Recent content by FifteenTen

I mash pale ales at 150ish which makes the wort a little more fermentable.

Brewing today. I heat my strike water a little over strike temp to heat my mash tun. While stirring to bring the temp down I dropped my thermometer. Instinctively I tried to catch it. I did catch it, but below the surface of the 165 degree water. For those of you who are not aware, 165 degree...

I concur with all of the above. Life has even dried out my air lock (refilled immediately upon discovery mind you) and the beer was great. I'm not sure about "S" style air locks but a dry three piece still requires Ninja microbes and gale force winds to contaminate. MHO. (In an effort to defeat...

Brew another batch. Watching that batch ferment will occupy your time as the first conditions and since you'll be drinking the first batch as the second conditions you won't be fretting about it. It's a wonderfully vicious cycle.

That's the thing about Scottish ale, hop flavor and aroma are supposed to be "none to low" according to Ray Daniels' Designing Great Beers (Table 24.1; Page 284). Which is why I thought old hops would be ok for bittering using a single 60 minute addition but over compensating for BeerSmith's IBU...

I have some 11.2% Horizon hops (pellets) that I vacuum sealed and placed in the freezer some 18 to 24 months ago. I'm considering using them to bitter a Scottish 80/. Should I (A) not do this and use fresher hops; (B) use them as normal; or (C) use them but over shoot my IBUs a bit to account...

In the beer you have now, the hop flavor will mellow with time. Set six of those beautiful beers aside. Try one in a six months or so.

I had to take a forced vacation day. Just to annoy the Man I scheduled it for a Friday. Sad I know, having a Friday off and all. I mean, I’m a hard working American, what am I supposed to do with a day off? Then I saw it. One of my YRPs was approaching it expiration date? You know, my Yeast...

Beersmith adjusts for tun temp and tun deadspace and intital grain temp etc. all of these things can be adjusted for your personal set up. I had to just get in there and click this and that until I felt like I was where I need to be. I'm still no beersmith expert, but I'm learning. Good luck.

+1 on Basic Brewing Video, I don't know about Ben's Homebrew but be careful with Craigtube. Craigtube is one of the videos that convinced me to start homebrewing so props to him for that. But I watch an episode the other day where Craig poured a can of Coopers light hopped extract into a...

I’ve brewed 22 five gallon batches, the last five being all grain. Which means I’ve read enough and have just enough experience to be dangerous. My last two batches I thought: “I know carbonation levels are different depending on style. I should use a carbonation calculator to determine the...

Congratulations! I live 1,230 miles from Mad House Brewery. Damn the three tier distrabution system! Seriously, welcome to the obsession.

Curious: would you add the boiled water and peels, or just the boiled peels? Haven't brewed a wit yet but it's on the bucket list.

The average noob question: "My kettle is 4 gallons is that ok? Do I really need a 6.5 gallon primary and the 5 gallon secondary that comes in the kit?" AlzHighmer's "noob" question: "How can I utilize my 30 gallon fermenter with my ten gallon pot?" AlzHighmer is taking the bull by the...

Ahh...the joys of trying to make great beer better...why else would we do this. My wife often says: "Its only 8am, I can't think about beer yet." and I think "Its 8am!, I've already lost 8 hours of planning today!"