Recent content by AlCophile

Fellow who runs the town dump saved for me about 30 of the 16oz. Kulmbacher swing-top bottles. They are in good shape, as are the ceramic plugs. May need new gaskets. I washed 'em but have no use for them. I'm in south-central NH, just west of Rochester. Bottles are free, but you have to come...

What you could try (at your own risk)in desperation is to make a concentrated solution of hop extract with (drinking)alcohol. You may be able to purchase a product called KleenExtract(on the web), a 200-proof alcohol, going for $80/gal in Manchester, NH, or try 151-proof Bacardi Rum instead...

Treat grains as you would any foodstuff; they are composed of complex organic molecules and can be degraded by many conditions, such as: oxygen(air), heat, moisture, extremes of pH, light(especially UV), exposure to any critters from fungus to rodents, being finely-divided(milled)...

Yes!!! The hooks on the vines make a mess of my wrists. I wear gloves and now long sleeves, too. I usedta get welts fully 1/8th inch tall. I'm NOT a MD, but one might consider a cortisone cream. I had a similar preexisting condition for which I was prescribed triamcinolone acetonide cream...

You might get by with slathering the outlet threads with Teflon tape, and tightening the post.

Do you have a spare SHORT tube with O-ring? It's the O-ring that makes the seal.

See my PM. Good luck.

ALL foodstuffs will deteriorate from: oxygen, being finely-ground, light, heat, time, extremes of pH, others. I store my ingredients in a little fridge my wife had at work before retirement. It's a Sanyo, and I can turn the little bugger down beyond freezing. Works well. I also purge my...

I made a math error in my post of 6/19: I think the actual wt. of CO2 was 30#; converting liters to cu ft is: liters x 0.0351, so the true answer is 244.8 cu ft, or a volume 15.6 ft on an edge, one foot deep.

Survival Doc is misleading. I bought 35# CO2 from AirGas, Dover, NH for $30. True the cyl(not tank) costs ~$130, but you exchange it for full ones and do not pay again. CO2 density is 1.5x that of air, but air currents will soon mix the gasses. Prob'ly what helps him is fact that expanding gas...

The 'rule of thumb' is to Pasteurize at 180F for 10 min. Only be sure to heat ALL things that contact the wort; don't put a soiled spoon into cooled wort. Get it?

I've begun 1gal 'test' batches 'cause of limited equpt. vols. Start w/ ~1# blender-crushed grain, 1gal. water 'blend', and sparge with CO2, then do a ramped mash from about 80F up to 152-154F, and hold for 1hr. Cool, remove grain, let settle o.n., siphon off top 3.6 liter and filter the dregs...

Get a dash cam*, send the video to 'the cloud', a copy to the cops. Be sure to record plate number and any useful supporting info you can. *one that produces images that are allowed in court.

If you buy bulk, be careful; I divided a 33# poly container of Briess Xtract among some MT 3.3# containers, and all went well until it was time to use last one, and whotta you think I saw? MOLD, that's what! Fill any containers FULL, refrigerate or freeze if practical, and replace lost volume...

Look on DoYourOwnPestControl.com. Good luck.