Recent content by covers42

I would look at a 5 gallon cooler with an added valve. I put mine on a table and on top of an inverted bucket to allow for the initial fill and sparge. If you do not have on already adding a valve on the 10 gallon boil kettle makes transfer to fermenting bucket easier. Another item is an air...

Should not need to wait longer than two weeks for fermentation and you could start another batch. Beer sounds a lot like a pale ale now and nothing wrong with that. Are you going to dry hop? I personally would just go with it and not add anything since summer is on the way and lighter beers...

A thermometer in beer or water will read an accurate temperature a lot faster than in air. I use a thermoworks one with a fine tip that is pretty accurate and can read beer temps in 5 seconds but if in air it can take a long time to read accurate in air.

Yeast do a lot of the work in making beer and can influence the flavor the most. They do not like wide temperature swings. If you have a craw space, basement or closet that stays constant in temperature between 60 to 75F you can do an IPA or Pale Ale which are forgiving. If not the garage...

I would mix it up with a couple of different types if you have the room. I planted hops that were 1, 2 and 3 year old plants and older plants were well worth the money. Bugs and diseases may make one hop out do another. I use my hops for bittering, late addition and dry hopping. Cascade a...

I have an IPA that was in primary for 2 weeks and secondary for 2 weeks with dry hops. Original Gravity was 1.067. Used a 2L starter with 1st reuse with East Coast Pale Ale 008 yeast. Grain bill was 12 lb Pale Malt, .75 lb 30L. .5 lb 60L and .5 lb Carapils. Fermentation initially fast but...

You could be looking at 10 gallons of water to yield a 5 gallon batch. I would be shooting for 6 to 6.5 gallons preboil with about 1/2 gallon+ evaporation loss and 1/2+ gallons lost to turb and hop absorption. Initial sparge pulls out higher gravity runnings and the more you sparge the lower...

Have a 6.5 gallon glass one and use it all the time as a secondary fermenter. No issues and would buy another.

If you have not yet stepped up to buying in bulk, grinding your grain and formulating your own recipes. Another skill is yeast farming that saves money and gives insight into improved pitch rates.

First couple of my kit all grains came in light on malt and when I went to bulk I just boost the level of Crystal. Recipe looks little light on initial hop for an IPA. I like a total IBU in the 60 range. Dead Ringer if I remember uses Centennial only which is like Cascade on Steroids. It has...

Be careful and not trust those water filter machines. Was buying some water for a reef tank and kept getting algae blooms. Water was loaded with phosphates, nitrates, etc. and was far worse than my well water. Gallon bottled water is pretty good but can be a little acidic.

I used home grown Zeus hops for bittering and blended it with cascade for mid and late boil hops. Dry hopped with Zeus, Cascade and Amarillo. Best IPA to date only issue is it came out cloudy. Used the East Coast Pale Ale yeast but flavor is great. Did get a lot of citrus with a good but not...

Columbus, tomahawk and Zeus are identical or nearly identical hops. Several recipes exist for a Zeus only hopped beer often with a stronger than typical malt base. With Columbus you get 3X the alpha of a aromatic hop like Cascade. Can use Columbus for bittering or flavoring but easy to...

Recently made a similar IPA. Used home grown Zeus hops with Cascade in boil with Zeus, Cascade and Amarillo as dry hops. Came out citrus like but after a couple of weeks taste like an East Coast IPA. I look at Anarillo as more of a premium priced hop and in the future would use it late in the...

Pitched it dry on wort at around 70F. Fast acting yeast with unique flavor.