Recent content by Atreides

Got some hop seeds in a "beer garden" kit for Christmas and planted them more out of curiosity than anything else. However, they've taken off a bit more than I hoped for and I figured, why not? Not even sure what kind they are, but if they happen to be female, I might as well transfer them...

In my admittedly short experience in bottling, Sam Adams, New Belgium, and Sierra Nevada bottles are incredibly easy to remove the labels on. DFH labels seem easy to remove as well. Since I've started soaking bottles overnight in oxy clean, however, all labels seem much, much easer to remove.

Thanks for the helpful replies! It appears that the Vinator is worth the cost then. Reckon I know what my next purchase is :) And I've discovered that if I leave bottles soaking in some oxi clean overnight, even the most stubborn of labels will slide right off (looking at you Rogue . . .)!

Trying to find a way to ease bottling until I can afford a keg setup. As of now, I spend an hour or so scrubbing bottles, rinsing, and then soaking in Star San. If I cover the bottles with a sanitized piece of aluminum foil, they should remain sanitized for a while, yes? That way I can just...

Using tap water, the reading I got from the hydrometer, after letting it sit to room temp, was right at 1.000 As to the temp, it was between 150-155 on every reading I took, iirc. I can't get to my notes atm to confrim, but I do recal being very diligent in trying to maintain a constant temp.

I should also add that, my kettle being only 7.5 gallons, I filled it up to the 6.5 gallon mark with wort, and poured the rest into a container (roughly .5 - 1 gallon of make-up wort), which I added in 30 mins into the boil. *It appears that the post I typed just prior to this one has...

Thanks for the quick response :D I mashed in with 3.5 gallons at around 160, which I brought down using a cup or two of cold water to about 154. Let it sit for an hour, vourlafed (sp?) and drained into the kettle. Batched sparged with 4 gallons at 170 for about 20 mins, vourlafed, and...

Howdy all - long time lurker, pretty new brewer. Made my first all grain batch about 2.5 weeks ago, and everything seemed to go quite well. Making an IPA (with close to enough hops to be hitting 100 IBU's) and my OG was 1.064. When I added in some dry hops last Wednesday, I got a...