Recent content by T-Dan

I have been brewing for a year and a half and have not needed to heat at all. It does sometimes get a bit cool in the winter, but the temp in my garage has stayed up pretty well. Freezer/Fermentation temps have held well. If I ever find I need to heat, I plan to put a covered light bulb in...

My dog seems to love wort and dropped grains. I don't feed it to him, but drops on the floor sure get wiped up quick..... ;)

I have a 10 gal round cooler i made into a mash tun. (plenty of online tutorials on that). don't bother getting a 5 gal, you'll just kick yourself and get the 10 gal later anyway. (my 5 gal is sitting in the garage, unused). I have a 5 gal and an 8 gal kettle. I brew right on the stove...

If you want to make something extra special and big, go for a barleywine. you have plenty of time to let it ferment for a few months, and they get better with age. I bought smaller 6 oz champagne bottles online for my barleywine. If you got those, itwould allow you to have more bottles to...

i agree with moer rye. i made a couple Rye IPAs and should have had more than a pound of rye in each.

No leaks, but I do sometimes disconnect the beer out line. This is more so our boys, 13 and 17, don't accidentally pour themselves a drink..... or to make sure there are no loses should the cat decide to play with the tap handles....

Check out the app "myBeerNation" on your phone or tablet. I check that everytime i am in a new place.

I typically use 9 gallons of water per 5.5 gallon batch, Which includes a mix of 6 gals distilled and 3 gallons tap. I try to save about a half gallon of the distilled in case i need it for a hop tea or yeast starter or something else down the road.

i fit 4 kegs and a 10 lbs CO2 tank on the bottom of an 8.8, and have room on the shelf for other bottled beers. I even have a basket left in for more beers and yeast.

For this reason, when i bottled i preferred 16 oz bottles. still some loss at the end of the pour, but more beer in the glass!

+1 cost me about $1K-$1.2K with a new 8.8 cf black chest freezer. Used the Billy Brew version as a model. 4 taps, 545 flow control perlicks.

Always glad to see locals joining!

In my brew software i created two "all grain" profiles for this reason. One with high hop use, one with low hop use. I changed the amount of loss to the trub to take into account the higher losses with more hops in the boil. Just means i need more water pre-boil.

I grudgingly agree about the wing size, but it is the best sauce. tried suicidal; they are good but not when i want a lot. the best time to be there is when they are making contest wings. you can't even breathe. I get a pint or tow of 3.5 and hotter when i am up there and mail it back to...

are you making a 5 gallon batch? The 9.88 gals water sounds like a lot to me for less than 12 lbs of grain. I would assume about 1.5 gallons lost to the grain, which leaves you with about 8.38 pre-boil. so if you reduce the total water, the sparge water becomes more in line....