Recent content by Dougan

The brewing setup is pretty much everything you would need to get up and running with a full all-grain brewing setup. It's not as fancy as some of the kits you see here, but I brewed several times a month for several years just fine with this setup, so it's definitely enough. Everything is...

Mine gets wobbly with 7 or 8 gallons in the keg kettle. Not scared here, but I bet a full keg would get it wobbly enough to concern me a bit. So 50 gallons seems like a lot. I struggle to think you'll find a non-commercial one that's solid under that kind of weight. I'd have to think you are...

I put my hops in a large paint strainer during the boil and then when I dry hop, I do it in the keg, by putting the (leaf) hops in a small paint strainer, zip-tying it to the dip tube (using my dainty hands) and then I pressurize the keg (just to force-seal it) and turn it upside down. It...

You could rack it into another keg and leave the last inch or two, that would probably get rid of most of the hop particles.

I have an old CO2 tank (1989 marked on the tank) with an old regulator in my kegging setup. I noticed that it's leaking out of the regulator. There is a hole drilled in the part that holds the screw you use to set the PSI, and it leaks out of that hole (sometimes). I'm wondering if maybe...

Yeah, I thought about tilting it back but that probably would be difficult to assemble and would get in the way since i'm using the freezer/collar approach. I wonder, though, if just using the right tension of some kind of bungee cord might work. I think I'm going to continue assuming that...

I'm going to be building my freezer/kegerator in the near future and I had an idea for a tap handle. I have a really old trolling rod with one of those old, big saltwater reels on it (see http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mgrpH-6uyjt2IQ8DC9yzAHA.jpg) I was toying with the idea of using...

If you get a good starter going, it'll technically be fermenting before you even pitch, and you can see bubbles less than an hour into it sometimes. Just be careful about the temperature, in my experience, short lag time = vigorous fermentation = more heat generated.

Have more kegs filled!

It could have gotten an infection,but after a year you'll know one way or the other. It's either really infected, or not at all, so smell it, then taste it, if it tastes remotely fine it's probably gonna be great .

no, never had that problem, but i've seen some people rig a blowoff by putting the bottom part of a 3-piece airlock in the drilled stopper and then attaching the blowoff tube to that. Not the best practice IMO because the airlock piece could catch chunks of kreusen and clog it. BTW, when using...

The extra space in the secondary would be a problem unless you were able to purge it with CO2 (which you could do with a keg setup, but if you're bottling I'm guessing you can't). I'd also be weary about bottling right after primary fermentation if you aern't letting it sit for a couple weeks...

I did this this spring, ended up toppign off way too much. Beer was watery, but i still liked it.

If I understand your question correctly, you are basically asking if doubling the extract will double the final gravity. Is that what you are asking? In general, yeah, that's the result, but there are some limitations. For example, most yeast has an upper limit to what ABV it can take before...

The different information you are getting is just a result of different schools of thought. Some people like to have it blow off and get rid of the kreusen, some don't. Both is just a matter of preference, your beer will be good either way. I'd recommend using a blowoff tube on your primary...