Recent content by jdlev

I've got a 20 gallon stainless steel boil kettle which I installed a 5500w element into. The bottom of it looks to be starting to pit. There a little rust spots forming about the size of a pen head in various spots - but it's only on the bottom of the brew kettle. I've tried everything to get...

I was thumbing through it yesterday, and I finally found a little know beer flaw that I saw in a few of my beers - HORSERADISH flavors. Well, I found a mention of this in the book, and like a dummy, forgot to mark the page. I've looked through the book for the last hour, and can't find the...

I've got a chest freezer as well, but what do you use to keep your fermenters at separate temps...say, having one ferment at 70 degrees and one at 64? I haven't figured out how to do this since the chest freezer only has one temp control unit? Got any pics of your setup I could check out?

Yeah, I did the mash out. I just my notes and forgot about a few things that happened. When I did the protein rest, it rose to 132 for about 5 minutes while the ice that I added cooled it back to 120. Here's the mash time table... 1) Added strike water at 132 2) Temp rose in mash tun to 132...

I've tried everything to get the wife to drink some of my home brew - heck, trying to get her to try beer in general, and have FAILED miserably. I've tried getting her to try everything from a chocolate orange IPA to Sameul Smith's Strawberrry Brew (which to me tastes like Strawberry koolaid) to...

Beer Me!

So I am trying to improve my beers by watching the fermentations like a hawk, and wanted to know if anyone saw any issues with my sampling methods. I ferment in glass carboys. I have one of those turkey baster things to draw a sample. Before inserting into the carboys, I have a bucket of...

So I guess over attenuation is better than it's counter part, but the FG on this brew was supposed to be 1.011. After 4 days using US-05 and a targeted mash temp of 153, it went from a SG of 1.041 to 1.006? Now, is not having the mash temp at 153 supposed to promote the beta enzymes to allow...

They recommend 10 pounds of strawberries for a 5g batch? Seems like a bit overkill if you asked me...but then again..I've never brewed with strawberries so what do I know...

I had another thought on the beer. After you ferment, couldn't you just boil the beer again and rack to a secondary with the strawberries...or just put the beer and your berries in the boil kettle. I know alcohol has a lower boiling point than the beer as a whole, so you'll likely lose some...

I was interested in brewing a Strawberry Saison. From what I've read about brewing with fruit - and especially strawberries - is that the fruit is primarily composed of fermentable sugars (fructose) - and so large quantities of fruit impart little to no flavor in the final product. Well...

That's the one! Thanks packerfan :D

I'm looking to get a new sparge arm - the thing that rains down hot water when fly sparging over the grain bed in the mash tun. I tried the little spinning thing, and never really like it, so I want to try one like the guys on the show brew dogs have. It looks like it's just a dome that has...

Hey guys. I've been teaching myself to weld, and figured a good project to start on might to be an aluminum hop basket. I'd prefer to use aluminum as opposed to stainless because there's a pretty good cost savings for when it comes to aluminum mesh vs stainless steel mesh. I know a lot of...

I bought a new chugger pump and have put one brew cycle through it so far. I can say that although it looks identical to the March 809 pump, the metal pump drive housing is far superior to the March 809's plastic housing. I went through 2 housing on the March 809. One cracked before I wised...