Recent content by ipso

I wanted the power brick to fit inside the box to be all self-contained, but the fan was too big. What to do? I bolted the fan to a piece of poplar wood that slides snugly back and forth. So it can slide up to allow for the power brick. I also drilled holes on the bottom such that when...

I should qualify what I’m thinking on this; to one and all (per OP.) I’m thinking more along the lines of this: - Keg A, held at 38° (for however many days it takes to “mature” – let’s say 6 weeks) vs. - Keg B, held at a fluxuating ~72-79° room temp (for...

I’m still working on the “craggy” head thing. That’s what I call this. (Perhaps there is a better, or more recognized, name for this phenomenon? I see the word “krausen” as specific to yeast action in fermentation. Maybe not.) Every now and again...

As an experiment, (that’s what I call it now – but I was just perpetually lazy), I left a bag of grain that was already crushed from the shop, hops, and a packet of 05 in the bottom of the garage fridge for just under 2 YEARS! The grain lost like 30% of it’s weight – which totally shocked me...

What you can do is get the same color cooler but larger – she may not notice the difference for quite a while. You can store the smaller one inside the larger one. Or perhaps more nefarious means: “Holy moly honey, look what I found in the alley behind Joe’s place – a...

You may be dead Grape Nuts correct, but I question your use of “does”/”did”. Or do you mean “have tried”? Because then I’m part of your 30-40%. And I am “doing the European method”!! I just use frickin’ loads of US developed hops and Cali yeast! In any case, cheers!:mug:

Nylon bag? Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. That cost money boy. All we need is a 2 cen’ balloon. I jest. BIAB is of course totally valid, nifty even, and I see zero reason why it can’t make “the same quality of beer.” It’s just whenever someone mentions it I think...

I handled this exact situation thus: I demoted the 5gal mash tun to my hot liquor tank. I purchased a 10gal mash tun. If you’re doing anything else, you’re cheating the must-buy-more-equipment homebrew Goddess. SHE does not like that, and will severely punish you for your disobedience -...

I’ve seen this. I have a standard orange Rubbermaid 10gal mash tun with a SS false bottom. The thing is, if you take a temp, say with a digital thermometer, just after dough-in and a THOROUGH mix - from the center top of the grain - it is my opinion that somehow heat rises to that...

I used to batch sparge, but now I fly the helicopter for an hour.5 and drink beer. (It’s old, and sounds rather like the windmill in the opening scene of the movie, Once Upon A Time in the West (1968). Batch sparging is easier and quicker, to be sure, but – for me – I really...

Classic! I was all-grain from the get-go. At this point I literally think extract brewing is more complicated – trying to convert recipes and such. The only recommendation I have is get BeerSmith or ProMash. I was a hard head and built spreadsheets and wanted to calc everything from...

You only need the one kettle. What you can do is get a much cheaper used cooler to serve as your Hot Liquor Tank. Spend another $15 at Home Depot and add a bulkhead valve to it if you want to fly-sparge. My Hot Liquor Tank (cooler) is only 5gal; a deposed mash tun. That and my "new" 10gal...

Star San is still so ...Johnny come lately. F’r criminy sakes - it’s like driving a Prius. [Real men use Iodophor] should be a bumper sticker included with the 32oz bottle! I jest. When I FINALLY ran out of my 32oz bottle of Iodophor, I went to the shop to get some Star San but they...

I had a Pliney the Elder draft the other day at my local, and Dear Mother of Goodness was that particular pour balanced. It’s not always that way, but this time the taste profile was this huge perfect TOWERING smooth bell curve. It was magnificent. “Bitter” had nothing to do with it, and as...

1 = Not really. You’ll have no idea what you’re going to get. You need BeerSmith(et al) to tell you how much PSI to use depending on exact grain bill, desired style v/v, and temp. It took me a while to figure this out (doh!) but the PSI calc is equilibrium – so after about 3 days it’s...