Recent content by Swib

I would pour a beer and let it go flat (you could help it along through agitation), then measure the gravity of the now flat beer. Will it be perfectly accurate, not sure. Will it get you close, I would think so.

In my experience I find it works best to position the kettle so that the ball valve is positioned right in between two of the supports (obviously not directly above where the gas connection is for the burner, but one of the three remaining sides). I wedge the heat shield underneath just one of...

That sounds good to me. Lenie's used to make a seasonal Spiced Apple Ale and I would go through A LOT of each each fall. Thanks for the heads up, I'll be on the lookout for the Blue Moon variant now.

I'm curious why you're putting boiling wort into a keg?

Suds is right, most beers get the majority of their IBUs from early additions. That's actually why english bitters are called that (because they only use a bittering hop). There has been a trend lately for people to "hopburst" their beers. Hopbursting is basically achieving most or all of the...

Welcome Kyle. I am in Durham and work in Raleigh. There are a lot of homebrewers in our area. There's a couple of official clubs and some unofficial ones as well. You should definately meet up with some local guys if you're still in the planning phase. Also, if you haven't noticed there's a...

I would suggest posting this question in the thread you referenced, and if that doesn't work PM Walker. My understanding of the PWM is that it basically cycles the power to the element on and off. The more you turn up the potentiometer, the more time the element spends "on". I can't speak to...

Welcome to the board. How far east are you? You'll find there are lots of NC guys on here (I myself am in Durham).

There's a decent STC write-up here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ebay-aquarium-temp-controller-build-163849/ But if you find it difficult to follow, there are other similar threads.

Hell yeah I name my beers. Most of the homebrewers I know also name thiers. We all have different ways to decide on a name. Mine tend to come to me after a long unsettling connection of thoughts. I make a blonde ale with a very simple grain bill, for that reason I call it "Dumb Blonde". A guy I...

The Johnson controller is fine. The big benefit of doing an STC-1000 build is that it's digital and you can get very precise control that way (you can actually set 4 different parameters in the controller which I think is great). The only downside is all temps are displayed in Celcius. There are...

I don't know about current mini-fridges, so someone else will have to adress that. As for keezers, I would suggest you build the STC-1000 aquarium temp controller. It should cost you a total of $40 and works great. The collar on a keezer has 2 big advantages: 1 you don't have to drill any...

I would suggest building the STC-1000 2-Stage Temperature Controller (AKA the ebay controller). There's at least one thread here on how to do it, and it'll only run you $45ish. It gives you control over both heating (with a 60w bulb) and cooling your fermentation chamber. As for drilling into...

Also, don't overdo it. Recipes are designed to produce balanced beers. Boosting the alcohol will start to imbalance things, boosting it too far will just make it taste bad. Basically, just take it easy, don't try to double the alcohol or you'll find the other flavors (malt and hops) will be...

I have a 50 plate chiller and I use my garden hose. Full blast in both directions until it looks like everything got flushed out (i.e. the water runs clear for at least 30 seconds). Then I fill it with sanitizer and let it sit while I finish pitching yeast. Empty the sanitizer and throw it on...