Recent content by mcwilcr

Thanks, I'll brew a small batch and top it up then. Or, I have a brown ale that is a very similar recipe( same yeast, hops but less, darker crystal and larger percent of grist than in the barleywine) I could use in a pinch if the two weeks the barrel will sit with the head space is something to...

Ended up adding entire LME at the end of the boil with no problems. Tasted great when I was transferring it to the barrel for aging.

Is it necessary to have a barrel full to the bung for long term aging or is a couple inches of head space acceptable?

I recently purchased a just emptied 10 gal American rye whiskey barrel. Last night I transferred an American barley wine into the barrel, ~10.5 gal went in the barrel but I still have roughly 2.5" of head space between the beer and the bunghole. I will be aging this beer for at least 6 months in...

I see what you're saying. At ~6000 ft where I live water boils at ~205 F. By my calculation my temp after adding the LME will be roughly 180 F which is still enough to pasteurize the LME and still sanitize my chiller but I think just barely if I'm not mistaken which also does not take into...

My only concern is that I'm talking about adding 9 lb of extract. I'm not necessarily worried but I have a feeling that the extract will drop the temp significantly to the point that I don't think I would be hot enough to sanitize my IC.

Thanks, Thorny. Meow that sounds like a descent plan.

I will be brewing a 10 gal. batch of American style barleywine this weekend and inorder to get my gravity up in the range where I want it (1.090), I need to add some LME to the fermentables (looks to account for about 30%) since my mashtun can only handle 24lb of grain with the mash water at a...

I was looking at a few pictures today and this is one of the reasons I love oiled cherry so much. The color is several shades darker and the wood grain more complex after just 1 year. Still chugging along like a champ too!

And yes, these specs are accurate to the 6.8 model from homedepot. Not sure why the different internal volume spec In the name but it all measures out the same.

Gluing up the panels is really not that terrible if you have the right tools available. If you don't have access to a fully equipped wood shop, you are definitely not going to want to start with rough cut wood like I did though. To get the nice seams between boards you need a good table saw and...

Wine crafters/ Rocky Mountain homebrew shop in the springs has some kegging equipment, and so does Old west homebrew downtown. That being said, I use both of them for the small stuff but the big stiff I have gotten it all online from kegconnection, adventures in homebrewing, and cornykeg.com

I just recently did a keezer build as well. check out the link in my signature if you're curious about what I did and feel free to ask any questions you want.

Taking her out for a spin.

Yeah, I can definitely see how that would be easier except that I keep my tanks in the keezer with the serving kegs so unless I got a separate tank just for that I an SOL as far as that option goes. I got pretty close with the previous method and I expect by next weekend when I get into it...