Recent content by EmGeeTee

A pretty straightforward IPA. Which is probably going to make off-flavors more noticeable, I'd imagine. So is it a bad idea to do some half-measure, like putting ice packs around it?

Hey e'ryone... I've been looking for posts on this but haven't found any strong answers. I pitched yesterday evening at 70* (WLP001), and put the carboy up on a wire shelf in my nice cool basement like I normally do, but I just got home and the crystal strip thermometer's reading 79*. I...

Noted. Thanks for all your advice here, it's ridiculously helpful. I'm sure you remember fumbling through your first batches. There's like a crushing amount to learn here, but I suppose that's why I like doing this so much. I must have done something wrong taking the reading because there's...

Geez, I just don't know how I could have screwed it up that badly. I've done it a couple of times before with pretty good success. I calibrated my thermometer just before I did the mash, so I'd be surprised if the temp was way off. I mashed with a little over a gallon of water for 65 min, and...

one more question, if I do what you're suggesting cevezarara, what do you think is the minimum amount of water I could use to dissolve 1 lb of DME in. I know that'll screw with the calculations you generously did, but I'm thinking that I ought to add as little liquid as possible at this point.

Idea! I have an available carboy right now. I *could* rack half the batch into that and add some sanitized DME to one (or I guess both) of them. I'm inclined to add it only to one to see how different they come out. But fermentation has already sort of started, There's about a finger of...

Thanks guys, this is helpful. I'm nearly certain the problem was that the mash wasn't efficient enough. This is something I have to learn more about. Incidentally, where does one go to learn about mash efficiency? I mashed for an hour and I batch sparged. It's a 5 gal batch. I took the...

So, I'm new to partial mashing and I decided to do something simple, a bitter. The OG I ended up with is 1.038 (60*) which feels pretty low to me, and I'm wondering if I should do something radical about it like put a couple more pounds of DME in there once fermentation's started. Here's my...

Oh, I guess I was thinking that all the unfermentable sugar would throw off the meaning of the hydrometer reading. But, as you're pointing out, since we get ABV from just a relative measurement that shouldn't matter. Makes sense. Thanks for being patient with me, I'm still learning ;)

I just bottled a chocolate milk stout that looks like it attenuated pretty well. OG 1.054/FG 1.022. It's a little high for a FG, but there's a lot of residual sugar in there and so it's not surprising. But I was wondering how I tell what the ABV is given that the FG is high on the basis of...