Recent content by nayr14

I just put mine into the fermenter. With BIAB I ended up hitting 1.081 after a lot of squeezing so I'm a little short. Next time I do something higher than 1.070 I'm going to pour water over the bag. For the whirlpool hops I placed them in at flameout and let them sit for 10 minutes before I...

I'm thinking of brewing this, but leaving out the FWH columbus and the 60 minute simcoe addition in order to lower the IBU's closer to what Bell's advocates. That brings it down to about 70 IBU's. Any thoughts?

When I'm finished cooling my wort (BIAB) and start siphoning it into the fermenter, I typically take a gravity sample. On my last batch I took two gravity samples. The first one had more white-ish sediment (and some hops) which measured 1.051. Out of curiosity, I took another reading when the...

I just made (6 gallon) this for the second time. Three weeks ago I followed the recipe and ended up with an OG of 1.130 using Lalvin 1118. It died out around 1.020, way to sweet. This time added 3 gallons of water, the mango pulp (6 cans of swad kesar sweetened, found at local Indian...

I just tossed this in the keg, I made the syrup, brought to a boil then simmered for about 5 minutes, it wasn't thick but it had a thicker consistency. I was worried that the syrup might not be mixed in well so I shook up the keg after a co2 purge. A few hours later I took a sample from the...

I've read that the upper limit is 1.040 before the yeast might become stressed, but mine is at least 1.045 or higher with not very many yeast cells. I was afraid that the lack of sells and a higher gravity might stress the cells? Maybe I don't understand what is meant by stressed yeast cells.

Yesterday I pitched White Labs 001 (with a best by of 1/16/2014) in a yeast starter on my new DIY stir plate. I boiled 200G of light DME in 2L of water for what ended up being about 15 minutes. When I poured it into the flask some of it spilled... I ended up with just over 1.5L. I believe the...

I want to control the temperature of the water if the ambient temperature changes. I could turn the peltier on/off with a relay, but currently I use a 'buck' voltage regulator to turn up/down the voltage to control the power of the peltier to meet a certain temperature. It would be nice to...

Looks good! I started another batch and while it was rapidly fermenting (a day or two after pitching) I sanitized and dipped a thermometer into the carboy to measure the temperature. I was only reading ~1F (0.3C) more than the external water temperature. I now feel safe not placing a...

I only have room to control the temperature of one carboy at a time. I have a ale that is in a secondary fermenter while I wait for the yeast to 'clean up' the beer before bottling. The primary fermentation was complete almost two weeks ago (pitched almost 3 weeks ago). I used Wyeast 1056...

I want to monitor it digitally but since this was my first brew I didn't want to risk anything. I need to find a way to run the fairly thick wire into my carboy. It won't fit through the airlock. I just found this...

Yes they are used from Amazon. They almost fit the peltier perfectly. I worry more about using the peltier at high power and low efficiency then at low power and low efficiency. Currently it almost maintains temperature on it's own. I've been running it around 3.2V to maintain ~65F. I was...

Before I started brewing my first beer, I wanted to setup a way to cool my carboy down to a desired temperature. I looked into purchasing a refrigerator but I don't really have room in my apartment for an appliance like that. So instead I built this! I purchased two...