Recent content by pdog44450

Honestly, the more krausen on top of my fermenting wort, the happier I am :D

Thanks for the very interesting read. I was just thinking about this (late additions vs hop stands) in regards to flavor as I was making a recipe for a pale ale I'm brewing in a few days. I guess I'm going to keep debating myself on what to choose :confused:

I made a similar RIS to you, was about 9%. Took only a month to fully carb at 60 degrees in my basement. I'd say you either had them carbing too cold, didn't add enough priming sugar, or you might have dropped too much yeast out of suspension in your secondary to carb your bottles. I have never...

Ritebrew is bar none my favorite online shop. I get my grains delivered to my door 24 hours from ordering, they are crazy fast. Cheapest shipping I've seen too since I live in the Midwest and use SpeeDee. Neil is always very helpful and responsive to emails and their grain prices are dirt cheap...

I disagree that using more sparge water will improve your efficiency. Usually by the time you are done sparging, the runoff water is very low SG, like 1.010 (will be even lower if you add more sparge water). You are going to dilute your original gravity because of the low gravity you are getting...

I'd say Beersmith is the most reliable, only because it has your personalized equipment profile in which it accounts for the utilization of the hops. It's impossible to get a perfect IBU calculation at the homebrew level unless you send them in to a lab (or whatever you'd call it) to be tested.

I harvested some yeast from my previous Vienna lager fermentation. I added sanitized water to the fermentor, shook it up, then put the yeast/water/trub mixture into mason jars. They have been there for 2 days and there is only 2 layers: the top liquid and then a cloudy tan layer, but no trub at...

If I am doing additions to my mash water while doing a decoction mash, would I set my mash water volume in Bru'n Water to the total amount of infusion water and not to what would be remaining after I pulled the decoction?

So can I assume that it's just a coincidence that something went wrong with both my pale ales and that it's not me sucking at brewing? :D The buckets were stacked in the store I bought them in so maybe they got microscratches? It was the first time I had ever used this bucket too so this seems...

Here's a closer up pic for everyone

I cover and cool the sugar water in the freezer immediately after boiling, then by the time that is cooled the rehydrated yeast has been cooled significantly. I pitch when the sugar water and yeast are the same temp. By the time I mix in the sugar water and wait, the rehydrated yeast and wort...

I've seen yeast rafts before but this just seems different to me. I tweaked my water in Bru'n. I can post the before and after if you'd like. I believe my mash ph was 5.4-5.5, but I'm currently away from my computer so I'm not positive.

The film is kind of hard to see in the photo. You can see around the edges of the bucket there is a lighter color: the film does not reach the outside. There are a ton of floating particles that I've never seen post fermentation so heavily, especially since I cold crashed. Adding sugar to...

Used about 3/4 pack of dry US-05. Boiled water, cooled it to 100 degrees and pitched in yeast and stirred it. Then, I boiled a little more water and added sugar to prime the yeast. I put the boiled sugar water into the rehydrated yeast after about 20 minutes. Pitched the yeast into the wort...

Not sure exactly how old, no packing dates are given on the packs. I do know that they are nitrogen flushed and the packs are light-resistant (as per the pack). The hops were extremely fragrant and pungent. I have smelled oxygenated and old hops and these were far from them. Extremely strong...