Recent content by jamesmp

What about this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002JM1ZMY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 That's an electric turkey fryer. It has a basket that lifts out, stainless steel heating element, a timer, and a temperature dial that supposedly goes down to 125. Drain spigot in the back. Anyone used that...

It's a theoretical exercise at this point. I'm looking for all grain, as easy and cheap as possible. If that means BIAB then great, if there is an easier or cheaper way then that's even better. To me, it would need some automation to keep it easy. Do you all really feel that using an...

I've been thinking about the rising interest in 1 gallon and small scale brewing and as everyone here tends to point out - that sure takes a lot of time for a teeny amount of beer. I do know a number of people who are casual brewers though and like doing things small, either as a passing hobby...

Maybe try steeping some first and see how extraction goes - the papery skins on nuts are high in tannins which may make it easy to overshoot. You could also look into walnut liquor and try steeping them in alcohol before adding to secondary.

I've got a lambic that I pitched the wyeast lambic blend and let sit in primary for a year. I pulled a sample today and found the gravity higher than expected (1.014), it was tart, but not very, and had a flavor that reminded me of licking a rubber stopper. Now, the flavor could have been due...

The beers arrived today and look great, thanks!

I always rack my beers using a racking cane and some tubing running to the bottom of a new carboy, but I've got some sours I'd like to rack soon and I've been thinking about how I can keep the oxygen as low as possible when transferring. Does anyone remember the grade school science trick...

I've got a medal winning Kriek here, it's been in the bottle 7 months or so after it won the medal so it's drifted a little bit, but still good. It's the only sour I've got ready to go but I'd be happy to swap.

I was in a similar situation as you, bottling on the same timeline and I bottled my kriek in 12oz bottles over eight months ago. I don't have my notes at hand, but I believe I used about the same amount of priming sugar I'd use for any other batch I made, 4-5oz corn sugar and I have not had any...

Old thread, but howd the basket work out? Did you get a good grain bed for filtering out of? Efficiency okay? What about the concern about the water around the sides - did that present a problem or did it work out?

OH NOES YR ALL FOODIES NOW! http://www.starchefs.com/events/studio/techniques/Joel_Robuchon/index.shtml

I don't have that kind of setup, but easy sous vide is one of the reasons I'm interested. This is Easter weekend, if you planned on hard boiling eggs it'd make an easy test run

FWIW according to http://www.minibrew.com/pdf/Mash.pdf they're using 'HD-8600 series Escorene linear high density polyethylene' and according to http://www.matweb.com/search/datasheet.aspx?matguid=d65f58c6e50a4e52aff9059d2fe83abd&ckck=1 the melting point is 271 degrees.

Poking around it looks like the MLT from MiniBrew comes with many of the fittings and ports ready, does anyone have experience using them for doing electric BIAB for 5 gallon batches? My two concerns are A) On 110v the heating element would max out at abt 2000w which could take a while to...

Are you putting the grains in the water as you turn the stove on, and how long does it take them to hit 160? The instructions say 20 min or until the water hits 170. With my stove I find that if I put in the grains when the water gets up to 120 then 20 minutes later the temp is about 165 which...