Recent content by zbonaker

A co-worker who lives in the area told me about the shop. I'm going to check it out... I usually stick with American Homebrew Supply - it's a good, clean, helpful shop and has my loyalty. Although I always have to go to Home Brew Mart for Vienna malt... I dread going there. Snobby a-holes...

Thermometer was my first thought, also. For a long time, I was using a dial thermometer (the kind that can "clip" to a pot) and it slowly fell out of calibration. Turned out, it was more than five degrees too high. Thought I was mashing at 152, but was closer to 147. All the beers were...

Not sure I understand your question perfectly, but if you're not adjusting for the temperature your hydrometer is calibrated to, the reading will be way off. If I read your post correctly, you're wondering why a hydro reading at ~150F is low? Liquid that hot is going to allow the probe to dip...

I don't mean to sound like I'm challenging your process - merely curious and seeking knowledge. At 174, I'm assuming you're well above a desired mash temp when all is said and done. So, during your rest, you're not converting sugars... and in the end, you stir it back up anyway. That...

Followup question on: 3. I believe that double batch sparging with 10 minute rest is more efficient than single. Why the 10 minute rest? I've always operated under the impression that you wanted to get the sugars up into the solution and drain full-speed-ahead to "nab" as much as possible...

One of the references I cited is the following: US Tap Water Database - San Diego That's way too many pollutants for my taste, especially if you compare it to other cities in the US. You can see here, at the bottom of the page, CA is the worst state in the country for water...

I live in San Diego also... as of the last health report for US water (that I was able to obtain), we have the "worst" tap water in the country (average across a number of variables). I haven't looked into a water report to really get the details, but when you're consistently one of the worst...

Just trying to get a feel for evaporation, losses to trub, etc. Like I mentioned, I just switched to AG and I'm working on refining my system. The difference between post-boil volume and volume transfered to primary is something I'd like to track over my first few AG batches. I like the...

Long time lurker, first post (I think), just made the switch to all-grain. Quick question: I'm in need of a good way to measure the brew kettle volume after each step (first running, sparge, pre-boil, post-boil, etc.). Obviously, I'm looking to my first few batches to help me narrow down my...

I think a whisk is probably going to go a long way next time... But I like the idea of using a measuring cup to pour it... holding the bag over the steam of the pot, I could barely pour it out the clumping (in the bag) was so bad.

Hmm, that's disappointing... outside of the fact I have different sized bottles for this batch, I was hoping to learn a new method. But, OK... makes sense. Probably not a good idea to batch prime with my setup, just hoping there was a way somehow. So, on that note then, using corn sugar...

As a newbie homebrewer, I have just the basics to start... a single primary fermenting bucket... no secondary or bottling bucket. For an upcoming batch, I'll be bottling in a couple different sized bottles. Outside of the fact bottling priming is tedious, I don't like the inconsistency in...

Hello! Very new homebrewer here, but have lurked on these forums for quite awhile. Learned just about everything I know, for better or worse, from you all! This weekend I tried DME for the first time, as I've been using LME exclusively. Could anyone give me some advice for how to better...