Recent content by KJB5200

Hey guys, I attempted a batch of this recently but it's become my red-headed step child...brewed it on a day that I was also doing two other batches back-to-back and sure enough, my lack of attention lead to putting two pounds of Crystal 60 into a 3.5gal recipe! Now this stuff tastes like...

Rach, it was cider from a local farm in downeast Maine - I'm sure it wasn't intended for fermenting specifically, but just how common is cider that has been specifically crafted for hard cider? I'd be "hard pressed" to find any around here ;) That being said, it's relieving to hear you had...

BTW the recipe was like this: Made a base mead with 6.3lb father-in-law-'s honey (15.3ppg) with 1.48gal H2O. Set aside 1.2gal for Cyser. Added 2.0g Fermaid-K & 2.0g DAP. Rehydrated 5g of Cotes des Blancs & pitched into Cyser base. After dropping 15 points, add 1.2g Ferm-K & 1.2g DAP. Added...

Interesting ideas, I may see what a little vanilla does for it. All my calculations are based on refractometer readings (taking into account the residual alcohol) but I could grab a hydro reading just to see what it says. Now that I'm playing around with the numbers, if I only got down to a 0.99...

Hi All, I made a couple batches of mead and cyser in Nov 2012 and recently when sampling the two noticed that the cyser is awfully boring! It tastes watered-down, has almost no flavor, smells slightly of fresh, barely cooked applesauce, and has almost no detectable alcohol. The mead on the...

I replanted a 3-yr-old hallertauer this year into Miracle Grow garden soil mixed with Alabama topsoil and so far the poor plant has struggled to even stay alive. It's been fairly cold in Maine still and the past week has been mostly rain but it seems like the plant just can't get itself growing...

Damn, hearing you say you regret not going 50a is making me regret buying so much equipment without a clearer design in my head... Wouldn't the 4500/240 element running at 120V only pull 9.375amps since the wattage would be reduced to 1/4 of its 240 capability? Or do 240 elements run at 120...

hustlebird - I'm looking just to run any given element at 120 OR 240, not both at any given time. zeus - sometimes a comment as simple as "what the hell are you even trying to do" is all you need! I realized after thinking a little more about my proposed brewing process that I don't have very...

Hi Everyone, I'm working on a RIMS build based off of Kal's 30A electric setup but I'd like to have 3 elements instead of 1, each capable of running 120 or 240V with the switch of a hand. Ideally I'd like to use 3-way switches in an [ON - OFF - ON] setup to manually switch any given element...

Thanks for the quick response MarshmallowBlue - have you had batches of mead that tasted better fresh than they did aged? I'm a bit bewildered with how great both the cyser and mead smelled & tasted very shortly after fermentation but now they both seem bland, one-noted, and boring. I'll still...

Hi Everyone, The wife and I took our first shot at making mead this past Fall and now we're trying to figure out whether it's time to bottle or not. We made two 2gal batches to start in November 2012; one being turned into cyser and the other remaining a dry mead. After a couple months we...

That's genius - nice repurposing!

Nice keezer HopVol! Where'd you get those chrome covers? I've been looking for just the thing to block 2 of 5 faucet holes on my keezer until I build up more equipment.

Thanks for breaking it down in terms of energy and degrees/min thargrav! It sounds like in a 4500W/220V element would be more than enough for quick/efficient step-mashing in a 5gal system, but a 1500W/120V element would still be underpowered. It sounds like my best bet might be to have a...

Hi All, I'm working on a major overhaul of my brewing platform - I'm switching to an all-electric 5gal RIMS system that is loosely based upon theelectricbrewery.com's rig. Originally I had planned on a three element design with two 1500W/120V elements: one heating my strike/sparge water and...