Recent content by funky_brewster

Sorry, I realize now my first response was missing a few key items. The solution, in my experience, is to simply lower the serving pressure to 3-5 PSI. Full disclosure though, I don't use a counter-pressure filler but rather a racking cane fit into a picnic faucet. Not sure if the same is...

Ahhh, good point. Well, we'll just have to see how many bottles are left after all the testing that'll need to happen :D

My initial thinking was to try one after 4 days, to see how quickly the carbonation is setting in and get a baseline. If it's still very low at that point, wait another week. Or conversely check in another 2-3 days if they seem close. I guess I'm just not sure if I can expect the carbonation...

Thanks Yooper. Yeah, I realize the answer is very unique to the batch and it's environment. The plastic bottle idea is handy and I'll have to try that next time, but everything is already capped and conditioning at 68* in the basement. I took a look at a couple bottles and there seemed to be...

Hey folks, I'm still learning the ropes to cider making and enjoy the different challenges from brewing beer. My last batch is one made from apple juice concentrate (topped off with the appropriate amount of water) along with 5 lbs of pasteurized fresh apples in the primary using Nottingham...

I did, 13 cans of concentrate added up to about the same grams of sugar as 5 gallons of store-bought juice. I also diced & pasteurized about 5 lbs of granny, jonagold, and fuji apples that got added to the primary. Gravity was 1.054 when we pitched the Nottingham yeast. About 8 days in, it...

Thanks for all your effort in documenting this process, Psych. I have a "Mother of Fermentation Chamber" already built, but got tired of swapping ice blocks. I'd like to break down a mini cube fridge that's hanging around my sister's garage and rig the evaporator plate inside the chamber...

Hey, your recipe specs are just about spot on for what I was gonna try (though I plan to substitute pasteurized strawberries for the brown sugar), since I saved about $10 buying frozen concentrate rather than the same thing + water. Did this turn out like you'd hoped? 9.5% is beefy, I...

Last Friday, I made a Kentucky Breakfast Stout clone (from BYO, with my iteration here). I brew in a bag, and knew that 17.25 lbs was going to be an experiment. The bag held up fine, but I chose to sparge in a bottling bucket rather than my typical "pour over" method, since the bag was so full...

It's the True Brew brown ale "all malt" kit. The extract is 3.3 lb munton's dark lme and 2 lbs munton's dark dme.

Awesome. Yeah, that's what I found after looking up the difference in dark malt extract. Plenty of roasty grains already in there, so I dropped the chocolate malt in my planned recipe and just got a pound of C 40 plus another of extra light dme. Ended up grabbing 2oz of willamette since they...

Hi all, I'm helping a friend brew his first batch today and I was hoping to "augment" his kit with some fresh ingredients. He's got a "Brown Ale" kit which consists of 5.3 lbs dark extract and no steeping grains. I was hoping to add some grains for body, but don't know what would work given...

Awesome deal for any homebrewers that can make it to their Bowery & Houston location in Manhattan. Prices are on-par if not better than elsewhere, but you may lose some of the free advice that comes with your LHBS. -funky

So I made good headway. Cutting the board is NO picnic. A few folks on the build page mentioned hot wire cutters, but didn't have any at my disposal. I went for a combo of utility knife (which worked rather well, but only got me through 1/2) and paring knife, skinny and sharp but not more...

If finish before the swells die down tomorrow, I'm gonna set sail in this mamma jamma with two of every beer in my fridge..