Recent content by JiP

Thanks for the replies.

For anyone reading this from an internet search, here's my experience two years later... I switched to glass carboys, but still had an infection in some of my bottles, not all, implying something in some bottles but not others or simply poor sanitation of my bottles. I mostly keg now, and...

I made a mistake when brewing a hoppy porter. I added gypsum to the mash, which pushed the pH the opposite direction than I intended (lowered, i.e. more acidic rather than balancing the acidity from dark grains.) Gypsum also added more sulfates to my local water that's already high in sulfates...

For anyone reading this after the fact... time did the trick. Well, it made it better, but on the next batch I reduced the bittering hops and it became great! The consistent advice is true, just give it more time to mellow. Unfortunately, that also mellowed the fresh hop taste that I love, so...

I don't have experience with the rum, but am making my second batch of coconut porter now and had debated it for the first batch. My thought at the time was to see how I liked it with only coconut, then decide if I wanted to add rum next time. I decided that I liked the first batch so much...

I don't have experience with the rum, but am making my second batch of coconut porter now and had debated it for the first batch. My thought at the time was to see how I liked it with only coconut, then decide if I wanted to add rum next time. I decided that I liked the first batch so much...

I've done this road trip twice (well, three times if you count back-and-forth on one trip) for a combination of camping, fishing, and beer touring. We stopped at literally dozens of places! My top recommendation is Rouge in Oregon. Great beer, good food, awesome vibe, and beautiful scenery...

Carapils malt adds a creamy texture without changing flavor. 1/2 to 1 pound per 5 gallon batch. Also dry hopping. I was told by a pro brewer that he hadn't changed his recipe, but that the ipa tasted creamier because of oils from the dry hops. Palmer's book has a great paragraph on...

I agree with a lot of posts... it's more simple than I had originally thought. All of the posts, opinions, experts, etc. were intimidating. Also, I'd not worry about efficiency unless you'd like to do it as an engineering hobby. It's much easier to add 1 or 2 extra pounds of grain to a...

Basically, Bobby brewed a black ipa but his beer became too bitter. How does Bobby make this batch of black ipa a better beer before bottling? I brewed two, 5 gallon bathes of almost the same recipe a month apart. The first batch is great, but too bitter for most people. If I had had that...

What happened with the tea?

I just stumbled across this old thread while looking for a similar topic. There would be a difference in bottling sugar required for different sized bottles... no one was stupid. It's just a question of if the difference is noticable and worth consideration. I'm a relatively novice brewer...

Wow- I wish I had thought to dig up a microscope! Good work! Here's a thread on solving infection issues for bacteria: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/plastic-vs-glass-carboy-old-debate-but-looking-experience-263539/

Thanks for the feedback. Here's my conclusion, after feedback from this site, reading other sites, asking the brew shop, and a couple of batches to test the theory. It was the bottling bucket and tubing, specifically the springs and valves. I had tried new carboys, clean ones, etc. but the...

I know that this has been debated a million times, but I haven't found the answer I'm looking for... all posts seem to state the same things, which are kindly repeating words of wisdom but not based on personal experience. Does anyone have direct experience with the theory of "tiny...