Recent content by brian_n

Yep, but I'd say the bigger the better.

Yep

No picture updates, but the trellis has been good. It's very sturdy, no concerns there. The only thing I'd change is adding a few more feet of height to it, as the hops get pretty tangled up at the top.

I pitched 2 packets of their West Coast yeast into 5 gals of a 1.058 pale ale. 10 oz caramel malt, no cara-pils, 150 mash temp, and it was down to 1.009 in 5 days. So, 2 packets is certainly adequate. That said, it's more expensive than US-05 and requires 2 packets, so I doubt I'll use this...

Thought I'd share this info that I got straight from the source... according their detailed pdf ( http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0195/8620/files/MJ_Craft_Series__A5_Yeast_Booklet.pdf?1935 ) their packets only contain greater than 50B cells, which seems awfully low for a dry yeast packet. So, I...

Regarding preference between the two saison strains, I did a 7.5 gallon batch split between Saison Blend and Wallonian Farmhouse: 27 IBU's - a lot of styrian goldings late 1.053 OG mashed at mid-140's (thermometer issues) 66% pils 20% wheat malt 7% munich 7% flaked corn fermented...

yes

Since I'm all for speeding up collection time but not giving the organizers more work, I'll volunteer to send out an email to everyone on the spreadsheet once the collection phase begins for future buys.

when people are dropped from the buy, will there be a first come first serve distribution of their orders?

In regards to getting the tubing off, I used a utility knife to cut a slit in the tubing, and then it comes right off. In regards to line length, I used those calculators initially, and had lines of about 7.5'. It wasn't long enough, so I upped it to 10', and it's working great now.

I will likely make my pickup early next week and live in Arlington Heights, so I can pick up grain for anybody in the area, assuming your order isn't too large.

I've got a wine fridge that I'm going to use as a fermentation chamber with my Johnson Controls A19 controller. I'm going to put the controller outside the fridge, but I'm not sure how to run the copper probe wire into the fridge. If it was rubber coated, I'd just slide it through the open door...

I made mine out of a bottom freezer fridge that I got off craigslist. It only holds 2 kegs because I kept half the shelves in to hold bottles and, at times, food. My wife wasn't going to allow me to take out all of the shelves... I originally was only able to use the thin plastic tap handles...

I'd be willing to take one of them too.

I ended up with 80% attenuation, 1.062-1.012. Mashed at 151. 87% base malts, 5% carapils, 2% crystal, 2% biscuit, and 4% table sugar. Dryhopped yesterday, and the hydro sample certainly didn't have the "muted" hops that people have mentioned. EDIT: Not sure what changed between my hydro sample...