Recent content by Slobberchops

Hi, I am brewing more frequently in order to ramp up for some beer competitions this summer. I have 10 gallons of IPA in 2 fermenters that I'm going to keg / bottle (5 gals per) this weekend. I am also planning on brewing some Black Rye IPA this weekend. I am considering racking onto the...

I might need to get that plastic one. I think I would break far fewer if they made a square hydrometer - most of my breakage has been a result of rolling.

Quit the kit sooner rather than later. There are so many free sources for recipes that you can use as a base and then riff off to make your own. I think software (Beersmith, Promash) is a great aid in formulating recipes, but there are free online versions available also...

Not aware of any plastic ones...they are cheap so you should replace the one you broke with 3 new ones. In the past year my household has broken 4: Wife: 2 5 y/o son: 1 Me: 1 But I'd rather break hydrometers than a refractometer (which is why I haven't bought one)!

From what I read, it seemed like the WI beer distributors were driving the movement to preserve WI restrictions on homebrewing. Let's keep in mind that beer distributors have a special legal status, with our 3-tier system which is mandated by law and gives some enviable advantages in the market...

Thanks for the advice. After I read your message and realized I'd pitched 7x the amount of yeast you use (at least - since I let it sit for a bit after pitching and before bottling) I ran home to check things out. I had put the soda in a tub in case I had some bursting, but hadn't put the lid...

Sounds like I WAAAAY over-pitched then. 0.5 tsp for 3 gallons would be 2.5g....corrected for my 2 gallon batch size would be 1.7g. And I pitched an entire packet of US05, which was 11.5g! Trying one out tonight sounds like a good idea! This was my first go at this, so I didn't buy much in...

Thank you for your reply (I too chuckled - I am sadly no stranger to bottle bombs). Call me lazy, but measuring yeast into each bottle seemed like a lot of effort, so I pitched in a packet of Fermentis US05 into the pot, let sit for 2 hours, and then bottled 2 gallons of soda. From your...

So yesterday I made my first batch of home-made Root Beer, into which I pitched some US05 a couple of hours prior to bottling for carbonation. I read on a soda website (http://www.greydragon.org/library/brewing_root_beer.html) that: "Once the pressure in your bottles gets to a certain point...

I brewed 10-gals; thinking I will do 5 gals with US05 and 5 with some sort of CA lager yeast (when I can find some). I'll let you know how both turn out. Thanks

Hi there, I was planning on making my "Vienna Steam Lager," which is a CA Common with the addition of a high percentage of Vienna malt (recipe below). My question is this - what would happen if I used Safale US-05 instead of WLP810 / Wyeast 2112? I visited 2 LHBS's in my area and didn't...

Good thread; I am having a similar issue. This thread is making me want to toss my 3 plastic fermenters. Like the OP, I have a batch that is gushing with several exploding. Unfortunately, I have 3 other batches (2 in fermentation and 1 just bottled) that it is too early to tell if they are...

I love this method - I did it over the weekend and it was easy and hassle free. And it appears to have been quite effective. My only two set-backs were that I did seem to lose some carbonation, and I did have one bottle detonate while in the water. It was like a depth-charge going off in...

Revvy - just read some of your other threads. In addition to a lot of foam, I get "yeast rafts" suspended in the beer after I pour. As I said in the OP, the gushing seems stir up yeast from the bottom of the bottle, creating these suspended yeast rafts. Will these yeast rafts settle out...

They'd been in the fridge for a few days.