Recent content by sc1584

I'd say go either Munich or Vienna, but not both. I usually do Vienna in my APA's and Munich in my IPA's, it helps differentiate the profile between the two if you drank them side by side. Aside from that, I do almost the same stuff in the same proportions for my APA - 2 row base with light...

Let it go. I used to rack out of primary after 7 days or so. Then I started letting batches go 14-18 days in primary. The beer clears way faster and easier, and reaches its taste peak much much faster, since the yeast cake cleans everything up and ages the beer faster. You'll have a clearer...

Give it more time, my first few extract beers were awful at the timeframe you're talking about - watery, off-tasting, and uncarbonated. Once the carbonation hits the right level, the watery flat taste disappears, it has a lot to do with perception of carbonation in solution. The off-tastes will...

I brew in a condo in Southie using the following dirt-cheap but highly effective setup: -Mash tun: I use 2 kettles, both 20 qts, on the stovetop for mashing. I split my grain bill in half into two grain bags, one bag for each kettle. I heat about 2 gals of water to 168 in each pot, then drop in...

The starter is your friend with liquid yeast, repeat after me, the starter is your friend. It's not difficult and once you make one and see the difference, you will be hooked. I can taste a clear difference between beers that I just pitched a single vial of liquid and left to reproduce on...

I just sampled the first couple bottles of a pale ale I did 3 weeks ago (2 weeks primary, 1 week in bottles) and it's delicious already. The grain bill is simple so it doesn't need much aging. The two week primary makes it crystal clear. And if you bottle-condition with 5 oz of priming sugar at...

I agree Conpewter, the bag is a great simplification for all-grain brewers regardless of the terminology or how many vessels are used. If I can hit 78% consistently using the bag sparge in the unmodified cooler, then I can't really justify the time and money (albeit small amounts of both) to...

I routinely get 78% efficiency with a 60 minute mash at 154, 10 minute sparge at 170, doughing in with 1.25 quarts/lb of grain. I usually put 8 gallons through the process for a 10 lb grain bill to yield 5 gallons of wort in the fermenter. I lose about 3 gallons to grain absorption and boil...

Not in MA you won't....they don't distribute here, it's frustrating. It's virtually 100% unavailable in MA, I think all of New England actually, although I've heard rumors you can find it in western Connecticut closer to NY state. The closest I've been able to reliably find it is heading west on...

I brewed a pale ale at 1.051 on Friday night and pitched a large starter of washed yeast cake from my last brew late-night at around 60 degrees F, and had airlock bubbles by bedtime at 1:30am. The temp fluctuated throughout the 60's for the next day and a half. By Sunday evening, 8pm, I was at...

I've got an amber ale in primary right now, sitting in my kitchen in a bare bones swamp cooler. My ambient apartment temp averages out around 80-83 during the day, 75 at night. My wort has not gone above 66 degrees since it started fermenting on Saturday. I use an 18 gallon Rubbermaid...