking for here. The main information seems to be on the last 2 pages. Can anyone who knows how to read this help me and let me know if my water is good to brew with? I do AG batches, and...

Thanks for the insight above. I had read mixed reviews on how fast to drain the mash. In the past I used to go really slow, but that did not seem to do much either. As for Water chemistry. This is something that I never tested. I just moved to a new town and never thought of testing...

So today I brewed probably my 7th AG recipe, and once again I had terrible efficiency. I did Ed Wort's Robust Porter https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f126/bee-cave-brewery-robust-porter-56768/ All ingredients were exactly the same, and I am trying to figure out how things went so wrong. First a...

So my wife is due in about a month, and we are looking to make a baby beer. My wife loves coffee (I hate it but like Coffee flavor in beer), so I was thinking of doing some type of Coffee Stout. I would like to keep it on the lower ABV side so the wife can drink it after having nothing for 9+...

So I am trying out a 1 gallon recipe that I am doing on my stove. It is all grain. I dumped the grain in and it settled at about 150 which was fine, however since it is in a normal pot I lost temp quickly, so I put the stove on low to try and raise it. However the temperature jumped before I...

I have done about 5 AG batches now, but they all seem to have some type of off flavor. I can't really describe it, but it just is not a clean taste. On average, I feel like my mashes wind up a little lower than they should. I shoot for 150 or so, but usually wind up at like 147ish. At first...

Brewed this up a couple of weeks ago. Racked to secondary last weekend after 2 weeks in primary. Gravity was 1.01, so the yeast starter I had really went to town. Dry hopping now a week then will keg and carb up for a week before serving. Fermentation on this smelt unreal, I almost wanted to...

Brewed this up last weekend. OG came in at 1.074 so almost on. AS Karl mentions, the smell while it is fermenting is amazing. I have it in my basement, and I find myself wanting to just go stand there for a few minutes and take in the glory. Will leave it for 1 more week and then rack to dry...

I brewed a RYE IPA that I bottled almost 2 weeks ago now, and started to crack them open this past week to taste it. Just opened one, but there is still no sign whatsoever of carbonation in them. No head at all on the beer, and very very few bubbles at all. When bottling I had just under 5...