Recent content by boomer453

I'm brewing beer and wine on toledo Bend, Chocolate Milk Stout in secondary right now and then i'll be doing a summer ale.

appreciate the help. i'll stick with a partial boil.

i have a 20 gallon pot and will be using propane burner, getting up to a boil won't be an issue and i also have an immersion chiller for cooling it down. would there be any kind of a rule of thumb for reducing the amount of hops?

so, settled on how to do my next brew (chocolate milk stout extract kit) now wondering what the difference in outcome would be between following the recipe with a partial boil or doing a full volume boil?

thanks for the input-i'll pick up some unsweetened cocoa. My understanding is these tend to come out a little low on FG. Anyone ever add extra fermentables to increase ABV?

did you rack to secondary, anybody do something like this without racking over? ever just add the Nibs to Primary?

going to be starting a chocolate milk stout extract kit from northern brewers next week. anyone have any little tricks or tips for brewing a stout? this will be my first stout and the will be the first to use my converted chest freezer fermentor on. I know about soaking the nibs in vodka...

well i didn't die, no signs of a renewed fermentation so going to bottle it tonight and give the first bottle to a neighbor it won't bother me not to see again and if he doesn't keel over i'll be drinking cherry/apple wine when i get back from mexico. took some of the apfelwein with me to...

without any better idea i racked it onto 6 crushed campden tablets, degassed and installed an airlock-i'll see what it looks like in the morning. I pulled a sample and it was clear and tasted okay-i'll see if i die overnight.

here's a photo of what i've got. Any help would be appreciated-also have significant lees on the bottom of the carboy-1/4-1/2 inch.

i'll try to get something up.

okay-so 2 1/2 weeks after racking to secondary i have something floating on top of the wine. keep in mind this is when the instructions say to bottle. i found a picture online of what i have that is better than what i can take. can anyone tell me if this is an infection or if i need to degass...

my last batch of apfelwein came out great. followed it up with an orchard breezin cherry wine kit and thats where i made a mistake. i made it as a 5 gallon kit instead of 6 (not intentional). i didnt catch it till yesterday when i racked to secondary. i had added #2 of corn sugar during...

I should have been more clear, what i mean is that i'll backsweeten with the concentrate then let it carb up till it gets where i want it then pasteurize on the stove to kill the yeast.

quick question-my 6 gallon batch has been on primary for a little over 3 weeks and will be there another month at least. when i bottle i'd like to back-sweeten, i planned on added 1 or 2 frozen apple juice concentrates. is that a solid plan or should i just go with lactose? i'm hoping for...