Recent content by Radler

Has anybody else used that Cooler Mash tun set-up? I just put it together and used it and the beer is quite off. When I first tested it with water to see how well it would insulate I noticed a film of something on top of the water. Does anyone know if there is something that needs to be done...

I'm curious if any of you have tried to make hard cider. I tried it for the first time a few days ago. I picked a lot of good cider apples, pressed them added a camden tablet and waited 24 hours, just like I was told to do and read. I then added pasteur champagne yeast and it fermented like mad...

I was wondering if anybody can tell me why I get such different results on recipes when using two different "methods". When I calculate what the OG and IBU etc will be using tastybrew.com it comes out very differently than if I use calculations from John Palmer's "How to Brew". I trust both of...

Are there any Star San experts out there who can tell me why the solution stays clear for only about 30 minutes after I mix the star san and water. I have read that it is only effective as long as it stays clear so I have about 30 minutes to sanitize carboys, 50 bottles, etc. There must bwe...

I must admit I had expected the response to come back as ID. I was looking at some today with 3/8 in. OD and they just looked so small. Also the one I had seen recently in a store all put together looked much thicker. I can get 25 ft of 3/8 in OD for $23 here in Vermont.

I am trying to build a chiller but I forget if I have heard that the copper tubing should be 3/8 in. diameter on the inside or outside. Or maybe it's not that measurement at all. Anybody want to comment on how much they have payed to make one of these. Thanks.

Hi, I have only ever used pellet hops and am now using a different shop which only carries whole leaf. If my recipe called for 1 oz. Hallertau can I use 1oz leaf just as well as pellet or is there some difference I should know about? I would guess not but I would like to be sure. Thanks.

How is it that everybody gets gravity readings? Everytime I brew I mix up some Sanstar and have a bucket of it for everything but to just sanitize the stuff to get a gravity reading it seems a horrible waste of water. Is there any other method to sanitizing just the tube etc. for sucking some...

I made a wit with Wyeast's wit yeast. It's been in secondary for 2.5 weeks now and there is still a healthy head in there with tiny bubbles coming up from all over non stop. When should this stop? Is it a sign of something bad? Most importantly, so I need to wait for it to stop before I try...

I brewed a very straightforward Wit beer recipe about two weeks ago. I left it in the primary for about 1.5 weeks which is quite a bit longer than I have ever in the past but I was away and had no choice. When I got back it was still bubbling away, slower of course but pretty conssitent once...

I've just brewed a wit on Saturday and it's going along pretty well in the primary but I need to go away for a while and would like to leave tomorrow though it could wait till Wednesday. The question is this: if it's still got krausen and airlock activity is it a sin to transfer to secondary...

I posted a short while ago asking about a beer that came out much stronger than anticipated and it's lack of activity in the secondary. Some people responded that I should give a dose of yeast at bottling because due to high abv. my yeast are pretty much done. My question is how is that done...

I've just put something from primary into secondary which had a SG much higher than I expected (1.130). I dry hopped the secondary but aside from watching them settle down there is no other activity in there (it's been three days). The gravity at racking was 1.040 which depending on how you...

So a very anticipated beer has been in Primary (1 week), secondary (2.5 weeks) and I would love to botle no cause I'll be leaving soon for 4 weeks. Problem is I didn't check gravities for numerous reasons. My guess is that it's gotta be okay, it should have been 1.059 OG so it wasn't anything...

After brewing two weeks ago, I could not clean everything up right away and left hoses and spoons in star san solution. Upon taking them out yeterday I noticed the spoon (previously white) was now almost green where it had ben in solution. The hose has a bit of a cloudy color inside. Have I...