Recent content by enicholson

I just picked one of these up at Harris Teeter for $17.99. Terrible price for 5.7L of Miller, but a great price for a (hopefully) reusable tap & bottle. For those that were interested. The bottle is EXACTLY the same as my official Tap-A-Draft bottles, not just similar but exact. I'm sure...

Fat Tire & Mothership should be pretty obviously different. Fat Tire is a pretty amber/red hue with nice malty notes and no wheat. Mothership is pale blonde with a citrusy wheat character. Maybe the taps or bottles got mixed up?

Brew Pal! It's great, and only $.99! I tried iBrewMaster, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. It's more of a scheduling/organization app than a recipe calculator.

There's some info about gluten free beers in this months "all about beer" magazine. I believe they came to the conclusion that sorghum and other grains worked well in sweeter beers like dopple bocks, but were a little too sweet for pale ales.

I have a 50,000 BTU wok burner, so it's reasonably quick, but any extra conversion time would be a good thing right? Or should I be worried about finishing too dry? Thanks again!

Thanks everybody! I brewed yesterday and decided to try adding water to the grain. It was only a partial mash (5.5 lbs grain) because I had some LME that I needed to use. I put a folding stainless steel steamer basket in the kettle like a false bottom to prevent scorching. Then I added a...

So I'm getting ready to start a BIAB batch, and I'm reading all these comments about avoiding clumping when you add the grain... Why not add the grain to the pot, then the water, and then bring it up to temperature? Obviously you have to worry about overshooting the mash temp, but other than...

No idea what'll age well... But THANKS! We all owe you a beer.

Welcome to the hobby ManCaveBrew! Be sure to check out the CARBOY club in Raleigh. We meet 4th wednesday of the month and it's a great place to meet brewers and taste some killer beer. Welcome to CARBOY! Cheers! Eric

There are a bunch of new breweries around the Triangle (Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh) that I haven't tried yet. But I always like almost anything from Highland brewery in Asheville, the Gaelic and Oatmeal Porter are good and readily available at any grocery. Carolina Brewing Co. is pretty...

Every taste of an incomplete beer is another notch on your education of how beer is made. If I only wanted to taste perfect finished beer I wouldn't brew my own!

I got a kit from Midwest about 6 mo ago and still love it. Very affordable, and good quality stuff that you can use for a long time. They have a bunch of different packages, but I got the Brewing Starter Kit w/ Better Bottle. Order a bottle of StarSan & an ingredient kit with it, start saving...

Kewl. 40qt en route!

Speaking from experience, I wouldn't recommend soaking a nylon grain bag in full strength undiluted Star San. I did that once by accident (those caps aren't as tight as you think) and the grain bag completely dissolved! But all of my intentional use on my Ale Pale, tubing, better bottle has...

It was pretty cool, but nothing you guys don't already know. Although I did learn that the "Urquell" in Pilsner Urquell is pronounced "irk well". :) Good interviews with the guys at Dogfish Head, Sierra Nevada, and some small shop named Anheuser something...