Recent content by Bradinator

Whelp, it was the water. This batch is the best I have made since moving. Thanks for everyones help!

Necro'ing my own thread. I finally got around to making an all grain batch using distilled water as the base. I did my old BIAB process; 12lbs of grain, 4 gallons of water for mash. Managed to hold 153F for the entire mash. Sparged with 2 gallons of distilled water. Boiled for 6 minutes...

I don't think I am ready to make the jump to water treatment as at this point I just want to figure out the problem. If it is the water I will look into it for sure, though I am not adverse to just buying my water either. I really like the idea of using RO and just adding what I need to fit...

Thanks everyone! If bottled water works I will use it for my next batch to see if it makes a difference it makes and let you know.

Thanks! I hadn't considered that it may be the water, because I only moved about 5 minutes away by car. But now that you mention it; my ciders are fine and I dont need tap water for those (using organic store bought pressed cider as the base). You may be onto something! I will read about...

Hey guys and gals, been a while since I posted. Hope everyone is doing well! I am a bit stumped on what is causing my beers out so poorly since moving to outdoor brewing. Quick history; I used to brew indoors, stove top, 4g AG BIAB batches and could get decent boils going. Made about 50ish...

Awesome thank you very much for the response. I definitely don't use the pot as much as a kitchen does so if they are standing the test of time I guess I am worrying over nothing. Thanks again!

I am an avid kitchen home brewer, doing full boils on my stove top. I have been using an 6.5 G aluminum turkey pot and it has served me well over 50+ beers. Though it still seems sturdy enough I am starting to wonder if there is a life span to these type of pots, especially when I am...

I used dried juniper from organic store bulk section. I would love to go and collect wild juniper which is supposed to grow in the mountains nearby, but that would be a task-and-a-half just to locate a bush. Plus I think most wild edibles are only around for a few weeks in the summer around here...

Update on this - Good news - This beer had absolutely no right to be as good as it is so young. Its so good I am going to make another batch this weekend which is saying something because I almost brew the same thing twice. Bad news - The juniper added zero character to this beer. Nada...

Brew day done! I tweaked the final recipe to look like this: Grains/Adjunts (16.0 lbs) - 12.5 lbs Rahr 2-Row Malt 1.5 lbs Crystal Malt 65L 0.5 lbs Special B Malt 0.5 lbs Biscuit/Aromatic Malt 1.0 lbs Demerara Sugar (added at 10 minutes to flameout) Hops/Herbs (4.0 oz) - 1 oz of Dried and...

It's probably going to be late spring or summer 2014 before I have any real status, but hopefully I will get this brewed up in the next couple of weeks.

Anyone out there have experience brewing with juniper? The current 5G recipe I have planned is: 13lbs 2-row 1.5lbs 60L Crystal 0.5lbs Biscuit 0.5lbs Special B 1.5lbs Demerara Sugar 2 oz Fuggle@60 1 oz Juniper (crushed) in mash 1 oz Juniper (crushed) @ 5 Mash @ 154F Bulk...

I haven't chilled a beer in two years now, reaching about 40 or so batches and not once have I seen infection set during that phase of the brewing process. I think the risk of infection setting during the no chill is very low though I don't bother with a cube as I fail to see how it adds any...

That is a very cool looking carboy. What is it and where do I get one?