Recent content by Brak23

As someone who was in your boat (though mine was 62% Mash Efficiency) I feel you. Im going to share a few things I personally did that ended up helping: 1. Crushed my grains like crazy, I did the "credit card width" and its pretty crushed. But people say I can go more if I want. 2. I bought a...

I recently upgraded to a 15g SS Brewtech boil kettle. Its wide and tall, but I only brew 5 gallon batches. I ran into the same problem with my evaporation rate being insane (lost a gallon in 30 minutes). But I learned its a few factors, but the biggest of which that my large pot makes a larger...

Yeah, one of my first brews I was trying to make a red ale. I didnt see the decimal point in front of the hops (.5 oz) and put 5oz instead. I called it the red headed step child because it was a red looking IPA. It was a little harsh at first, but after some time it actually turned out quite good.

Thanks! I definitely am not chasing the "look" - I like the taste of my beer and happy with what I have so far. I just want to figure this out as a minor thing just to align with the NE IPA style. Its really a minor problem to have since the beer is pretty good. I will give the hop addition @...

I have always seemingly had an issue with creating hazy looking beers. Last year I made a blueberry wheat and the beer turned out crystal clear. But this year I just made a NE IPA and its not crystal clear, but its definitely not remotely hazy at all. Here is the recipe I used, what can I tweak...

I used 0.5 OZ Columbus Hops in a 60 minute boil for a 5 gallon batch. It was slightly bitter, but not bad. It would have been perfect if I had more flavor (doubling up my 170 degree whirlpool).

This makes sense. I think the problem I face is that my tastes in beer have changed a lot as I learn to brew over the years, and each time I want to make a completely different style I haven't done before. I've repeated a recipe only once and looking back I think I shot myself in the foot by...

Thanks for the info! Ill try that. I actually need to correct myself, beer smith said I have a mash efficiency of 83.3% -- which is fantastic given my usual 63-65%. But I just listened to a brulosophy podcast on the Mash in a bag concept - and Im very interested in that!

Hey everyone, I wanted to respond back with some happy results. I took a little break from brewing due to things happening in life and today was my first brew in a while. I did two things today that I feel that pushed my efficiency up from 65% to 76%. The first thing I did was to adjust my...

I appreciate everyones advice on this. Its helpful to hear all of this. I will start by saying that while I appreciate the sentiment of "drinking what you mess up", I do that in some capacity to just get through kegs, but its a bit demoralizing and overwhelming for me. Knowing that I have to...

Hey guys, Ive been into all grain for about the last 5 or 6 batches I've done, and I think all but 2 have turned out poorly (low efficiency and perhaps some oxidation flavors). For me, repetition and frequency are the ways I am going to get better at this process, however, with 5 gallon batches...

What is your IBU of your 10 gallon batch that you gave the hop schedule for? I cut yours in half and im getting about 51 IBU. Is that right? I haven't done a NE IPA yet, and I see IBU all over the board from like 30-80.

Hey guys, Im going to brew my first NE IPA and ive been trying to do a lot of research but ran into a small snag and looking for some general advice on the recipe. I got it out of the Brew Your Own magazine but needed to make a couple of tweaks based on whats around me. In addition, i haven't...

These are all great things, and I will give them a shot. Question on the "moistening of the grain" I don't know if I've heard of that before, what does it do? And does having rice husks in the mix for the mash reduce the risk of a stuck mash at .028?

Hey there, Thanks! I am talking about mash efficiency. I forgot to mention that I did buy my own grain mill, and its currently set at 0.33. I am also tipping my mash tun at the end to get as much as possible. I will look into pH, Ive read a lot about our water profile in Portland people...