Recent content by Jimbodaman

Simplest situation would be an 8 gallon boil kettle/mash tun. I'd just do brew in a bag, you could easily do a full volume mash up to 1.100 SG. 5 gallon carboy, and not have to make a yeast starter. 3 gallons is where it's at.

Sometimes in brewing we miss the obvious, maybe get rid of the crystal malt, and/or mash lower.

One thing about the mash schedule with big beers is mash long and low. ie 148-150 for 90 min at least. In very good conditions the yeast might have trouble attenuating, so you'll want to give it the best chance to ferment out. Cheers hope it helps.

It's not so much the starting 8.6 pH it's your water's alkalinity (and generally the entire profile). Without delving into a college level chemistry lesson, the quick fix is to add up to 3% acidulated malt or other form of acid. 88% lactic acid seems to be the most common water treatment. I use...

My guess is one of 2 things, either a typo and they meant the usual 5-7 days of dry hops, or they are kegging and putting the hops in at that time, hope it helps cheers.

A few things, first off congrats on the first brew, BIAB is what I recommend to new brewers, I'll say 80 degrees F is too high to pitch. I made that mistake when I was new and had some unpleasant off flavors, try to get below 70F at least. Possible reasons for it not attenuating properly, are...

Many people start with single malt and single hop beers, aka SMaSH beers. What I did was pick my favorite base malt and favorite hop ie. Maris Otter malt, Cascade hop. I used beersmith to get to a moderate SG 1.060 and a moderate IBU range 35, as for yeast I went with wlp 001... Now that's about...

It looks just fine. I'd do things slightly different but it's perfectly acceptable, no chlorine/chloramine, mash pH in range, SO4/Cl ratio is good for a stout, not 'too' hard. Cheers looks great.

It's actually Norway, MI. I used to work in the U.P. of Michigan and many of our older customers would come up to us speaking in Finnish, we had a few guys who spoke Finnish. You know you're a homebrewer when you have a 50lb. sack of grain in your room bedroom. Cheers.:tank:

If you have the time don't be scared to mash at a lower temp say 146F for 90 minutes, I prefer the mash temp extremes and use them all the time. I've never had a problem with low mash temps making my beers "flabby". Cheers.

Wyeast 2112 California lager yeast recommended temperature range is 58-68, they specifically mention Baltic porters as being a style it works well for. So I believe you do have lagering capabilities and should try it out, good luck and Cheers :mug:

Say you got 8 gallons of your total RO brewing water. Add 1 tsp gypsum and 1 tsp calcium chloride. Pale beers add 4-5ml of lactic acid Amber beers add 2-3 ml lactic acid Dark beers add none. Reference: playing around with brewers friend calculator. Should get a "balanced" profile. Double...

Beer isn't water as we all know, it is much more acidic so I'd be weary of fermenting in PVC. I hope it turns out well, Cheers

A true challenge for any new brewer is having patience not to mess with your beer when it's fermenting. Follow the basics of sanitation, yeast pitch rate, fermentation temps, wait 3 weeks to be sure, bottle and enjoy. Try a pumpkin porter recipe, toast pumpkin in oven and add to mash with 1lb of...

Golden Promise Vienna Special B Chocolate Malt Galena (bittering) Cascade Willamette Centennial