Recent content by it99

I was thinking about doing a all grain stout, maybe a milk stout with some type of fruit/ maybe coffee, cacao,etc. I am not too familiar cream/milk stout other than they are a little sweet and very creamy. Before I do a bad experiment., What fruits would go or would not go with styles? I'm...

I just want to do some simple temperature control for my 120 volt hot plate. I am going get my water up to temp and then put it on my hot plate to maintain the temperatuerre for HLT batch sparging. Is there something easy that is prebuilt already or do you have to custom build something? THanks

how much to steep. a whole pound?

If I want to add a little chocolatey/coffee can i just add some chocolate malt as specialty grains to steep? I might also try adding cacao in secondary.

It looks like it uses Muntons Ale dry yeast. If I want to have it be a higher alcohol should i use 2 of these yeasts or a liquid wyeast with a yeast starter? If so what wyeast would be good to use for an irish stout? thanks

I have a 5 gallon TruBru extract kit of an Irish Stout. I'd really prefer to make a smaller batch of 2.5 gal and have it be stronger than your typical 4% stout. What if I use all of the 5 gallon ingredients but just make a 2.5 gallon batch. So I would just use half of the water. So you...

Sorry one more question: Does grain bed depth matter much if you are just batch sparging?? I think the things i've read they are using fly sparging. Thanks

Does the shape really matter round 5 gallon vs. 24 quart rectangular. Seems like everyone I know has a rectangular cooler but they might be doing more than 5 gallon batches and need the bigger area.??

Thanks for the info. I just read some of the "How to brew" book and he you ideally need around a foot grain bed and can't be too low. I'm only going to do 5 gallon or 2.5 gallon even batches. So my 48 quart would be way too big. So sounds like I probably need a 5 gallon round beverage cooler...

I have a rectangular 48 quart cooler i was going to make into a mash tun. I plan on doing batch sparging only. I've read different things about whether to make a copper manifold or use SS hose from home depot. I just want to make what will make better beer. I don't mind extra effort or...

Can't use some kind of kettle mash screen like they have: http://www.brewhardware.com/false-bottoms-filters/139-screen

That's the site I found and was thinking about getting option 2 bulkhead. I wasn't sure the difference between option 2 and 3. I was going to add it to my boil kettle. Also, did you get the step drill bit from that site and did it work well.Seems like they have good prices. Thanks!!!!

I want to add a decent stainless steel ball valve to by brew pot but am having find a hard time finding all of the peices together. I was looking at the Blichmann ball valve that seems nice but it's missing the dip tube that goes on the inside of the brew pot to bring in liquid. I can't find...

Thanks for the info. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to build any hardware if I didn't have to. Why isn't there any commercial off the shelf hardware that people can just buy. It just seems like there is a need for this type of hardware and I am surprised that nobody has anything pre-built. I...

thanks for all of the very detailed information. It sounds like it's not too practical to try to boil with 120 v unless you want to wait an hour. If I try 240v element and plug into my dryer outlet will that work? How long will that take?