Recent content by wanabeer

Awesome new forum (at least new to me), great idea!

I heard from my LHBS that if you drop the keg on the floor from about six inches height that the carbonation will come out of suspension quite readily, I haven't tried this yet though.

I have this problem with my bucket in a bucket lauter tun especially with pilsner malt it seems. I have always just used a small strainer and stirred my boil kettle through the strainer with a large spoon several times rather than strain the whole kettle and this seems to remove all or enough of...

Flaked corn is much less processed and is probably 100% corn, unlike (I suspect) corn flakes. I would be afraid of corn flakes gumming up your sparging process. By the way, I have brewed this beer a couple of times and it's a real crowd pleaser. I really like it too. I am planning on brewing...

I think cold crashing is usually used for force carbonation. The most important part in cold crashing is the cold. Preferably, you should slowly reduce the temp down to about 38 degrees. Ideally about three degrees a day, this will make sure that few yeasties will be harmed in the process. It's...

If your OG is good then I say go for it. Write down what you did just in case you really like the beer when it finishes.

Can you check for conversion using the iodine test or hydrometer?

At refrigerator temp your beer will carbonate extremely slowly if at all (probably not at all). If you used corn sugar to prime your bottles the higher temps will not change the flavor of your beer because corn sugar ferments so clean. I usually put mine in a closet at about 72-75 degrees and it...

I'll just go for it. Thanks for the quick reply.

I am brewing my first lager today and I am using about 10% pilsen malt along with the other grains like pale malt and flaked maize. Do I need to step mash the pilsen malt? I certainly can if I need to but I don't want to waste time if I don't have to. I assume the malt is well modified, it came...

I am currently using this method with good results. The idea of batch sparging in a cooler just never appealed to me (it's a perception thing, I'm sure). Anyway, I was desperate to try my first all-grain which required about 15 lbs. of grain (so sparging with a grain bag was pretty much out)...

This should get me by for awhile. I have a bucket that I am currently drilling holes in the bottom of, which I will then put into my spigotted ale pail to sparge with. Has anybody tried this? I measured the holes in a false bottm when I was at my LHBS and it was 3/32. But it is thicker and it's...

I am in the market for a new carboy since I lost one to stupidity (thermal shock). I was wondering what people thought about the method of primary fermentation using a five gallon carboy for a five gallon batch. Charlie Papazian suggests this to try in his book "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing"...