Recent content by Jonobie

Thanks, all - this is really good information. Definitely feel like I want to go investigate different options for temp control now. [And yes, I love my wort chiller. I'm not unhappy with that as my first "upgrade" to my equipment. :)]

I'm a she, not a he. :) Though my brewing partner is male. And has a beard, no less, which seems to be required for brewing. So around fermenting temps, it would seem like swamp cooler would be only minimally better than a room for controlling temp, right? I mean, assuming I'm not at home...

Is fermentation control largely about temperature control? Our first two beers were pretty low-alcohol content (3% or so), but I'm not quite sure what caused that, precisely. We've been putting the buckets either in my garage (which I think might have been too chilly, the temp strip read about...

My brewing partner & I just finished our first two homebrews (an Amber & a Stout) and are starting to brew up our next batch of two. I'm wondering: What is the first change you made early in your brewing that had the biggest impact? Examples (non-exclusive): Changing from plastic buckets...

Thanks, Golddiggie. I opened the keg up last night, cleaned the post out, and changed the o-ring on both the post and the one at the top of the tube inside.. Put the carbonation back on, and looked at it this morning. Post is still clean, thankfully! So I think it's good for now. Thanks for...

So looked it again this morning, and the pressure is holding steady. However, there's more beer on the post. I presume that if it's leaking beer, it's also leaking C02... So need to replace something there, though not sure what.

So I pushed the red thingie (yes, technical term!) on the regulator. No hiss. Pulled the two pins on the kegs, no hiss. Disconnected all the lines, put them back on, fiddled with the screw on front, and now it's back up to 30psi. No idea what's going on there, though. Will see if it falls again...

Thanks - what's a poppet? (Same as the gasket or something else?) Not sure what options there are for adjusting the regulator. We had it sitting at 30 last night, and when I came back from dinner, I noticed it'd climbed some, so I turned the front screw a bit more to lower it down to 30...

Yesterday, I moved my two beers to kegs and put the C02 on 30 PSI. (I have a single C02 tank with a split line to the two kegs, if that's relevant.) This is the first time I've gone through the kegging process. This morning when I looked at the regulator and kegs, I noticed two things that...

Thanks, all - good advice. And any sentence that starts with "you probably already know this" is great, because I probably don't yet or could use a reminder! I don't have a racking cane (not part of the beginners kit, and my splurge was on the kegs :), but I do have siphoning tubes, so assume...

Been reading here for the past week or so while not-so-patiently waiting for my first two brews (an Amber and a Stout) to ferment in their buckets. I believe I understand the next steps, but just want to confirm: 1. After 3 weeks, siphon the beer out of my fermenting bucket into my 2...