Recent content by nightstrm

Nm

Very interesting! I've been considering doing something similar with a vintage hotpoint fridge that a fellow brewer gave me. I'm a little worried about it only having a 2-wire plug, but I have been using it as a fermentation chamber for a year or so now with no problems. With a new coat of...

That's an awesome price... it seems to have at least a few positive reviews here based on the searching I did. I struggle with mash temps as well, and I'm going back and forth on ordering something like this or just biting the bullet and picking up a Thermapen. I'd love to hear your thoughts...

This is my plan as well.

If you rinse, you run the risk of contaminating the item you just cleaned. Just make sure the product dissolves in the proper amount of water, put the item in for the proper amount of time, and take it out when you need to use it. These products are made so they do not affect the taste of the...

Just wanted to chime in with my vote for AHS. Although I have not yet gotten to sample any of the beers from their kits (first one as early as this weekend), the two that I have made so far came with great ingredients. Hopefully I'll get to sample the lemongrass wheat mini-mash I bought from...

If you are going to keg condition, I would hook it up to CO2 after transfer just to ensure the seals on the keg are set and not leaking.

I bought two of the Ventmatic Flo-Gates a year or so ago to help solve this problem... not sure if they are still available, but they work rather well until you start getting above 17-18psi. I think I end up with 4-5ft of hose.

Damn, if I wasn't going to a wedding in Bay City that weekend, I'd definitely attend this. Oh well, I'm planning on stopping at 2 microbreweries I haven't visited yet (two new growlers for the collection!). The 2007 Summer Michigan Beer Festival is already marked on my calendar... should be a...

I used my first AHS mini-mash kit over the weekend and, while I followed their directions rather closely, I ended up with a slightly lower SG than I had anticipated. I'm planning on doing another one next weekend, and was hoping someone could give me some input on a couple changes I am planning...

Thanks for the tips... I think you were exactly right; BeerAlchemy was defaulting to a 75% efficiency. If I keep the ingredients the same, I hit the same numbers as AHS reported with closer to a 50% efficiency. Since this will be my first mini-mash, I'm not quite sure where it will end up, but...

I just purchased BeerAlchemy for OSX and was inputing the receipe for the AHS Lemongrass Wheat Ale mini-mash kit I plan on brewing this weekend and noticed a slight discrepency in the SG. AHS reports it as being 1.055, where BA says 1.063. Now I know it isn't much, but which number is more...

I put 2.5 gallons of water and onestep in my carboys and shake them for two minutes. Hasn't given me any problems yet!

I age all of my brews in kegs hooked up to CO2 @10psi at room temperature. Takes less space and frees up carboys for other brews. This has worked great for me so far.

I agree with the last post... I recently found that by keeping my lines above the posts kept my beers pouring great.