Recent content by LateraLex

While we are on the subject of cutting corners - how about dry yeast. Has anyone done any side by side comparisons? The liquid yeast with its low shelf life and need for starters is the biggest pain in my brew day (more like brew week).

Great stuff folks. My house is definitely old, built in 1910 but the water heater is new and we have pex tubing for the most part. Seems a lot of people are using hot water as a starting point, so I will definitely be trying this on my next batch. Hmm.. what to do with all the free time I have...

I've been brewing indoors as of late, and always start with 8 gallons of cold tap water. We were told since grade school to never use hot tap water as it picks up more lead in the pipes. Has anyone looked into this? Perhaps you could do a lead water test while cold, and another while hot to see...

Thanks, very useful. I am going to take this back to the place that swapped me into this tank, and get them to swap me into another one that isn't such a POS. Would be nice to have at least a TW on it :)

I add mine right as I initially heat up the water.

Glad you got the thermometer worked out, I just ordered these for my BIAB: http://www.thermoworks.com/DOT http://www.thermoworks.com/TX-1002X-NP As for your initial target temp - be very wary of online calculators unless they are BIAB specific. I use BeerSmith and just recently learned to...

I've tried a lot of things, and ultimately didn't want to add a lot of unnecessary steps (like secondary fermentation in a carboy). My advice is to do your primary in a large bottling bucket and toss the siphon. The location of the spigot is above the trub in all but the hoppiest beers, and if a...

Thanks! I wish I had known that in advance as I'm not sure I will always want my "other" beer at least 5 psi lower than my other beers... but I'm very glad you told me as I would have been scratching my head for a while!

I just got my first secondary regulator so I can serve some beers at a slightly lower carbonation. I just finished hooking it up and did a leak test. The reading on the secondary reg is a good 3-4 psi lower than on the primary. Is this normal, or do I have an issue somewhere in the chain?

Nice, that helps. My tank is shorter than the 15# listed there by a few inches, but if that ballpark is 25# than I should be good for a while longer. Will want to swap this guy out for a tank with an actual TW!

Can you double check that link? It doesn't load for me.

I got this tank in a swap out program at welding supply shop - and am trying to figure out if it is almost empty or not. I don't see a TW though, so not really sure how to estimate what is left. It currently weights 30.3LBs.

I just ordered this one for kitchen brewing, as I should be able to straddle two burners. The price is definitely right. http://www.kitchenrestock.com/Winco-AXS-40-Stock-Pot_p_2469.html http://www.kitchenrestock.com/Winco-AXS-40C-Cover-Lid-Cookware_p_5204.html

Have you ever tried dumping all the hops in a single charge? I can't exactly wrap my mind around why the two separate charges works better, but I do it like everyone else.

Gearing up to give this one a shot in the next week or two.... Clearly the water profile is pretty important, so will someone let me know if anything looks off on my EZ water profile page or the beersmith recipe? I am doing BIAB, so I put the full 6.5gal in the mash water section. The current...