Recent content by Chris_B

Retarded? He was working in a high-profile position for a regime led by a madman who had a bad habit of shooting followers (and thier families) who had displeased him - and sometimes would shoot someone just to make a point to the rest of the country. The fact that he survived the war to...

Yes - on my last batch, due to be bottled this weekend. The only problem was that the oven's minimum temperature when set to 'warm' was 170*. So I put a thermometer in the oven and would give it 30-40 seconds of juice when the temperature fell, then turn it off for 10 minutes or so. Still a...

The UPS store I occasionaly use took a box of them off my hands. Just call them up to confirm that they will take them.

Well, I guess that is a consideration. I would at least want to know that they took good care of their yeast like I do. You know... take them out to dinner, massage their little backs after a hard day of fermenting, maybe some flowers beside the fermenter in the morning. Standard stuff...

I am trying to get my summer beers lined up here and have a Kolsch coming out of the fermenter this weekend. I would like to get a hefe started soon, so will need some hefe yeast - preferably the Wyeast 3068. Does anyone in the San Antonio area have some hefe finishing up and want to trade...

Take a picture of you urinating into a keg. Label it "My Sanitation Procedures are All Natural." Post it directly above the taps. Should stop all but the most dedicated.

Wow! That's really long. Mine is about 10-12 seconds, including a bump or two if can't quite see where the beer level is in the bottle when I get close to the top. Are you siphoning or using a spigot valve on the bottom of the bucket? My spigot's valve actually closes down a little bit if...

Sweet! And almost in my neighborhood! I can drop by the next time SWMBO drags me to the mall!

Somewhere in your bottling equipment, the nasties have a little clubhouse. And I bet it will be one of those 'obvious' places that you will kick yourself when you realize you have been overlooking it. Are you disassembling ALL of you bottling equipment when sanitizing? - Auto-siphon...

Yes. The mother-in-law brought home a six-pack for me a couple of weeks ago. I was quite un-impressed. Note to Shiner - next time leave the peaches on the tree! Just blech! Chris

Heat it up to 180 to denature the enzymes and kill off most of the bad germs, then put a sanitized cover on it and kill the heat. I should be good for a while till you get back. Be sure to let the SWMBO know that you are taking a big risk - not sure what will happen - may be sacrificing your...

A few years ago, on Valentines night, the SWMBO wakes up in the wee hours of the morning puking her guts out, feverish, can't walk, etc. I take the one-year old kid downstairs and toss him into the bed with his grandmother/my mother-in-law and haul her to the hospital. While they are...

I have faith in our single-celled saviors. So I would take a dollars worth of action on that the yeasties will be rocking by noon on Monday. Is anyone betting on the other side. Still, I think I would have just rinsed the inside of the pouch with clean water and poured it into the wort...

I've done the mash in the morning, finishing around noon, and then started my boil after the kids are in bed and things calm down - around ten o'clock. Not a problem. But I would recommend two things: 1. After the mash and getting your sweet wort, heat it to 180 degrees for at least ten...

Hi Cistercian, How do you handle the grain dust making your wort cloudy? I use a similar technique with my partial-mash batches on the stovetop. I have mashed in the bag with a small cooler and using a kettle with heat on the stove. The main problem for me is the cloudy wort from the...