Recent content by FreeParty

I believe the culprit is lactobacillus from cross contamination after using the same tubing for racking ginger beer (lacto presence) and this Midas Touch clone. I tasted it and did a gravity check. The sugars have gone sour but there is a high alcohol presence, at the very least it has a...

How does the beer taste? Was it sour??

With a rocket stove and all wood burning stoves the temperature of the fire is a function of amount of fuel and type of fuel. Hardwood burns hotter than softwood, fir bark burns hotter than hot, etc. Also with a boil over, just pull out the fuel. Most of the heat is transferred to the cooking...

The batch has been in secondary for ten days now and there is a white film on the top with large bubbles attached. Hmmm, looks like a mold. Should I add some campden to kill bacteria? Will that kill me if I drink it? Is it time to bottle it and drink? Expert advice is appreciated. And...

I like the website, it has nice insight on pickling. I would like to find a site like that describing lacto fermented sodas. Like I said in my original post, I started my fermentation with a ginger bug plant of water, ground ginger and sugar fermented aerobically and no yeast was added, only...

First question is whether or not lacto fermented ginger beer is alcoholic? I began with a ginger bug and now i use the residual "yeast" left in the bottom of the carboy for the next batch after it is washed. It starts fermenting within a day and bubble like crazy. If my OG is around 1.045...

Last night I took a gravity reading: 0.997 Today I took another reading: 0.997 So I transferred the wort to a secondary. It tastes really good - malt, saffron, honey notes and a big muscat nose but not much for grapey taste. I may have added too much saffron. I think the ABV may be off after...

I wish I could find a 10 gallon water cooler where I live. Nothing like that is available, and the camping coolers are small (5 gallon) and expensive ($80). Only in the USA are coolers cheap. So I want to make my own. Does anyone know the chemical reaction for making polystyrene foam? I...

Update: the primary is still bubbling after a month. I have not checked the gravity yet. I am going to bottle this eventually. Before that I will let it sit in secondary until it is drinkable. I am pretty curious to what is going on in that carboy by now.

I have still only put the pen to paper on this but this is what i got so far. HLT heated by the stovetec hot water heater by convection using a rocket stove feeding the mash tun by gravity. Mash tun (ale pale insulated with old towels or clothes and maybe duct tape) unheated and feeding boil...

For anyone interested, I soak the carboy for 24 hours or more with a solution of water, a couple tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide and equal amount of baking soda. Then I use the sand swirling method, which works best with a 3:1 sand to water ratio. The water just helps the sand move, the sand...

I have thought about using the RS to create steam but I do not know it would be easier to control than controlling the amount of fuel placed in the combustion chamber. Would a steam jacketed kettle be the ideal way to heat the kettle? Is the steam used in some kind of heat exchanger? How does...

Great help everyone, thanks. I am making my keggles next week and then onto the rocket stove, which I cant wait to share. One thought/question on the topic of mash tun:what if I made a conical false bottom for faster and better draining of the mash. Has anyone tried this? Is it worth the...

I am wondering if anyone has experimented or is using a rocket stove to heat their brew? I am thinking of constructing a three tier keggle structure and heating my barrels with independent rocket stoves. I am still in the dreaming stages and looking for help on the dimensions of the stove...

Of course you can, and the odds of receiving them would be fifty fifty like everything else in life. Perhaps, you have never seen the Australian Customs reality show - they look in everything for drugs. I am in Tenerife also looking for hop rhizome this season. The only site I have seen in...