Recent content by nunnlife

Cool thanks guys. I did a 750 ml 1.036 starter and sprinkled a dry yeast pack directly on the chilled wort. I put it on a stir plate for 24 hours and took it off. I'm not seeing any activity like I've seen in the past. Anything to be worried about?

Would anyone see any problems sprinkling dry yeast directly on a starter wort without rehydrating? I was hoping to get a yeast starter already active before pitching.

Making this tomorrow! How many packets of US-05 are people using for the 5g batch? Also I accidentally got Extra Special roast (130L). What are people's thoughts on how this will change the beer? Good or bad??

Thanks Gavin! :mug: I am going to take your advance and just sit on this one and enjoy a nice HOPPY beer this time around. I did come across this article though: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=444328 What are peoples thoughts on this? Sounds like similar to what I was...

Thanks again for all these great thoughts. :mug: When you say, "you could add concentrated wort (from DME or LME) to your primary fermenter", would you add this during active fermentation? How would I calculate how much to add to get my desired gravity? Cheers! Tim

This is all great insight. Thanks! Looks like I need to take a couple steps next time. Just to get things right, I need to: - Make sure my grain is crushed fine enough - Take a pH reading of my water to make sure it falls into between 5.2-5.8 - Make sure my mash temperature is no higher (or...

Howdy, I am having some troubles hitting my target gravity after mash. I have a cooler mash tun that keeps a stable heat just fine, but never seem to get a high enough gravity. Here is an example from yesterday. - 14.25 lbs of grain (crushed nicely) - Striked 5.34 gallons at 165°F -...

The beer started bubbling this morning after less than 30 hours! It has been nearly 48 hours and now and has a constant airlock bubble and a nice foam head. No, we didn't do a starter. I am pretty new brewing and haven't ever done a starter. The last IPA I did we used dry yeast, didn't use a...

Great news! I just read that liquid yeasts take more time to start than dry yeast, which this is my first liquid yeast. Hoping for a hefty brew! OG of 1.080 and shooting for a 8% ABV. Good thinking about moving it to cooler spot. Should I wait until I get activity before moving it? I have...

Hey party people, I just started a Belgian inspired Christmas Ale that is sitting in a carboy as we speak but not seeing any activity after 17 hours. I am relatively new to brewing and only have done a half dozen batches and decided on making my own recipe (still utilizing dry and liquid malts...

I just racked a Russian Imperial Stout to secondary with some maple syrup and oak chips soaked in bourbon. I took the final gravity and got 1.024 and had an OG of 1.062. The Brewers Best kit I used called for an OG of 1.076 and FG of 1.017. Is this really far off? Worried it will affect the...

These are all new and great thoughts! Thanks people. I think I'm going for it just to see what happens. Any good recipe ideas? This will just be my 4th batch ever and have only done kits and want to start experimenting.

I currently have a Russian Imperial Stout in my primary and will be doing a secondary transfer at some point and was interested in trying to use the yeast cake for a new patch. Can someone give some pointers and things to consider? What type of recipe do people recommend with the cake of a...

Would people recommend throwing out the bourbon (ie drinking it) before putting the oak chips in, or dumping the bourbon and the chips?

I woke up this morning and noticed the temp in my room was 61 degrees. My beer started fermenting at a stable 67-65 degrees. How big of a deal is it that the temp dropped this much? It's a Russian imperial stout.