Recent content by WilliamstonBrew

There is a link to an Imgur album I put together at the bottom of my post that has up-close and bigger area pictures, if that's what you mean. (I was lazy and didn't post them individually in the post...)

First year Cascades. They've stopped growing vertically, but even when they were, I noticed the lower leaves slowly yellowing. Over the past 2 weeks, and really over the past few days, it has been very hot here and the leaves are drying to a crisp after yellowing from the outside in. They're...

This beer is fantastic. The only thing I can add to the conversation is another picture of the final product. I brewed this on May 5th and follow the OP's recipe exactly.

Confirmed. From a publication from New Mexico State University College of Agriculture: Interesting. Makes sense, too. Looks like I'll try some compost tea instead. (Though I will let those beans continue to grow, too!) I'd like to rely as little on chemical fertilizers as possible.

Is there any tangible benefit from planting some bush beans around (basically right at the base) my first-year Cascade hops? Instead of using chemical fertilizers, and since the hops look a bit nitrogen deficient (I'm not positive, though), is there any appreciable and real fertilization that...

I am growing first year hops, too. I am dreading the Japanese beetle invasion. So far, so good here in mid-Michigan. I've only seen one or two stray beetles. I am experiencing pale-ish leaves, too, but they're still climbing the trellis (biggest is about 8' tall) and have not send out and...

I'm wondering too. I know that raising the grain temperature to 170 denatures all of the enzymes that convert starches to sugars. So maybe it's to preserve the sugar profile of the mash without continuing conversion during run-off? To me that doesn't seem like much of a problem though. Draining...

I don't mashout when I batch sparge. If I'm mashing let's say at 152, I usually add my sparge water when it's 170 degrees which gets the grains up to maybe 155 or 160 tops. (Edit: BACK UP to 155 or 160 after draining the first runnings.) I've never sparged higher than that. My efficiency has...

Brewed this today and plan on aging it for 20 weeks (until October). The OG was 1.063, but I was a half gallon shy of 5 gallons, so after I topped it off it was at 1.056. I can live with that. My basement is 64 degrees, and after a few weeks it'll sit in a keg down there until fall. I *can*...

It's sort of a mini-mash. I mean, any time you're soaking malted grains in water between 140-160 degrees for any length of time, it can be considered a mash of sorts, right? I love this recipe. I brew it all the time. I upped the grains to 1# each and brewed a batch with an OG of 1.070 a few...

I'm in mid-Michigan and haven't seen anything yet. No Japanese beetles yet, either... I'm really gearing up for those this year. Have you seen any down there yet?

All generalizations are dangerous; even this one =) I've never swapped a tank. I own two tanks, a factory-new 5# SS tank that came with my kegerator and an extra, refurbished 10# tank (manufactured in 1958, FWIW) for force carbing at room temp. I have them filled at a local fire systems...

I understand the physics. That is why I was disappointed that I couldn't separate the coils more. The plan is to build the insulated wall of the chamber right between the two coils and have fans inside and out. I'll be able to use heat-resistant materials on the outside where the hot coils are...

I tore down an old dehumidifier that was left in the basement when we bought our house in 2007 (a bad time to buy, by the way =). Anyway, it worked for a while, but eventually the fan quit. The compressor system works great still. Here are some pictures. I want this to power a...

Also in Michigan here. A few days ago, a buddy of mine cut off what I can best describe as runners (I guess they're very small rhizomes that had spread about a foot or so from the crown). One had about a foot of growth on it and the other two had less then six inches of green shoots. The...