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Shaking will give you enough oxygen, it just takes work and you have the near certainty of adding some small number of undesirable yeasts and bacteria in the process. But if your pitching rates are adequite, the yeast will outcompete the nasties and you will usually have beer.

One of mine does that. It is an older "economy" regulator and is slow to adjust when it hits pressure, especially when I am force carbing a keg and the co2 is flowing fast enough to start to freeze the regulator housing.

Check resturantdepot.com I got a killer deal on a 20 gal pot for $79 shipped last christmas.

I use the Brewzor Calculators app for android. It has a refractometer correction calculator built in that works great. I have verified the readings against a hydrometer on multiple batches and am fully confident in the readings. I NEVER use a hydrometer anymore. The app by the way is free :)

I have 4 beer taps and one is always a light session beer and it is always the one to go dry first. Ben

ok cool stuff. I'm in.

Saw rhis in your sig from the bottler thread.... nice build so far. Don't sweat the gas line contact with the walls of the keezer, they will be fine. Just make sure to keep the beer lines away from the keezer walls and you will be golden. Just out of curiosity, why the primary/secondary...

+1 on the flaked oats. The lactose is fine at 8 oz 2 vanilla beans cut and scraped in secondary for 2 weeks will give you a balanced vanilla flavor. The unsweetened cocoa powder worrks fine added to secondary 8 oz of unsweetened cocoa is a lot. And will give you a very rich dessertish beer

I do multiple batch sparge and have routine efficiency of 90%. Just sayin'

I'll add that it also depends on how long you plan on this beer being around. Most spices fade within a few months and vanilla will mellow some, but it does not fade as much as most spices or coffee. I have a vanilla coffee stout that has earned multiple gold, I. Find that 2 beans cut scraped...

Oh, and yes, maltodex can help with head retention. It is nonfermentable, so adding it a bottling should work ok. When I have added it, I have added 8oz/5gal. For future you can add 1/2 to 1 lb of carapils to your mash or steeping grains for the same result.

A couple other things that can help: 1. Only wash your glasses with hot water, no soap and definitely no dishwasher with jet-dri. 2. What do you use as a fermenter? The reason that I ask is, the foam positive malt protiens that are largely responsible for head retention are also picked up in...

My aversion to Chinook as a bittering hop is so strong I think it may be a mild alergy. There is hardly anything from Southern Tier that I can drink without becoming physically ill, as almost all of their beers have chinook for bittering. Irks me to no end as I have several friends that rave...

The cellar won't hurt anything, an will help if the temp is less prone to changing than the upstairs. When aging beer/wine/cigars, the key thing with temperature is not so much actual temp as it is stability of temp. Also, I may help to insure you still have some left at holiday time.

I do 10gal batches as my standard. I use a converted sanke keg as a mash tun, and the SWMBO got me a 20gal aluminum brew kettle from resturantdepot.com for $89 delivered. I always ferment as 2x5gal batches as it is more convenient for kegging in cornies and gives me more options for...

At your altitude, you should have CO2 coming out of solution faster and easier, so that's not it. Hop oils help head retention. In lightly hopped beers, significant blow off durring fermentation will hurt head retention. What is your water source? Softened water can negativly impact head retention.

To avoid this, just strain as much of the solids out as possible and avoid air contact with the watermellon juce as much as possible.

Temp: I use direct fire, so take this as advisory. It is easier to overshoot your temp slightly and adjust down with a splash of cold water or a few ice cubes, than it is to raise your mash temp if you undeshoot when using a cooler MT. Calculate your strikewater temp based on Qt per Lb of grain...

I made a watermellon beer that turned out well. My SWMBO loves the 21st Hell or High watermellon...... for one, ice cold, on a really hot day, after working outside, all day. But the watermellon gets overwhelming after one and as an American style wheat.... not the greatest style to begin with...

But the CO2 produced in a bottle of beer is one byproduct of a complex biological process not a reversable chemical reaction, and a bottle has a stress limit which is not theoretical. While it is possible to stop the process with pressure alone, yeast have a wider survivable pressure range than...