Recent content by mvnegassi

Dang. That is certainly a nice label. Thanks for the idea.

I have both a porcelain pot and an aluminum tamale steamer. I never use the porcelain pot as a boil kettle anymore because the bottom is excessively thin which leads to scorching if I crank up to a vigorous boil. The tamale steamer is way better. I bought mine at Target from the clearance rack...

None taken either, but how about this... I've been brewing since 1985 and have never seen this kind of separation. Plus I only have 10 posts and occasionally need questions answered that might seem elementary!

36 hours later there's no change in the gravity. I think I'm going to toss it.

"Radical Brewing" by Randy Mosher has a section on using vegetables. He has one recipe that uses parsnips. I don't remember what else offhand. You should try it. Sounds fun.

A friend of mine was going to toss out an old, unused vial of WLP802 Czech Budejovice Lager Yeast with an expiration date of Sept 2010. I took it off his hands instead and am making a starter to try and salvage it. My first step is 500ml of 1.040 wort on a stirplate, but there's very little sign...

That first plate is beautiful. Strange though that you've got stuff on the second two. I can keep my un-inoculated plates for months with no problem. I even take off the tops and drain out condensations once in awhile. Do you work with a flame nearby to create an updraft?

I know I'm the oddball, but I always have trouble with Sierra Nevada bottles and the top snapping off in my capper. Something about the shape of the neck that my capper doesn't like. Also, most of the Sierra Nevada bottles shed their labels quite easily in Oxyclean and hot water. But for...

I find that the temperature of my mash can vary by as much as a +-1F depending upon where I place the probe in the cooler. So it seems kind of pointless to get a thermometer more accurate than 1F since you're really only taking a localized measure anyway. You can average over multiple locations...

Is this the same for pilsner malt? I've read conflicting information regarding it's ability to convert adjuncts. I'll be boiling plain white rice and adding it to the mash as gruel, by the way.

I admire what you're doing, but I'm confused about what you're calling "starter". There's the yeast and then there's the beer that it produced. You hate to toss out the beer, so you want to make a starter that produces drinkable beer, right? I would say, though, that you don't have to worry...

I'm going to make the Kirin clone from the "Clone Brews" book. The grain bill looks something like this: 8.5 lbs 6-row malt 1.5 lbs rice 0.5 lbs Crystal (10L) I assume that the authors call for 6-row mainly to convert the rice. Question is, could I just use 2-row instead? Probably it can...