Recent content by mfraier

Call or e-mail them. They will make it right. I would always give a company the chance to make it right before posting it on a forum. NB is very quick to fix mistakes.

I have been brewing seriously for a few years now and want to branch out some on yeast. I was wondering what other yeast you guys like for an american ale other than 05. I mostly brew pale ales and IPA's with the 05. What else is out there that has a clean, smooth finish.

I've read that a bunch of you just pitch the pellet hops in the secondary and then rack carefully to the keg or bottling bucket. Every time I try to do this I get a bunch of left over hops in the beer. I kegged an IPA that was dry hopped 10 days ago. It isn't aged and carbed yet but the...

Corona mill with a home depot bucket, and a bolt to hook a drill to instead of a handle works. I did a 12 lbs grain bill earlier today in less than 10 minutes and with conditioned malt it comes out great. You can spend all the money in the world on a monster mill, and I'm sure they are...

Reverse Osmosis water and water run through an actual water softner are completely different. You are right though, RO makes great water for brewing with a few additions.

I would bypass the softener and have that water tested. Check your outside spigots for the hoses, many times those are not connected to the softner. I have not had good luck with water that has gone through my softner for brewing. RO systems are great, but I understand wanting to avoid the...

You can buy a socket made for the job or make one with a dremel tool. Sometimes if they get stuck you may need a breaker bar along with the socket.

I've tried using my tap water and it is great for stouts as long as I get the water from the outside faucet that is not hooked to the softner. Everytime I have tried to use the softened water even if it's cut with RO water it ends up with a very late bitter bite to it. SInce then I've...

I have a yeast cake that I want to wash the yeast from. First attempt at this and I was wondering if after I add the initial boiled and cooled water and swirl if its ok to use a siphon that was sanatized with starsan to get the initial top layer out into my first container?

You can go quite a bit finer than that and not get a stuck sparge with most systems. Crank it down a couple of turns.

If you're in Howell you have MI brewing company right down the rd. They sell everything there less than what you pay online + shipping. 50lb bags of 2 row are $30. Drive over and check it out.....and get a pint or two in the pub while you're there.:mug:

I was in the same boat as you. I actually asked for gift cards from there and then really regreted it. I had a whole buch of certificates and very little equiptment was in stock. Oh well, live and learn.

They are a bit high on a few things, shipping is not cheap, and they often have many items out of stock. Last time they messed up an order of mine they acted like I was trying to steal and asked me to take a picture of the order I recieved. Just buy one somewhere else....they aren't worth the...

For as cheap as the lube they sell for o-rings is I would just buy some. One container would liast you most of your life.

As long as you use something in the ss braid to keep it from colapsing it works great. You can use wire wound around a pen for that. Make sure the wire is stainless. How to make a Mash Tun from a cooler - YouTube