Recent content by Kozzer

What is this 'cube' you guys are talking about?

I just use this: http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/

As a sorta-newbie that just bottled my 20th batch (with my first all-grain batch in a fermenter), I say CONGRATS! You're gonna love the beer you made. I remember my first batch all those 10 months ago, and how miraculous it seemed when I opened my first bottle with a satisfying hiss. Such a...

Thanks for the tips! As for now, it's been soooo cold that the heater is struggling to keep the swamp water above 60! I know it's working, because when I take a fermentor out of the swamp (well after activity has settled) I have to move it into an especially warm part of the house or the temp...

I'm looking to upgrade from my 20qt kettle so I can do full boils, and your 36qt is by far the least expensive one I've seen. So while I have no advice for you, I'm definitely interested in how you like it.

Yeah Beersmith is central to my brewing. I generally create my own recipes using DGB, then input into Beersmith and tinker from there. Haven't made a bad beer yet standing on the shoulders of those giants.

+1 - this is a great book!

I agree with using a swamp cooler. And since I keep the thermostat pretty low overnight and during the workday (mid 50's) I also got an aquarium heater that I put into the swamp cooler that keeps things at a constant temperature which I can control.

Wanted to update - after bottle conditioning the spices really came out and (in my opinion) are the perfect level: you can taste them, the complexity and interplay between them, but it's not so overpowering that you can't have a few in a row and not enjoy each and every one just as much as the...

How about: soak, drain, rinse, boil. Basically the same as cooking spaghetti, amirite??!?!1111?!

Unfortunately the one I got looks like it only goes down to 72. Not sure yet, only time will tell if it'll work for my needs. I don't own a fish tank but I guess I never realized that every fish that ever lived can only live in upper 70's water. And I only had the heater plugged in for like a...

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In lieu of kits, if you have a little time and some inclination, you can create your own recipes using this book: Designing Great Beers. It's so easy to put together a recipe for just about any style, and then tinker from there if you want. For example, if you wanted to put together a...

I brew both partial mash & extract-only beers. Partial mash for when I have time to devote the extra 2+ hours, and extract for after-work-brewdays. (Don't have the stove or closet capacity for true all-grain.) With extracts, you can keep the malts tame and try out different hop combinations...

I used my lunch hour to buy one for $25. There were options at $15 and $20, but those have the "feature" of "not having to set the temp", which means they're at 78F and you can't do nothing to change it. I thought different species of fish have different ideal water temperatures but oh well...