Recent content by Poindexter

I would kill or die to have a five gallon bourbon barrel. Once it started leaking I would take it apart and use pieces of it jusy like oak chips we can both buy in the store.

I have only made a few batches this way, but if I spring for another spunding valve I'll go with a fixed relief valve around 7-8psi. I am still working in Corny's only, I don't own any Sanke kegs. But, I have pressure tested my cornies to 80psi. The adjustable spunding valve I built when...

This one is 14 months old and the recipe is a keeper. My first two Graffs were just not ready for prime time. My third one a good friend dearly loves, to me it is thin and one dimensional; I switched to Saaz hops for that one, with pilsner malt. Four number four I stuck with Saaz but...

RIP James. SN Stout coming right up. God bless.

Why not a fruit plate for desert? Oooh. Check for ginger flavored ice cream, I found it at freakign Krogers once, I think it was Haagen Daze.

In general the darker or heavier a beer is the warmer I like it. I kinda keep an eye on recomended serving temperatures, about 55°F is the highest I have seen. I am personally better able to appreciate complex malt bills at warmer serving temps. For a refreshing cooler after mowing the...

If you go with pastuerized (heat sterilized) but preservative free apple cider you won't have to boil it. All the bugs in it are dead. Also, you can dissolve the brown sugar in a 2-3 qaurts of you apple juice over heat, and leave out the 1/2gal of water. I don't have a mental picture of...

I don't have any coke kegs. If it was pepsi kegs (gotta be pretty similar) I would say new springy things at $12 each. Pepsi pressure reliefs work fine while wet. In the mean time you have some really sharp five gallon SS fermenters you can put to work, just transferrign with CO2 is going...

Agree with above, if it is really strong you are going to need more than one five gallon batch to cut the "whiskey" you have back down to size. One thing you might could do is go ahead and bottle it flat so you can have your brewhouse equipment back. I bet you could dump one gallon of it...

You might zip tie a copper scrubber like the Chore Boy brand onto the pickup end of your siphon? Like a SOS or Brillo pad, but without the soap in it, just the metal wool part. Also, you can shoot a little CO2 into your empty keg so the exposed top surface of the beer coming out of the...

I think you are going to be OK though you may need to rouse the yeast, give it a while and see where the gravity stabilizes after the krausen drops. Having been there done that I pull a hydrosample as soon as I have "everything" in the kettle at the beginning of the boil and measure a volume...

With some of the Cornies in my herd I can click the vent valve to open position, so I _could_, with some connectors, bubble oxygen in the black post/ dip tube - slowly- and let it vent out the overpressure. For an airlock I just put a piece of tube on a grey post and submerge the other end in...

I have used molasses in a few brews now. If you are using just a couple ounces in secondary for flavor rounding, like in a Kotbusser, the grocery store stuff is fine, just pasteurize like you are making a mead with honey, 40 minutes at 140°F is great. If you are using it as a chunk of your...

Have you tried the Baltic Porter by the Alaskan Brewery in Juneau? I have not tried the Granville Island Winter, but the ABBP has lots if vanilla and goes down nice. The Baltic Porter uses a lager technique and a lager yeast, grain bill like a porter or an export stout. You can get...

I ranch 1056 (Chico) 1098 (London Ale) and Notti Yellow. I tend to run the 1098 if I am doing anything fancy with the grain bill - sounds like you are, and I stick with the 1056 if I want the hops to stand out or if I am brewing a simple session beer. I ranch the NY because I ran out once...