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A few days before the judging in PA, I got an email stating that they couldn't find my entries. I e-mailed back the tracking number and they said they found one that appears to be right, but lost two of my three beers. Not sure how that happened since all 6 bottles were labeled with the...

Mine were submitted to PA. I got an e-mail saying they couldn't find them. After sending the tracking number, they found one of the three entries. Not sure how that happened since they were all in the same box. Now they have 2 unclaimed bottles that they are using as my entries. The might...

I think there may be some merit to both arguments. I normally don't do secondary and I don't like to leave the beer in primary longer than is needed either. I do try hard to avoid oxidation. And I have noticed an improvement in my beers. When I do a secondary it is either for dry hopping or...

I have a Polder and really like it for my HLT. I also have a thermopen and the polder is within 2 degrees of the Thermopen. The polder has a silicon wire with stainless probe. It is water resistent so you can submerge it in water. The only thing to be careful about is don't submerge it in...

On cold nights I put a wall transformer (i.e. for cell phones, etc.) inside the chest freezer and plug it in using an extension cord. It doesn't give off much heat, but just enough to keep it from dropping below the set point. It's hardly any load on the chest freezer. I found the largest one...

So, for example, if I need 1 ml of 88% lactic acid to acidify my sparge water, how much 10% phosphoric acid would I need if I use that instead of the lactic acid? I have searched, but have not been able to find the relationship.

Martin, I hope this is not too far off topic. Is oversparging a concern when batch sparging, or just with fly sparging? Not sure if I should limit my batch sparge water and add top-off to the boil. Thanks.

I think there is some validity to your approach. I use whirlfloc and let the trub settle after chilling for about an hour. I transfer all but the last several quarts to limit the trub in the fermenter. There is more than enough protien and nutrients disolved in the wort for the yeast without...

Post 37 summs up the results so far on my batch with 50% RO and 50% Tap water. I seem to be detecting some slight improvement. I have bewed with this process change a few times and am waiting to see if the other batches also show improvement. Additionally, I want to see how it changes as it...

Agreed. I think this point was made a while back. That's why I avoided using the term flavor in my last post. I would change the title of the entire thread if I could, but I don't know if that is even possible.

That's what I did with my SS imersion chiller as well. Those are comression fittings and they work great. No more leaks. By the way, I only did this to the input side. Since that side is under much more pressure, it always leaked. The outlet side is under very little pressure, so I left the...

You're absolutely right. It's best to transfer to a keg or secondary (with little headspace) before cold crashing. Otherwise you could pull in a lot of air and oxidise your beer. Sanitizer I'm not quite as woried about;). I sometimes cold crash in a keg, then transfer directly to another keg...

Oxidation could be coming from the secondary. You said you used a 6 gal carboy. If it's a 5 gal batch, that leaves 1 gal of headspace (air) after primary fermentation is done. You should have as little headspace as possible in the secondary or skip it altogether and primary for a few extra...

I think post #24 may answer your question. I'm not %100 sure it is tannin, but it's definately not bitterness. I don't know how better to describe it.

That's what I had been doing all along. I was using all RO for mash and sparge with salts in mash only. I switched to 50% RO and 50% tap with salts in both mash and sparge and acidified sparge. That's when I noticed some improvement. Maybe I should try all RO, but with salts mixed evenly...

Well, it's been a couple months since my original post and I thought I would give everyone an update. Previously I was using all RO water with salt additions in the mash only. I followed Martin's advice on the last few batches and used 50% RO water and 50% tap water. I added equal amounts of...

I've invited friends over several times, but rarely does someone take me up on it. Usually they are either only interrested in drinking and not brewing, or they are so into brewing that they are brewing at their place whenever I'm brewing. Most of my friends have families of their own, so it's...

It sounds like you may be using too much water for one pound of steeping grain. That much water may have a significant amount of alkalinity which may prevent the grains from lowering the pH to below 5.6. A high pH will cause tannins to be extracted from the husks. I would recommend using...

Just to be clear, air will bubble backwards through any air lock whether or not the liquid is sucked back. It's the air that is the biggest concern, not the liquid. The ONLY prevention is to to crash cool using either a secondary with very little headspace, or a keg.

You definately do not want to do this in a primary. When the C02 contracts from the temperature drop air will get pulled into the headspace past the liquid in the airlock. That's worse than starsan since it will oxidize your beer. You may not even realize it is happening, but it will for sure...