Recent content by dizzyfun

I do things a little bit backwards but with good reason. IF I'm going to be dry-hopping I will use the carboy for primary, then bucket for secondary so I don't have to deal with trying to get a bunch of hops out of a carboy. If there is no secondary, I will just use a carboy.

Maybe highlight some newer hops and how/when to use them in certain recipes. My LHBS guy yesterday had never heard of Mosaic hops.

Cold crashing is done to help particulate settle out and clear the beer, kinda like lagering. If you don't care about beer clarity you can skip this step. During the winter I'll normally place the carboy on the garage floor. Have not cold crashed during the summer yet. Not sure what I'll do...

Only issue I see is that with apricots, you need A LOT to be able to taste it in the finished product. Not that I've ever used any of the beer specific flavorings but you may want to look into it. Otherwise you'd need to add something like 5+ pounds of apricots. Since you're adding after...

No problem with using hops from a season or even 2 seasons past as long as they're stored properly. They're all vacuum sealed. Most were in their freezer, some in fridge. There's a AA% loss calculator somewhere, I'll probably consult it before using them although there was a thread on here...

Went to my LHBS today to see if they had re-opened yet after moving locations. Not only had they re-opened but they were having a 50% off sale on leaf hops! Ended up leaving with: Apollo-2 pounds $16 Centennial-1 pound $7 Cascade-1 pound $7 Amarillo-1 pound $8 Chinook-1 pound $8 and some...

I used aluminum for a while before buying stainless. I wouldn't worry too much about using aluminum. What I can tell you is that it's harder to clean. And don't leave oxi clean solution in it overnight. Now I can only use it for pressure canning since it ate the oxide layer off the aluminum...

After brewing beers for 9 months a friend has asked me to make him a traditional "old world" mead for him. I found an interesting read... The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened There are plenty of old mead recipes but most sound pretty gross, including a lot of spices that would not...

Grain bill is already crushed. I suppose if I mix the grains really well and subtract some of the grain bill I could then add some sugar. Only problem would be that the recipe would then not be repeatable.

1.5oz Mt Hood-60 min 0.25oz Mt Hood-10 min 0.75oz Saaz-10 min gives 32 IBU For this style is it better to have it at the lower or higher end of the IBU spectrum?

Going to brew my first saison this weekend. My original recipe was: Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 83.3 % 12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 2 6.3 % 12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3 6.3 % 8.0 oz...

Started my second batch of Apfelwein today. This time I used brown sugar, cinammon and Nottingham yeast. Last time I used table sugar and wine yeast. I think I'll also backsweeten it at bottling with Splenda (after tasting it first). The first batch was very dry. Let the rhino farts commence...

Rechecked FG, it was correct. I've hydrated some champagne yeast and thinking about adding it tonight or tomorrow.

Starting to do my homework to build an eBIAB system. Would like to stick with 120v since I have 120v service in both the front and back of the house. Winter I brew in the backyard in the sun, summer, I brew in the front in the shade. Can I do 5 gallon batches with a single 120V heater element...

will recheck FG tonight. Fermented at 70 degrees.