Recent content by dk21

It sounds like you may not drink bourbon, so Maker’s Mark wouldn’t be a bad choice. I’m not a huge fan of wheated bourbon, but it’s an easy drinker. I’d pay a bit more and get Eagle Rare, however, and enjoy what’s left. Since Eagle Rare can be hard to get in certain locations, I’d also...

There’s no harm in leaving the blowoff tube in place, but if you want, I’d at least wait a few days before replacing with an airlock (switching is perfectly safe). I suggest holding off because I have made the switch quickly only to find krausen in my airlock again. Your mileage may vary.

New Grainfather Connect owner here. I’m looking forward to brewing with this, but had a quick question regarding water calculations. When building a recipe using Grainfather’s tool, there is a boil size field. I’m assuming that this is the pre boil size. The confusing thing...

I bought a Beer Meister a few years ago and really like it. I found the price pretty reasonable, especially since it was ready to go with homebrew fittings. There aren't any holes to drill, customizations to make, etc. Just some minor assembly...

I hose my mash tun out, but I do mix up a few gallons of PBW in my boil kettle, primarily because I can conveniently soak other items in there while I clean everything else up. I don't think it's a bad thing to run PBW through my kettle's ball valve, either.

In my experience, Jamil is right on. Pitching the proper amount of yeast and fermenting cool makes a fantastic hefe!

I've never worked with victory malt but I recently made a hefe with some aromatic malt and white labs 380,fermented pretty cool (about 62) and many people (brewers and people who don't know much about beer) have really liked it. The only way to know for sure is to brew it!

Do you know what your final gravity came to? 3 lbs of extract for a 2 gallon hefe sounds a bit high, so maybe the yeast didn't fully attenuate.

You can, but our dishwasher takes 2.5 hours to run the sanitation cycle. I can use a vinator in a fraction of the time. Also, if you use a rinse aid you'll have head retention problems.

I could be remembering wrong, but I think I end up putting around 1.5 gallons in, which seems to be an appropriate amount. I just use the dilution on the PBW label. 0.75 oz/gallon, I believe.

Good call on the 5L. It'll do fine for smaller starters but can handle big ones if needed.

Is it the Stir Starter? If so, go for it. A lot of people are very happy with them. The gentleman who makes them is really nice, too. I have the Stir Starter as well as the Stir Starter 5L, both of which have served me well.

+1. Keg Connection is a great company and they care about their customers!

I'd give some thought about whether or not you need or want the extra features that the Fermostat provides. If I remember correctly, it allows programming temperature ramping, which is nice if you're away from home or just don't want to have to change the temperature manually. For what it's...

I'm personally not a fan of Wyeast 3333. I'd suggest White Labs WLP300/Wyeast 3068 for a traditional German hefe taste or White Labs WLP380 for something a little different. I'd also ditch the maltodextrine and agree with shooting for something more like 12-13 IBU.