Recent content by dmbeck2

Yeah, if anyone has any they would like to sell, please let me know as I missed this thread earlier on.

I always thought I was careful enough with my carboys until a month ago when I was finishing up what started out as one of the smoothest brew days ever. As I was placing my carboy full of ESB wort on the garage floor next to the fermentation freezer, it slipped about two inches to the floor...

I've been brewing for a couple of years now, all-grain for about a year. I used to buy bottled water, but recently added a .5 micron carbon filter set up to my rig so I can use tap water. I live in Austin, TX and the here's the water profile according to the city: Ca - 12 ppm Mg 15 ppm Na...

As long as you keep some space between the wood and flame then you shouldn't have any problem. The 2x4's on each side below the burner can get pretty hot, but not to the point where they are going to catch on fire or anything. The wood to the right of the boil kettle doesn't get very hot at...

Just recently added the pump to this one, but it isn't necessary. I just use it for recirculation / whirlpooling during the cooling process. One of the good things about wood is that it is easy to modify / add on to whenever you would like to.

Yeah, the drawer is definitely good to have. It was one of those cheap plastic / Rubbermaid type drawers that I had lying around so I just screwed it into the brew stand and it holds all of the miscellaneous stuff in one place. Thats the advantage of a wooden brew stand...you can easily add...

Here's Ole Woody.

Hey everyone, I'm going to be making a American Pale Ale this weekend and wanted to get some feedback on the hop schedule. I'm looking to make something that will have a nice hop flavor, decent malt background and will be very drinkable. Here's what I've got: Batch size: 5.25 Gallon 5 lb...

I let Beersmith do the volume calculations and I have a site glass on my HLT that is marked at every .5 gallon which I watch when I open / close the ball valve to move the right amound of mash in / sparge water.

How I've been calculating my efficiency:I've been using kindof a roundabout way of calculating efficiency. I just take my wort samples at various points in the brew process and compare it to what brewsmith says the gravity should be at certain efficiency levels (for example, at preboil, after...

Hey Everyone! I'm going on my 10th all grain batch or so and I can't seem to hit efficiency levels higher than 65% to 66%. I've adjusted multiple things over the batches and none have seemed to make a difference. Here's what I'm doing: 3-tier brew system all gravity fed with a 10 gallon...

I just recently began using starters and today I pitched my whole starter into my wort instead of decanting the starter beer first. I'm concerned that the starter beer is going to negatively affect the flavor of the beer I made which is a spiced amber holiday ale. I used a 1600 ml starter made...

duplicate post

Hey everyone! I just built a new 3 tier set up and am installing a ball valve on my brew pot. Here's some background: -Brew pot = 15 gallon Super pot -I use an immersion chiller -I usually whirlpool and siphon from the side -I use pellet hops and dump them directly into the wort...

Hi All! I live in Austin, TX and have had a lot of trouble getting my wort to cool quickly for my last couple of batches. One was an IPA, the other was a Belgian Wit. I use an immersion chiller with a pre-chiller that I put in a small cooler with Ice and some water. The chillers seem to...