Recent content by CrazyJoeMalloy

After a long hiatus I took my first crack at extract brewing yesterday and this was the recipe I decided to go with, I'm very excited to see how it turns out. I ended up making substitutions for all the hops on account of the unavailability of two locally (Warrior & Simcoe) and I figured...

Thanks for posting this - made one of these yesterday in no time for my first extract brew, worked like a charm! I used a washer hose for my connection and threaded the output through one of the loops to help hold it in place as I didn't want any hose clamps in the wort. I didn't have a pipe...

Thanks for posting this - made one of these yesterday in no time for my first extract brew, worked like a charm! I used a washer hose for my connection and threaded the output through one of the loops to help hold it in place as I didn't want any hose clamps in the wort. I didn't have a pipe...

Well this batch is long gone now but I forgot to relay the final lesson of my first AG batch. I forgot to dissolve my priming sugar in water before stirring it into my beer before bottling. I just tossed the sugar in and stirred...this was a very bad, but entertaining mistake. The first...

Give'er! If nothing else you'll create a baseline from which you can improve upon. Version 1.0 is hard, but it's well worth building...or in this case brewing :)

Between Christmas, New Years, family, a case of the flu and a few other things I never did get around to relaying how the brew turned out. Well, it seems that it was a heroic effort after all. :ban: (and there was much rejoicing) It's not the best beer I've ever had but it's no slouch...

How long are you planning for your primary fermentation to last? Granted my brewing experience is quite limited (a few Brewhouse kits, a few wine kits and one AG attempt that I'm working through at the moment) - but 4 days would seem pretty early in the process to me. I would think a great...

Hmmm....You raise an interesting point, the insulation properties of snow is the basis of igloos...I suppose it would be entertaining for the neighbours to watch me dipping the pot in snow bank after snow bank, melting circular holes all over the place though! :D Fun as that idea is, I'll be...

Heh - thanks folks. Glad to know I'm not a complete outlier and yes I am definitely refining the process and things in my head. Next time (and there will be a next time) will be different. :) bighorn - the idea had occurred to me, living situation didn't make it advisable though, it was...

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted last, been lurking here & there and distracted with other real life stuff. I finally got around to taking a crack at doing my first all grain - Hooray! I decided to try brewing the original version of the Free Beer project named "Vores Øl". I had...

Thanks folks, Beer is my primary concern, but wine keeps the girlfriend at bay ;) - it certainly won't be my last batch tho, it was a good experience. Some things I'd have done differently in hind sight, but that's all part of learning :) The bottles were upright for about 4 days and now...

Hi folks, Just finished bottling and labeling my first wine and all seems to have gone well. Quite the learning experience to be sure. My next project will be beer, post Christmas. Not exactly sure what it'll be yet - I gave my friends & family a short list of possibilities so it'll be...

I asked my local brew shop this same question not long ago - the advice I got was to be mindful of the hole size as some vary and could be larger than a standard bottle. Basically I was told as long as I make sure the caps are properly cleaned then they can be reused without issue. How many...

"By the book", so to speak, it should be ready in 4 weeks and there were some fining and clearing agents added a couple weeks ago This weekend was the 4 week mark, but I'm gonna leave it for a few days - from all that I've read and heard, I can't see how this would harm it. Plus, we got hit a...

Well I'm a newbie going by kit instructions so it's been 2 weeks clearing. lol - It won't keep me up a night, not nearly enough intrigue :) - I had planned to bottle this weekend so had everything ready to go and then hit that point. From my perspective it's reason to be cautious because for...