Recent content by sdent

Is there a benefit to recycling the wort back through the grain bed after the sparge? How about heating the wort up to 170 F and then recycling it through? Would that increase extraction efficiency?

Original Quote "Mashing with 3.25 gallon 1st Run off 1.75 gallon Sparge with 4.76 2nd run off 4.23 gallon Total wort collected 5.98 gallon Water added to boil 1.68 Gallon" Wouldn't you want to keep sparging to get the total volume of water in the boil instead of just adding fresh water to the...

That was my mistake, it was two 11.5 lb batches. I just put together a cooler mash/lauter tun system. This was my first try with it. I mashed at ~152 F for 60 min and then sparged with 170 F to obtain a final volume of 3.5 gallons. I also ran the wort back through the spent grains after...

I've got a question on efficiency. I recently made my first attempt at a barley wine(my fifth batch of all grain). I used 21 lbs of grain, and got 7 gals of wort. I then boiled until I had 4.5 gals. My OG was 1.085. From what I've read this seems a little low. Any ideas on how to extract...

Anyone out there have a stellar Barley Wine recipe? I've seen quite a lot of recipes with a huge range of grain batch sizes. Personally I like them to be a bit thick. Anyone out there ever tried "Grumpy Old" from the now deceased Leavenworth Brewery? It really grabbed ya by the eyelids.

What would be the benefit with starting out with a wine yeast and then adding a champaigne yeast? Why not just start with the champainge yeast?

Is there an easy converstion from extract to whole grain? And what would be the difference in using champagne yeast vs. a barley wine yeast? Taste?

I've been curious about the effectiveness of the secondary fermentor. It works great for clearing up the beer but all the recipes that I see say to let it sit in there for a couple weeks. Does anyone have a good explanation for this? Are you really going to get that much more yeast activity?

I can't help myself, I've just got so many questions. My friend and I just aquired a igloo cooler and just put a new tap on it that works better than the one it came with. Now we're in the process of designing a false bottom. Anyone out there have an out of this world design they'd like to...

Well I've got three batches of all grain under my belt, and they've all turned out amazing. This last one I just transfered to the secondary is a pale ale and it's at 6.3% by volume! Unfortunately it's only about 3.5 to 4 gallons due to an unobserved boil over. I'm just surprised the flame...

Thanks everybody. It's bubbling nicely now. And yes, I relaxed and had a home brew.

Ok, I admit I'm a little new at this game and ask a lot of questions, but hey this is a great resource. A friend and I just brewed a batch last night and I was pretty excited with the OG we got (shooting for 1.052 to 1.054 but got 1.058). It was our first time using liquid yeast and didn't...

I'm on my third batch of all grain now. Previously I'd been mashing in a pot that I insulated. I've been using a pretty intensive step mashing schedule, adding hot water to raise to 130 and then 150 degrees then actually placing the pot on the burner and raising the heat for the last 158 and...

What would be the benefit of slowly raising your temperature rather than all at once?

I've seen quite a bit of discussion on water pH. I was curious what the consensus was. I was under the ussumption that most waters, no matter the pH, are not heavily buffered. Therefore wouldn't the grain then dictate the pH of the mash? I'd also like to hear if there are any personal...