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I'm looking into dry yeast since at least one starter was overly active. Of course I pitched the last batch with Notty without rehydrating. Woops. We need to calibrate our thermometers, hydrometers, and refractometer before I'm prepared to say what our *actual* temp was, instead of what I...

Welp, I thought of the project to learn python first, and brewing stuff second. But your suggestions are good ones. I'd like to get an arduino but that will have to wait until I find a job, etc.

Ok, this is an update: Local homebrew club suggested our off flavors are due to a low mash temp and a short boil time. That makes me feel a lot better about my sanitation stuff. Next step is too verify the mash tun thermal mass, the grain heat absorption, etc. and boil for 90 min. We're...

Hi, I am playing around with Python and naturally I am using brewing to inspire projects. I am not a programmer. I'm hoping the forum can help in two ways. First, the BeerXML standard look woebegone. How useful is this standard? I thought all the major recipe apps supported it...

Oh god no. I sanitize as close to use as possible. All bottling stuff is sanitized during bottling. I try to let Star San work for three minutes, and stay wet until ready. I use a bottle jet to rinse the bucket beforehand. Bottles are stored upright before sanitization, upside-down afterwards...

Just bottled a Janet's Brown clone with no taste of off flavors. Hopefully they don't develop. If they do, I'll have to look at the bottling bucket more closely. For a while, I was using it to soak bottles. So aside from the spigot, threads and seal potentially hiding stuff, the bucket itself...

Yeah, I cringed too when I wrote sponge. So I'll never use that in a sanitation setting again.

I get your point. And I'm trying to relax, but 20 gallons is a lot of wasted beer. Now I have another batch that may or may not be drinkable in 2 weeks. I'm obviously doing something wrong. Even if I wasn't, and my beer was drinkable, I'd prefer my IPA not to taste like a Belgian. Besides...

I wasn't before. I am becoming more paranoid now: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/sanitation-checklist-help-255946/

Hi, [This is a long post, and I apologize. If I ask about sanitation, it seems like I should describe my process.] I'm hoping to crowd source possible sources of a light wild yeast infection in my last beer kit. A bit of background: we brewed a few batches last year until we infected 20g...

I'm glad this was a helpful thread. We have three tanks from blue rhino which we normally exchange. I'll be looking into alternatives soon. It's not windy here, although we did create a wind shield from a 55-gal drum for our first few batches. We stopped using it once we got a sight glass and...

I try to turn it down and readjust for the most efficient flame. But it still feels (which isn't a very good measure of reality) like we're burning through propane way too fast. I'll probably weigh the tank before and after the next 10g brew. I wonder how true value would feel if I showed up...

Thanks. I'll look into that. I'm much more worried that either the burner is inefficient or there is user error.

Fairly sure, unless the local hardware store is running a Blue Rhino scam.

Hi, We're using a bayou burner (Example Here) and noticing that it uses a lot of propane (normal 15# tanks). I haven't started weighing our usage with each batch, but I intend to. I'm judging this based on the usage reported in some of the Brutus Herms threads of 3 10g batches per tank. We...

I see this thread is largely dead, but... Are there any books that are devoted to the mash process or chemistry? I'm going to assume that many of the books mentioned do so, but I haven't gotten to them yet. I'm reading Yeast by White and Zainasheff and Designing Great Beers by Davis. I'll...

Sorachi is the Japanese hop, right? I had that around Philly (Iron Hill Brewery in Horsham; I think it's a chain). The brewer turned out to be very cool (he tailgated the next day at the Phillies game), but the Sorachi Pale was god awful. The whole table agreed. Maybe it needs a different...

Update. We took a few months off and now have more Better Bottles than I think we can fill. We purchased or borrowed a few more key hobby texts. And we're learning hard lessons about cleaning in small, poorly designed areas (like an unfinished basement bathroom in a house full of dogs and...

I'm reading Yeast by White and Zainasheff. Does anyone know if there is an accessible overview of proteins in the brewing process? Or maybe an intro to biochemistry free on the interwebs that might help? I'm a social scientist, so biochem should be pretty much the same as sociology, right?

As an eastern conference watcher (flyers) I'm not sure how the bruins/lightning will be able to manage either western team. I wanted to think the east was as good or competitive as the wast this year but seems less and less true.