Recent content by ishkabibble

I have a 3G batch of saison I'll be bottling soon. I added organic orange zest in the last 5min of the boil, but after three weeks fermentation it's indiscernible. I thought maybe I could put the zest of one organic orange into like 4oz of vodka and let it sit for a week, then pour the...

I'm doing a 3G batch of wheat: 4# white wheat 1# pale ale .4# honey malt .3# flaked wheat .3# Victory 1# clover honey @ flameout .5oz Saaz @ 60 .5oz Saaz @ 10 White Labs 320 I realize that most of the honey taste ferments out, but this is more of a thing I'm doing to show...

It's February in Michigan--a warm day is 25F. To spite the bs that is midworst weather, I pitched a WLP 565 into 5G fermenter, wrapped it in heavy towels and placed it within inches of a floor vent in my home. This morning, a room thermometer next to the fermenter read 80F, and the fermenter...

My copper IC is beginning to get that statue of liberty patina on it. That's safe to use still, right?

that's awesome. thanks so much for hunting that down! i had no idea there was such a wide degree of modification among malts, domestic and foreign.

Any advice on preventing a stuck sparge with rye malt? I've never used it, but I've read of horror stories of gooey nightmares. The recipe I've concocted uses 15% rye malt (the rest 2-row, munich and crystals). Going on advice I've read on this forum, there will be 1# of rice hulls as...

my fellow michigander strikes again with solid methodology! i followed that very technique this saturday and banged out a 1060 porter that was only slated to net 1052. and yes, i've always been a stirrer, but i've never stirred it as though it were indebted to me. i would consider this thread...

that's the kind of experimentation i wish i had the resources/will to do. i've always assumed you'd get a decent conversion as long as you were in the range temperature-wise 140s-160s due to the prevalent modification, and that more specific temps would determine your dextrin count, but i've...

i don't have a pre-boil grav, no. was too anxious to get the first pot boiling. as my original post said, yeah, i was suspicious of stratification, but i poured in the second runnings from such a great height i can't see how they weren't mixed. i was going to drop my hydrometer directly into...

"I've personally had the best batch sparges at 25 minutes, while stirring every 5 minutes and one last time a minute or 2 before starting my draining." wowzers. i've rarely ever let my sparge water hang out longer than a few minutes before draining, nor have i ever stirred it. i thought...

It seems to me that the multi-rest method is really the most efficient, as it most closely resembles brewery functions. Single-step is a compromise to save on time and hassle. I guess I'd rather do something as well as I can, rather than be fast. Cleaning/bottling half the bottles with a move...

I'm making the transition from 5G to 2.5G batches because I've found that I actually like the process more than the product. Instead of my usual cooler-mash tun infusion method, I am going to use the reduced grain bill to my advantage, and do a multi-rest mash on the stovetop. I used to...

as much as i want to blame my probs on devices and ingredients, i know that most of my issues in life have been operator-errors. i lautered too long, and let the temp drop. that has to be it. so you really just open up that cooler spigot and let it run full-bore?

ok, that's pretty interesting! i, too, found my lengthly hose braid up around the mid-mash level rather than on the floor of the cooler. i can't, however, figure out how a wandering hose would affect efficiency. it's not like there's any liquid left at the end of the lautering. maybe...

Over the years, I've batch sparged anywhere from 10-60min. I've never noticed a difference in extraction from one end of the time spectrum to the other. I let it run long yesterday because it's a high-gravity thing and I was paranoid about getting all of my grain rinsed. Normally... I gather...