1st change to the CARAFA SPECIAL from dehusked barley, it isnt nearly as bitter/astringent. Look up podcast from gordon strong on cold steeping your specialty grains vs mashing http://beersmith.com/blog/2011/11/17/brewing-beer-with-dark-grains-steeping-versus-mashing/
+1 on cold crash + 1 on hop bag, add a sanitized stainless steel washer or 4 to weigh the hop bags down. Use 20lbs+ sanitized fishing line tied to hop bags to pull the bags out post racking. I use cheese cloth dbld up for the bags and just toss it in the trash when done (makes the trash can...
I bet if you post this in the cider forums, you will get more responses. I have just started making ciders. 1st two batches, young (but finished) ciders have a yeasty taste but its not unpleasant overtly strong (wheat beer like yeasty). Seems the yeasty flavor fades with further aging...
I have been toying with the same question for sometime and fairly happy with this setup. I did not want to lift heavy amounts of liquids (especially hot) over head. So a complete gravity system was out. To increase speed (shorten brewday) you should be firing your first running's as soon as...
I like the excel spreadsheet that the saq put together. There are many water calc's out there (beer smith, water witch, Palmers Mash RA)
Sections in red need to be filled out. Green are your answers. Use as little salt additions as possible (in red). Keep in mind you can dilute your...
No propane indoors. Dont do it. Do you have a balcony or garage/patio? +1 From your cook top you could BIAB. No reason not to do a cooler MLT all grain either. Your limitations indoors are your brew pots size and the output of your cooktop burner. (will it take and hour to bring 5 gal wort...
About 2 years ago I built a version of this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/new-fermentation-chamber-build-102846/ . I use a ceramic 100w infrared heating element for the heating stage. Its in my garage and it can hold temps in the 80's without a problem. Fire is a concern. I could not...
This is Beer advise for Cider. I use orange marmalade in place of bitter (Seville) orange peel in Witt beers. Works great gives a subtle orange taste (not as forward as blue moon). I use 4 tablespoons at flame out. Keep in mind that the marmalade contains pectin that will cause some haze...
I would add at end of boil. If you finish your beer and find its not strong enough of a flavor, then use vodka to extract and add in bottling bucket to taste (key is to taste as you can add but its hard to take away :)
Merry Christmas BTW