Recent content by jrg42

thinking about brewing something similar this weekend. Did you use a 'tart' cherry concentrate? Or the other one I see on the web is black cherry concentrate.

If you are doing a lager from the beginning, just pitch at the same temp. Since there will be no temp change, there will be no pressure change causing suck back. When I cold crash an ale, I sanitize a piece of cling wrap, place it over the carboy mouth and then put the carboy cap back on top.

my pallet is pretty sensitive to that bandaid phenol. It will fade over time but never really go completely away. I know you said it's a stout, but higher carb level and serving colder helps. Let someone else taste it. See what they think.

it's a drive but Petaluma is not THAT far from SF and you could hit up Lagunitas. Their tap room is only open till 9pm on weekdays though...and then you have to drive back so you can't enjoy too much of their stuff. If you had a whole day off or something i would recommend it for sure.

-convenient and near my work. -will help or just let me find and mill the grain I am buying -great selection of grains. rarely they don't carry or are out of something i need. -always have stuff like keg orings, tubing, or other little things you don't need until you need them. - Stuff is...

like Yooper suggested, try just using RO water and add brewing salts. That's one variable that you can control and then see what happens. Be sure to use the RO water for your starter as well. Maybe check your concentration for your starsan mix? I know i tend to be a little overzealous with...

if you are kegging, I would skip the secondary glass carboy. Just use a 6.5 gal carboy for the primary and siphon to a keg. Just seems unnecessary handling to move a beer to a secondary and then transfer it to a keg. Way more chance at getting oxidized, imo. If you cold crash the primary...

make sure you use distilled water for your starter (if you make on). I was running into the same problem before i corrected that. Have not had a Band-aide taste one since.

you need someone that is honest in the their assessment of your brews. Also a plus if they can taste/discern a lot of the off flavors or bad phenols. Could also enter stuff into comps for more feedback. just not someone that will say it tastes ok, even if it's not. Most of the beer i make is...

There are a couple of of similarly themed bars in Dallas that seem to do pretty well.

Kona's Bikini Blonde is amazing. can't stress this enough. But it's way too expensive to buy very often at all. Their coconut porter is really good too, but it's even more expensive. I still get a Boddington's every now and then in a can. I was really liking MH#9 in a can around the pool...

I think they are called the ColdMAX series or something like that. But I think there is only 1 true square igloo cooler. But like the last poster said, the chest freezer and temp controller are freaking money. picked up that combo last week and it's very nice to just set it and forget it.

+ 1. My goto method was to use one of those square igloo cube coolers and put my carboy in there. You could maintain some low temps by changing out the frozen water bottles before and after work. I also made a little styrofoam cutout to cover the top and a little hole for the blowoff tube.

Interesting. may have to try that, but does it reduce the temp pretty quickly? Use the paint mixer/drill inside a 6.5 gal carboy. You can use the high speed setting and get an awesome vortex going with no wort coming out.

you did not say what beer you are making, but given your options, I would choose the 63F fridge every single time. A cheaper option is to buy one of those igloo cube coolers, fill partially with water and then use ice bottles to maintain whatever temp you need. I used to do that, but just last...