Recent content by Tusz

I gave the fermenter a good shake about three hours ago, and the bubbler's ticking nice and steadily now. Looks like all the new yeast needed was a little oxygen! I still think the old stuff was stale though.

Thanks for the advice, everybody! I had found a Fermentis pdf saying 78-87F for rehydration, but that was a general guide. I used the temp from Palmer's book the first time (~95 I think), and I was nervous about killing them with heat when I repitched. Aeration seems like a good plan; I hadn't...

Hey everyone! Just getting back into brewing after a long absence from the hobby. I brewed up a brown ale on Sunday and I'm waiting on it to ferment, but the yeast isn't doing anything. It was old yeast (to the tune of around nine months), so I waited three days before calling it lost and buying...

Thanks for the responses, everyone! Looks like I'll be off buying a turkey baster later today. I'll probably be getting a 10-gallon pot just to make my life easier for extract batches, and then getting a burner for when I'm ready to step up to 5-gallon BIAB (once I've done a few Mr. Beer sized...

Hey everybody! Just did my first 5-gallon batch tonight! It was quite a change from the Mr. Beer batches I was doing. I used the Octane IPA kit from Midwest [Adj. OG: 1.066], and it was a delicious-smelling brew by the end of it. All-in-all, it was a good time, and I hope to hear my airlock...

I wish someone had told me to try BIAB earlier! Just did my first batch today, and none of my fears were justified. Too much time spent worrying about screwing up, when I could have spent that time screwing up less badly and learning from it.

Thanks for the responses! I think that if I just make a small notch for the threads to fit through, it would screw into place appropriately. I'll be taking a look at it later today. Oh, and that comment about the gaskets will probably save a bottle or two's worth of beer; I was going to put one...

So, a small bump, and a quick second question: do these kinds of spigots really have the kinds of leaking issues I see mentioned in reviews, and what's a good way to stop it if they do?

Hey everybody! Thanks to some Christmas presents, I'm joining the ranks of the 5-gallon brewers (after a year of Mr Beer). I have all my equipment, and I'm just waiting on my recipes to get here. But first, I've run into a bit of a problem... I'm not sure where my family bought the equipment...