Recent content by BrewerJoe

I went ahead and made the recipe, even though the volumes were off. I'm not impressed. Wasn't able to really taste the vanilla. I'm looking for a good Breckenridge Vanilla Porter clone recipe. Anybody have something close?

If your garage is going to get into the 40s, then ferment in the house.

Do you have a crummy hydrometer? Drop it in some tap water and make sure it's still reading correct.

I've only been brewing for a few months, but I do know one thing. Lack of airlock activity doesn't mean that fermentation is finished. Since you had good airlock activity the yeast are alive and I think you will be fine. I would just leave it alone and let it keep working.

I have been having good luck mashing at whatever temp the recipe calls for. I then batch sparge twice at about 170 degrees. 1.1 seems to be a pretty good ratio to start out with. If I were you, if you're using a 5 gallon recipie, shoot for 6.5 gallons to boil and try to end up with 5.5...

Why not just use a blow off tube, forget about it and don't worry about the mess?

I brewed the recipe (All Grain) a couple of nights ago. 6 hours after pitching the yeast it started going crazy. Two days later it's still going to town.. Pre-Boil Gravity 1.060 - 6.5 gallons Post Boil Cooled and after pitching yeast - 1.076 - 5.3 gallons I can't wait to taste this stuff! Joe

They should stay clean, but they won't remain sanitized.. Like Stevo said, dip them in sanitizer before bottling and you should be good.

Anybody? Went to bed last night thinking I'd have an answer first thing this morning. NOT.. I really want to try this if I can just figure out the recipie.. I'm thinking I'll just mash-in with 4 gallons for 45 min, drain and then sparge with 3-4 more gallons in an attempt to end up with 6...

Someone please help this newbie out. Concerning the above recipe, I don't understand the math when it comes to the volume of wort, based on the water used. Can someone help me understand the below statement? Thanks!

I expect that if something starts to rust it would be very easy to replace the offending part in a matter of minutes. I really doubt rust would be an issue as long as you don't store the tun in a wet environment and are only using it once or twice a month. If your using the tun for batch...

I went to Home Depot and purchased a 4' stainless braided washing machine hose. I cut the ends off, pulled the rubber hose out leaving only the stainless braid. There's a "How to Make a Mash Tun" video posted in the DIY project section of this forum that shows how to do it. It worked perfect...

Why not, just reduce the amount of ingredients proportionally? Mix the grain bill really well first. Weight of Current Grain Bill / 6 = Total grain needed per gallon. Total Grain per gallon X 5 = Total Grain Bill for 5 gallons.

White Labs Kolsch WLP029 yeast..

hmmm.. okay, I guess I'll check and document gravity tomorrow... Thanks..