Recent content by ace3's carboy

I'd avoid coughing into the beer, but with the shear volume of bacteria floating around in the air anyway, I don't think your being sick (save coughing into the beer) should be an issue.

I finally got around to Churchkey last week. Despite the massive tap list and casks, the selection was fairly boring overall and the pricing was terrible. The bottle list was pretty good and the pricing wasn't as bad. Best drinking is still Pizza Paradiso imho... especially for happy hour.

Church Key is a new entry into the mix. ~50 taps and good bottles. Prices aren't particularly special, but a solid place. Same owners as Rustico in Alexandria which boasts about 30 taps and is also quality. If you want to head into VA, Galaxy Hut in Arlington is excellent. ~15 well rotated...

had a bit of an unfortunate split while aerating, but there is quite the growth on top

7ish days should give you an instantly noticeable oak character that should fade into a much more balanced amount in maybe 3-4 weeks

I usually leave about 1/2 cup of the bourbon per 5 gallon in my vanilla bourbon porter. Assuming you're doing a 5 gallon batch, 4oz of the bourbon soaked wood should make itself very well known in about 7 days. The flavor of the wood will mellow slightly with time as well. 2 weeks of 4 oz...

yep that's both B and L I am going to just pitch them together and do the entire fermentation process in a single carboy

feeding my brett starter one last time before wednesday's brew day It's looking ripe

So I'm working out a recipe that will be treated somewhat like the Victory Wild Devil. I was thinking about a Brett B + L fermentation, but I'm wondering about the time it would take for the Brett to actually make any noticeable flavors in the beer versus how the hops' identity will deteriorate...

Yeah your situation is completely different from mine. I had probably three bottles from that batch go before I had a chance to throw the remaining in the fridge. After a few days in the fridge, a roughly 1/4" yeast cake formed in the bottom of the bottles. It's pathetic and funny, both at once.

I think I'm pretty much sold on going with a mixture of brett b and l. Going to build up a starter once my local shop gets the yeast in. Hopefully I can get this going by next weekend.

A bottle bomb taught me to make sure fermentation is totally done before removing from secondary and bottling.

In Primary: Latte Stout Simple Lager In Secondary: Pumpkin Pie Ale Vanilla Bourbon Porter Honey DIPA Stout Cider

What can I say... I love it a bit cold. In the winter it works out even better since I don't need to spend nearly as much for heating. Of course I make up for that and then some by keeping it around 65 in the summer.

Seedling heater may not give off enough heat Thanks for the suggestion on the covering of the aquarium heater, RunBikeBrew. I'm also finding rubber heating pads for cold floors that claim 120-130 degrees and auto overheat shut downs. That with a temp controller in an insulation fermenting...