Recent content by sigaas

When I'm using promash, I've entered the grain bill as shown in the recipe and it calculates a SG for me based on my efficiency. Is there a way to get it to tell me what the grain bill should be based on a SG and efficiency? Or do I just need to keep adjusting the grain bill until the SG is right?

Let me count the ways.. 1) It turns out my thermometer is off by 4 degrees. So when I heated up my strike water it was 4 degrees too high. 2) When I added the water to the grain, I thought I had overshot, so I added some cold water. But added too much, then had to add more hot water. In...

I've downloaded a copy of promash, but I'm not very good using it. Is there any chance you can plug the numbers for me and let me know what you get? I'd like to try it myself and compare it to what experts get to see if I'm doing it right.

Not really, no. I made too many mistakes. The first batch was a disaster and so I'm essentially starting from scratch.

I'm going to try my second batch of AG this weekend but I'm confused about how much grain I should be using. I like this recipe here. This webpage seems to indicated I need to scale my grain by 1.16 in order to achieve the desired results as shown in the recipe. Can anyone help me out...

Anyone have tips on cleaning bottles? Typically I will rinse the bottles thoroughly after I've poured a brew and then drain them upside down. Then I store them upside down in a box until needed. To sterilize, I just put them in the dishwasher before I bottle. At one point or another I used...

I've read that page as well. On there the suggestion is 1 to 1.3 qt/lb. After a bit more reading, it looks like 1.25 is a pretty good strike thickness. Other posters suggest mash temp and water pH are far more important variables to be concerned about.

I'm hoping to brew my first batch of AG this weekend but I have a question about the mash and how much water to add. I plan to do batch sparging with a single infusion mash. I found a recipe here: www.beertools.com/html/recipe.php?view=2521 that I'd like to try. After reading this...

I was planning on pre-heating when I was actually brewing, but before I invested the energy and money into converting this cooler into a mash tun I wanted to be sure it would hold the temp okay. It is a $16 cooler from k-mart so I wasn't sure how well it would be insulated. A secondary...

I didn't preheat the cooler so I did expect a temp drop in the first 15 minutes or so. But, like I said, the temp kept dropping through the entire hour. Tonight I'll try the same thing but see how the temp fares over 2 hours instead of just 1. Hopefully it won't drop more than a couple of...

I'm planning on converting to AG in the next couple of weeks so tonight I bought a 48qt rubbermaid rectangular cooler. I put in about 1.5 to 2 gals of 165 degree water to see how much heat it would lose over 1 hour. I put a blanket over the cooler to try and minimize the heat loss through the...

I'll try to search more around this site for more info on mash tun/cooler conversions. The thermometer measures actual degrees, and ranges from 32 to 212, I think. I might even be accurate to 0.1 degrees, but I'd have to check. I'm pretty particular about sanitizing, so I'm not worried...

I've brewed several batches of partial extract and now I'd like to try some all grain brewing. I'd really rather not spend more than $100 or so upgrading my equipment, so I'm looking for a list of items I need to buy to make an all grain batch. Also, I plan to stick with 5 gal batches. Here...

I'm working on my first batch of beer and last night I racked it from my primary fermenter into the carboy. Unfortunately, the carboy is now only about 3/4 full. Should I fill the rest of the carboy with water or should I just leave it? I don't really want a watered down beer, but I'm concerned...