Recent content by radicalsubversiv

A few weeks ago I needed to free up a fermenter and had a spare keg. I knew that I probably wanted to bottle this batch (a high-graivty saison), but I thought it should be simple enough to stick it in the keg, hit it with co2 for a few secs, and then leave it to condition until I got around to...

A borrowed pipe wrench did the job. Thanks all!

Apologies if this has been covered somewhere already, but I've recently come into the possession (thanks to a less-than-scrupulous eBay seller) of a ball lock corny with a post that I can't for the life of me get off. It looks like a formerly hexagonal bolt has been stripped of its edges...

Well boy do I feel like an idiot. In case anyone else should google upon this thread, the problem was that I wasn't pulling up on the (spring-loaded) bottom of the disconnect. I was wondering why I was having to push and pull so hard to get the damn things on and off. Thanks for the quick advice!

I'm brand new to kegging, having just gotten a kegerator off craigslist and ordered some (non-reconditioned) cornies off eBay. I thought I'd had everything set up correctly, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the keg to pressurize. I can hear and see the gas line fill up...

Long story, but I've stumbled into some very old LME and hops -- I think at least 3 years. 6 lbs Extra Pale + 1 Lb Munich in an Austin Homebrew screwtop plastic container (presumably not airtight?) 9 lbs "German pils" in what look to be vacuum-sealed foil bags 0.5 oz Sterling in a...

Thanks, everyone. I was worried that crushed grain would be awful after 9 months, but I guess not?

Hi, So I ordered a partial-mash saison kit back in January, got distracted, and somehow never got around it brewing with it. I'm now wondering which parts to throw away vs. use in the fall (can't brew until then thanks to temperatures around here). - 9 lbs of Pils malt extract (kept sealed...

Great suggestions on the insulation, thanks! I think I'll take balto charlie's advice and check out the fish market. Unfortunately I don't have any power outlets outside, so I probably can't do anything electrical. I'm not sure how worried I should be about the beer freezing, though, with...

Thanks, everyone. I like the sleeping bag idea. Anyone have any thoughts on whether it's dangerous to have a better bottle carboy stuck in water that freezes?

White Labs WLP029, actually. I'd be thrilled with a 50 degree secondary, but I'm not sure how I'd get that without putting it outside -- hence my concern about the 20 degree daily fluctuation in ambient temperature.

Not particularly realistic in the city, sadly. I'm looking for some other way to insulate the carboy. My first thought was to stick it in a bucket of cold water and keep it covered , but I'm not sure what would happen to the Better Bottle if the water around it froze...

I brewed a Kolsch yesterday, my first partial mash from an AHS kit. Went reasonably well, though the OG was higher than expected and the wort was very cloudy, even after cooling and filtering through a grain bag. What I'm wondering now is about ageing in the secondary, which I know should be...

Thanks for all the advice. I decided to skip the late extract addition and just go with the larger boil size. Nailed the OG, and I guess I'll see how hoppy it is in a few weeks.

Hmm... Beertools says that moving from a 2 gallon boil to a 3.5 gallon boil would raise the IBUs from 37.8 to 44.4, all within the 30-50 IBU range for the style. Meanwhile, the OG, at 1.046, is actually below the style parameters (1.048 - 1.060). Does anyone have formulas on the impact of...