Recent content by damntheman

All I do is cool my wort in the kettle and then pour it into my primary fermenter (bucket) to aerate it. I make 6 gallons of wort so I can leave the last 1 gallon in the bottom of the kettle as I pour. This is where all the break material and hops are, so I just quit pouring when I start...

Here's what I do for re-pitching yeast: Pour yeast cake into 3 or 4 sanitized plastic beer bottles Store in the fridge Pitch onto batch of beer Save yeast cake from that batch as well I will usually do this enough times to get at least 4 to 8 uses out of a liquid yeast pack/vial and then get...

It works great for me and doesn't really bend at all, but I use a 48qt rectangular mash tun so I hold the paddle more in the middle than at the end. If you were using a keggle with a deeper grain bed, I would say you would be better off getting a sturdier wooden one.

Lactose would be my guess, but I've always added that later in the boil. I suppose you could add it to the fermenter and then rack on top of that to mix it in.

When I first started brewing AG, I just used the heavy-duty stainless spoon that I purchased awhile back. It worked pretty well, but I ended up getting a cheap plastic mash paddle that has worked even better. They only cost a few bucks from Austin Homebrew...

I've been thinking about adjusting my Barley Crusher lately, but I get around 80% at factory settings. I suppose better efficiency means saving money, so I could always play around with different gap settings.

I recently starting using gelatin because I would always get chill haze in my beer. They would eventually clear out, but I wanted quicker results. In order for gelatin to fight chill haze, the beer must be at your desired serving temp before the gelatin is added. I had a Belgian Blonde that...

I agree. I typically add all my water to the mash tun, and then stir in my grain as I pour it in slowly. This allows me to make sure that my mash will be at the right temp. Your mash tun will absorb a degree or two of heat so it's good to factor that in.

Here's the recipe in case you're interested: Tripel Brew Type: All Grain Date: 5/9/2007 Style: Belgian Tripel Brewer: Mike Young Batch Size: 5.50 gal Assistant Brewer: Boil Volume: 7.00 gal Boil Time: 60 min Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.0 % Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10...

I would say don't bother using Belgian Candi Sugar and just go with straight table sugar. I made a Belgian Tripel that was a Westmalle clone using 2 lbs of table sugar a few months ago, and it turned out great. From what I've read, there is little or no difference between candi sugar and table...

Check out Denny's Batch Sparge website: http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/ He goes through the whole process and makes it really easy to understand. I know my first AG brew wouldn't have gone as well if I hadn't read through his site a few times.

When I first moved to all-grain, I found Denny Conn's website to be very useful: http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/ He really lays out all the whole process and makes your first AG brew really easy. I went with a slightly improved mash tun design that can be found here...

I just ordered a sweet stout kit from northernbrewer.com and I'm looking forward to that. It will be the first stout that I have brewed, so I hope it turns out ok. I just thought that waiting a year to drink my beer would bee too much. I'll definately wait a month before diving into the stout...

I was just wondering how long I should let a stout condition before drinking it? I've been thinking about ordering an otmeal stout kit from midwest to drink while smoking cigars. I've found that regular ales seem too weak when smoking cigars. Anyway, some people say that stout should be...

I've been drinking my first batch this week after it had been bottled 2 weeks ago. The bottles were tasting great, so I decided to start on my TAD system. The problem is that the beer still tastes green. I tried a bottle after 1 week and that is what the beer in the TAD tastes like. Does it...