Recent content by TroyMorgan

Wow. Def going to be stealing this great idea from you. Well done!

How long did you leave it in your primary? I had no patience on my first batch (American stout) and it came out drinkable but could have been much better. If overcarbed, you may have bottled before your fermentation was done, or you didn't mix in your priming sugar evenly (you could also have...

Why not try micro batching? If you brew a 5 gallon batch, make 5 variations at one gallon each. You would just need to find carboys that are about 1.25 gallons since a normal carboy would expose your beer to too much oxygen. This would allow you to try 5 different but similar beers side by...

How did you "mix" during each step? If you just siphoned into the next bucket it may not have evenly mixed. You should carefully/slowly stir the wort so everything evens out. You want to make sure not to stir too vigorously though. Oxygen is good before you pitch, but really bad after your...

You're fine if you are just waiting until your current ferm finishes. Yeast cells are now engineered to be more self sufficient. They have nutrients on their outer layer that they can feed on until they have a proper source. As was stated earlier, keep your yeast dry and cool.

Could be a few of things. As was stated earlier, your seal may not be right, or you may have just missed the airlock activity, etc. Was your OG reading at or close to what your goal was before you pitched? Do you have a thief so that you can get some brew to take another reading without...

You really shouldn't rack hot wort. If using an auto siphon, you will melt it. If using a metal cane or just pouring you run into other issues. Plastic ferm bucket may leach harmful chemicals into your brew and if racking into glass carboy it's much tougher to cool your wort quickly, which is...

No rinse sanitizer works.. I assumed that if a brewing kit was purchased it probably didn't come with that though. Most of them I have seen come with B Brite or something similar. Either way.

Tilt it and get as much as you can. no reason to waste any of your brew. You can check out numerous videos on YouTube to see various techniques. A thick book like a phone book seems to be a common choice fo keeping the bucket tilted.

Not going to be able to give you a guess on drinkability, but I would like to recommend not using the dishwasher. They harbor bacteria and the insides of the bottles do not get sanitized as well as you would really hope. Soaking the bottles in sanitizer and then air drying is really your best...

Read a brewing book. I read "How to Brew" by John Palmer and I have felt much more confident ever since. Let it sit for two weeks instead of 5 days and your beer will likely come out better. I hurried through my first few beers and while they ended up drinkable, they had more than a few...

+1 on leaving it for another week and a half (maybe more). Your bubbles should have slowed down as the yeast has less nutrients to munch on. Even if you don't see bubbles doesn't mean your yeast are finished. It's hard not to try and hurry the process but the more patient you are, the better...

Did the temperature where you are storing change at all? Increase in temp could change pressure in the bucket or could possibly re activate some of your yeast. FG will tell you if yeast are still going.

I know it's more money, but an immersion chiller may be your next upgrade (or you could always make one yourself for less). My girl gets after me on brew day every time and the immersion chiller knocks off a good amount of time from your brew day.

As was stated earlier, the co2 from your yeast will protect your brew. Your major concern by doing it this way is dust particles or similar "stuff" falling into your brew. The Saran (sp?) should help protect against this but be careful not to contaminate your wrap before putting it on. Also...