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My three biggest screwups over the years: 3. Dumped a bunch of PBW solution into my tray full of Star*San solution without thinking, and continued to use the solution to "sanitize" all my racking and kegging equipment. (Not sure what the pH would have balanced out to, but I bet it wasn't as...

Did a Witbier on Sunday. I have a cooler mash tun. This recipe calls for a protein rest before saccharification. Having used my heatstick (2000w water heater element) dozens of times to raise mash temps in the cooler I figured it would be no problem to take it up from 122° F to 154° F by...

Does anyone else see their efficiency shoot up like 20% when doing 10-gallon batches vs. 5-gallon batches? I'm thinking it has something to do with lautering efficiency. I'm regularly getting 90-95% efficiency numbers out of BeerSmith on my 10-gallon batches, and often that's after dumping...

Both items SOLD. Thanks for your interest. I upgraded my kegerator to 5 taps and now I need money. Someone buy this stuff. Preference will be given to LOCAL buyers (in or near Philadelphia, PA) with cash since I'm sick to death of packing and shipping stuff. But if no one local buys it...

First off, this is NOT about the black o-ring falling out. That happened years ago and I know it doesn't matter--the grain makes the slave roller turn anyway. I have a much bigger problem. Sometimes in the middle of milling my grain, everything just stops milling. I can see the input...

I was cleaning out a storage closet the other day, and I happened upon a 6 gallon carboy of wine. IIRC, I started fermenting it sometime in the fall of 2009, and I do remember getting to the final clearing stage and expecting to be able to bottle it sometime around the holidays. The carboy is...

So a few weeks ago I downloaded BeerSmith to my laptop, after a couple years of having it only on my desktop. I figured it would be cool to do those last minute changes while I'm still brewing, rather than penciling them in on the brew sheet and then changing them on the PC later. So I've...

My memory sucks. :drunk: I swear I've heard someone notable mentioning that he always added a little cinnamon to his mash. Something about it being a good antioxidant that improves the quality/stability of the finished beer, without actually contributing cinnamon flavor to the beer. I know...

OK, the nipple between my primary and secondary regs cracked and drained my CO2 tank. :( My regs both have standard RH threads, not the LH threads that some (like Cornelius) have. So can I use a standard brass pipe nipple to connect them? Is that rated to handle the ~1200 psi?

I want to use my house's natural gas service to power my burner. I really like the chassis of the SQ14 so that is what I intend to use. Has anyone upgraded the SQ14 to NG? I suspect I'll need a new burner and a new regulator--any tips on which ones to use?

I brewed a Chocolate Robust Porter last week with 8 oz of dark cocoa powder added at the end of the boil. Fermentation seemed as vigorous as it usually is and trickled down after a couple days as usual. Today I racked to secondary and took a gravity reading and it had only dropped to 1.030...

I just wanted to share some equipment annoyances I've gone through on my kegerator setup. Specifically crappy hoses and useless hose clamps. I have a single regulator and a 3-way manifold on the gas side of my kegerator. This adds up to 8 connections where gas hoses are attached to barbs...

I'm working with a friend who has grown a bunch of Chinooks (est. over 600 cones this year) but he doesn't brew at all. He's a huge fan of hoppy Americans like Arrogant Bastard. I want to take some of his Chinooks and make something that would showcase their bitterness well, like an Imperial...

I sketched up some plans for this trellis and bought all the supplies at the big orange store. It went up in about 15 minutes so I'm calling it the 15-minute hop trellis. :mug: It can be taken down easily and broken into 6' sections for storage. (In fact all the pieces came home from the...

When a keg is feeling really light, and you get a cloud of yeast in one of your pints, convincing you the next pint will kill the keg... but lo and behold 4 pints later it's still going strong. :D

If you could ONLY choose one for all your outdoor cooking needs, which would it be?

Is anyone else going to The Brewer's Plate? Lots and lots of good cuisine and beer. Should be a great time! March 9, 2008, 6:30-9:00 PM @ the Independence Visitor Center (6th & Market)

I have read that when preparing yeast starters, it is ideal to use an extract that closely approximates the beer you are going to brew. This way, after the natural selection process during yeast reproduction, the yeasties will be optimized for the wort you make on brew day. I have also...

I don't know why I'm just thinking of this now. I have an old Beer Meister from the 70s. The only kegs that seem to fit in it are Hoff-Stevens 1/4-bbl kegs (football shaped) which have the removable bung plug in the side. I dispensed a few batches of my beer and apfelwein through it in...

I have an American amber ale running in the primary right now. The Wyeast 1056 yeast should have a fairly low-stress life since the OG is only 1.045. I figure now would be a good time to put together a big barley wine recipe, brew it up in a week or two, and put it right on top of that yeast...