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Yes! It was water. I switched to using reverse osmosis water and adding salt to get the right profile. I cheated a little, I just copied water from a friend that always brewed great beer from RO water instead of calculating it. The pH of the spring water and my tap water was awful.

Can you comment on the boil strength? I have the 2000w in an 8 gallon kettle that is nearly identical dimensionally to the blichmann 7.5 gallon kettle. My heating with 5 gallons is very similar to yours, mine is: 75F to 165F in 35 minutes 75F to boil in 63 minutes but the boil is not...

These didn't use darker malts. I oxidized one badly, very different flavor. I wouldn't think the others are oxidization based on the one I oxidized very bad giving a strong example of oxidation. I just tasted one and couldn't call it peach. Thanks for the input! Sent from my iPhone...

I've brewed 9 batches, 5 extract and 4 BIAB. All have had some excessive level of sweetness. I could never pinpoint it but in two of the lighter ones, I'd describe it as raisin like. My pilsner is very raisin like and very sweet and a blonde ale I'd call a sweet raisin taste. Others just...

I dry hopped this about 12 hrs ago and there seems to be a whitish film in some areas. I suppose the answer is to give it some time and see what happens but I'm wondering if this looks infected. I boiled the hop bag before use and starsaned the other stuff. Handled the hop bag a lot but had...

I tried. I siphoned it all in with the hose held at the top of the fermenter aimed straight down splashing the whole batch in. Then I shook the whole thing for a couple of minutes. That photo was about 12 hrs later so the foam had gone away. I'd like to aerate as much as possible but not sure...

Yeah the airlock is bubbling away good now. I was just surprised that it took longer to take off than I'm used to pitching dry. Wondering if I did something about the rehydration wrong (or not as good as it should have been done)

Oh and the room it's in is 66 degrees

So I rehydrated at 80F in about 2 cups of water for 30 minutes then pitched. This has resulted in very stratified layers and pretty much no activity in the air lock 12 hrs later. Is this normal when rehydrating? Here's the details: 2 gallon cream ale 1.050og Safeale us-05 (1 pack) Do I need...

So probably boiling a cup or two of water directly in a heat able flask and plugging with a sanitized stopper until it reaches rehydrating temp then adding the yeast to rehydrate would be safest I assume. I'll go that route unless there's something bad about that approach.

I've always avoided that considering it to be another step with risk of infection but it's starting to sound like a good option being that most seem to recommend it and it would solve the suds problem. Thanks!

My beers so far have turned out a little sweet. To tackle this, I'm going to mash my next batch a little cool and attempt to aerate more than usual to make sure the yeast can finish their job. To do this I plan to shake the heck out of the fermenter before pitching which I know will result in...

Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback. Makes sense that sometimes, but NOT always, people would be prone to putting less planning into a heat stick rather than an e-kettle just do to the heat stick project seeming less involved. My reasons for leaning towards a heat stick was: 1. Just a small boost...

I've got my first lager going and am starting to think I left it in the primary too long. It's a pilsner using safelager w-34/70. It went a month in the primary at 52 degrees (long past any signs of activity) and has now been in the secondary a week and there doesn't seem to be any sediment or...

I've noticed that pretty much all threads on heat sticks seem to come with a warning about electrical safety. However no one seems to be too concerned with installing a heating element right into their kettle and firing it up. You don't typically see warnings in e-kettle threads. Is there...

How long is it safe to assume they're good in the fridge in a zip lock bag? Is two weeks safe? I've had some in the fridge for a week that I want to use next weekend. They're already stinking up the fridge which got me wondering. Id be happy spending a few bucks for new hops if there's any...

Any thoughts on this?

I know there is a lot of discussion on how much can be boiled on a stovetop but I haven't found any direct comparison of how much a different kettle may help in ability to boil more. I have an economy 5 gal stainless kettle and on a 12,000 BTU burner I'm definitely maxed out boiling 3.5...

Got it working. Had forgot to tie the hot directly to the receptical. Doh! Thanks for offering some input!