Recent content by guitar510

I did not change the way I crush my grains and unfortunately I did not take a FRG reading. I will do that in the future. OK, so here's an example... If I have 18 lbs of total grain and I use 1.5 qt per lb, I would have 25.5 qts or 6.38 gal of mash water. If I assume 0.125 x lbs of grain is...

By absorbtion, I mean the amount of water absorbed by the grains...ie water loss. OGs were 1.060 to 1.075. Not sure on dead space.

I typically add about 1 gal of water, then grains, then the rest of the water and mix well. Volumes for each batch sparge were 3 gal. When I fly sparged, I used a quart pitcher and made sure there was about 1 in of water over the grain bed. No other changes. By prescriptive, I mean 1.5...

Several brews ago, I finally upgraded my MLT from a 5 gal square beverage cooler to a 10 gal rubbermaid from Home Depot. The copper manifold I created fit perfectly in the 5 gal cooler, but due to the increased area of the 10 gal, it is a bit small for the space in the 10 gal. The manifold also...

I've pretty much exclusivley used WLP001 or Wyeast1056 for my IPAs to date. I've been extremely happy with the results and the yeast is very consistent. I made a last minute decision to brew the other night and ended up picking up a San Diego Super Yeast (WLP090) and English Ale (WLP002) just...

I just purchased a WLP001 with Best Before July 25....can't be 4 months?

Thanks for the quick replies. 3. I should have been more clear. I did go straight from 1 month primary to keg. Even though the yeast cake was dense and I transferred carefully, there would be some settling at the bottom of the keg from the transfer and the chilling of the beer.

I just got my corny keg setup and kegged my first beer! A few questions come to mind now that I have... 1. Can I force carbonate with the picnic faucet attached? 2. How do I clear the picnic faucet of liquid if I detach it from the keg? 3. When bottling, I would rack to the bottling...

Nope. Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale.

Well my airlock was borderline clogged, so I rushed to Home Depot to get 1 in. hoseline for a blowoff tube. When I pulled the stopper - SPEWWWW!!! So, I guess my yeast starter was healthy. Never seen this aggressive of a fermentation. I think from now on I'll use the blowoff on the primary and...

I brewed an Imperial Stout yesterday and the OG ended up quite a bit lower than I expected. This was mainly because my final volume was 6 gal instead of 5 gal. I thought I would lose more water during the boil. I think from now on I need to plan on losing 0.5-0.75 gal during the boil and no...

Bensiff...thanks for the detailed reply. I do believe the dishwasher detergent has chlorine bleach in the form of sodium hypochlorite. I'm not sure if residual from a previous wash could truly infect the beer though. If only a little is needed than this could be the cause. I've used the...

I bottled an AG IPA on Monday and gave it a taste tonight. While I realize it needs time, it tastes like there is a mild to moderate medicinal/chlorophenolic taste. Interestingly, I drank some pre-bottled and it did not notice the medicinal quality. In fact, I really liked the taste and am...

I'm not worried, just curious. Is adding yeast common practice? 6-12 months bottle conditioning?

I currently have a variation on an imperial stout in my primary fermenter. I forget the OG since I'm at work, but it's high...around 1.085. The recipe I'm mimicking calls for 2 weeks primary, 2-3 months secondary and 2-4 weeks bottle. First of all, does this sound reasonable. I've never brewed a...