Recent content by Hopelesst

Mud

I've been out of the programming game since tiBASIC and haven't done any circuitry since highschool physics. But this is exactly what I want to implement once I get my temp control system set up. I'm getting the wife and I a pair of Arduino starter kits to learn the basics. So a few...

I've been meaning to sign up for a long time and this is the give away that finally got me to do it. I came looking for information on programmable fermentation temp control, and look what's in the give away! Love the site. Keep up the good work, guys!

Brewed a bigger hoppier version this time for an upcoming crab fest. OG: 1.052 FG: 1.011 ABV: 5.4% IBU: 26.5 5.3# American 6-Row 2# Flaked Corn 1# Flaked Rye 1# Dark Brown Sugar 2oz English Crystal 70-80L 2oz English Crystal 160L 2oz Chocolate Malt 350L 1oz Bramling Cross (7.4%) @45min for 17.2...

My first batch was with CalAle and it turned out fine.

This was my first all-grain BIAB recipe, and its about to be the first batch to go through my new mash tun. All I have to do now is finish building it... Success! I stepped up the recipe a bit so I would be covered for a no sparge mash (worried about kinks in my process). Looks like the I'll...

That sounds fine. I've been doing side-by-side small batches recently and I heat my water on the stove, and BIAB mash in a bucket while I work on cleanup and the next batch. The beauty of this system is that it will work with whatever equipment you have available. You just have to find the...

Found a problem, and made an excellent solution: Of the two ESBs in my experiment, I liked the Fawcett Optic much more. However, my LHBS doesn't carry and Fawcett malts. So rather than take another go at the same recipies and try to get more hop aroma I decided to just combine the leftover base...

Hydrometer sample had almost no hop aroma, but a nice clean bitterness. Oddly, the bitterness behaved differently in each of the two beers. In the Maris Otter batch it was a building bitter that stayed on the tongue. In the Fawcett Optic batch it was a clean, cleansing bitterness that opened the...

The hops I got were a higher alpha acid than I was expecting. At 7.4% I had to scale down the amount I used in my somewhat subdued ESB. I was both happy and sad since I really wanted to get a good feel for this hop, but the 'juicy fruit gum' descriptor had me pretty worried. The hops smelled...

Well the West Yorkshire Ale is a yeast that is supposed to leave a full chewy malt character. Supposedly it is the Timothy Taylor yeast and finishes a bit high. That and mashing in at 152 should help keep it drinkable without thinning it out. And a 15min hop addition couldn't hurt.

I'm about to brew some test batches for an ESB recipie and to keep the number of variables as low as possible will use a single hop. The earthiness and black currant sound like the kind of flavor profile my wife and I like in english hopped beers so Bramling looks like a good fit. Honestly I'll...

Remember how I said I got worried about carbination and added a few grains of champagne yeast to each bottle? Well guess what. We crack one of the 6 that didnt have the added yeast and it is a completely different beer. More spice, richer malt, less ethanol, less tart, brighter pumpkin, and more...

Opened our first bottle last night. Lots of booze in the nose, but spices come through nicely. At first I got a sharp, fruity tartness backed with the rum and barleywine malt flavors. Roasty pumpkin rises up toward the end. The spices really show up at the end , cleansing the other flavors from...

Just bottled a batch that had 4.5 pounds of pumpkin in the boil. there was a huge layer of trub at the bottom of the fermenter. So far it tastes great. Enjoy!