What did you learn this week?

Thanks for the tip. Those would work great. I think my bigger issue is dealing with SWMBO if I mess with her pretty sink. Hahaha

 

breaking current news: i learned that SWMBO feels so guilty about interrupting me during a brew session (which im for some reason saying is relaxing..well it is, im just doing more lifting now than during work hours) that she wont even let me know she made something for dinner... she ate by herself and cleaned up....

and now i'm hungry hahah

 

a watched pot will never boil... but an unwatched pot will boil over

caught it just in time!

 

This

 

I learned a decoction requires continuous stirring and that you need to add enough water to keep it from scorching while you get it to boil... oh.. and if it scorches... throw it out and start over.

 

I learned how to fry a Ranco temp controller..

 

How?

 

About a half gallon of canola oil and a nice batter dip

 

Well...I learned that if you dont watch your temps during fermentation, you get banana bear. Dammit.

 

today i opened the first bottle, of the first batch, i primed with dme instead of table sugar.

holy cow, what a difference it makes.

nice head (in fact i have to pour it carefully), great color.

good taste, too.

 

To check how much gas you have left in your propane tank. Thought I was ok with what I had left. It ran out with 20 minutes left on the boil. Threw on the tank off the grill figuring I was fine. 5 minutes later... yep, you got it. That one died too. Just threw it on 2 burners of my stove and am finishing the simmer there.

Always make sure your spare tank is full.

 

I learned not to trust my airlock.

 

No beano! - Beano is a Bad idea-- BAD BAD BAD-- Accept your beer (even if 2.5 ABV) and love it like it is.

 

I fermented at the low end, got a clove bomb... Had to change the name to a "holiday wit" before gifting it... Maybe if we split the two we'll have a true-to-style beer?

 

This week I learned that if you choose to secondary ferment a 5 gallon batch, it should take place in a 5 gallon carboy and nothing bigger.

 

I learned that a bottling bucket full of a PBW solution does not mix well with wood floors. I now have a huge ring where the stain on my wood floors has been stripped off.

 

That my xmas Bourbon Barrel Porter (that I brewed last April) is overcarbed. Even poured slowly into a 22oz glass I get 4 finger foam that lasts forever (thank god it doesn't gush out of the bottle, but still!). Other than that, the beer is freaking amazing!

 

I've learned that my beer farts are much sweeter with my home brew then with Miller 64...

 

Beano?

 

I just learned not to pick my nose after leaving a gigantic booger in my keyboard

 

Even though debtors & their lawyers broke the bank,I can still have some kinda Christmas. They even sent us a huge poinsetta plant. (cue Bing here!)>

 

Been brewing now for a year and a half and still learning. Main thing I learned recently is... don't plan your trip to the LHBS for supplies on brew day. Because if by chance they are out of a particular hop, grain, or yeast... you have to think on the fly to adjust your recipe to what they have on hand. Or don't brew that day (like last week). Not to mention, I hate substituting ingredients...

Gary

 

This happens a lot to me, and it can be pretty disappointing sometimes. It's usually no big deal to adjust your recipe hops and yeast, but grains is a bit more challenging sometimes, depending on what they have and what you are brewing. My LHBS has been out of a lot of things lately...damn you other brewers around here (jk)

 

lesson this week, so far

Don't get cute... just follow the steps... you will wind up following them anyway, and if you try to cut corners you will screw up, and either throw stuff out or be unhappy with the result.

 

I learned that you can't poo poo checking into your water quality before brewing over 150 bucks worth of beer ingredients, and find out that you have chloramine in your water. 10 gallons... yum!

 

How much a PITA it is to get a boil, much less a rolling boil, in 18mph winds.,

 

Sometimes taste Gus can lead to being wy overserversd

 

Wow, GT! Can I have some of what you're having?? :cross:

 

Red hare tsting....

 

This is Rachel now. We attended a Red Hare Brewery tasting this afternoon in Marietta, Georgia. He enjoyed himself quite a bit. Chocolate Stout, Gangway IPA, Long Day Lager, Watership Brown, Chocolate Stout and Chocolate Stout and Chocolate Stout!!! The Chocolate Stout is 8%...He's had an exceptional day but is possibly over-served.

 

as long as the day was exceptional, then it's cool.

seems to like his chocolate stout?

 

He's a lucky man to have someone like you to look out for him!

 

LOL...me here...LOVE my chocolate stouts... Got way ovrdrved during this shindig tho. had a grtes time. I dont like being toooo ovrsrvd this

 

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!

 

Finny

 

Red Hare's chocolate Porter is soooo delish. Also is very easy to drink.

 

And very easy to feel the effects.

 

Well now, glad you asked. I learned that if you drink 2 Qts. of Stogie Holler Maniacal Mystic Screech, brewed and bottled in Freedom, NH, then follow that up with 5 Top Secret DPIA brewed and bottled at the same place you are in for BIG trouble. Oh dear lord. Whatever you do don't make political jokes on a thread where somebody is trying to sell a bottle corker. Oh me oh my. The laughs are great but somebody always gets sensitive.

After that don't give a lot of crap to the motorcycle group you used to ride with even if they are all wuss in your eyes. Oh gee, the emails, those yups really know how to hurt a guy, LOL. Not really, they are just now counting heads and toes.

Tonight, well, I've got just a FEW, American Black IPA sweetened up with SHF sweet corn grown in Freedom, NH. You never know, maybe I'll be booted again tonight!

 

Have you tried wrapping the burner in aluminum foil?

 

Actually, no. I didn't think of it. The way the wind direction kept shifting, foil would have blown away, too. Winds were around 18 gusting to 25.