Recent content by brundage

The April meeting is tomorrow.

We are the Texas Aggieland brew club (TAbc) and we meet every third Friday of the month. You just missed March's meeting where we made 55 gallons of Russian Imperial stout for long-term storage in our Merlot barrel.

Most frequently I make beers "to style". That is, I pick or design recipes based on historic beer styles. My focus is generally on brews rarely available in my area. The last such beer was a Belgian Triple and the next one will be Düsseldorf Altbier. Researching styles and their individual...

This beer is delicious. Previously I made it without the crystal 120, but that malt adds great body and plum/raisin notes to the Hallertau spice. While it is full-bodied it isn't a heavy beer. As difficult as it is, an extra few weeks conditioning will do wonders. When I tapped it the dried...

You get a 30% tax credit for installing radiant barriers this year. Consult your tax preparer first. --Dean

Hia Matt, It's a fine idea. I made a duck-in cooler that keeps about 25° F below ambient temperature without special controllers. Midnight Hour Brew-blog: cooler --Dean

I hear good things about the Austin Zealots.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I figured I needed to add something since I'm getting so close to RO water with the heavy dilution. I'll play around with calcium chloride and gypsum. --Dean

I am trying to understand the water chemistry in my area. My water has two annoying problems. Soduim: 200 ppm Bicarbonate: 459 ppm The rest of it is quite low in minearals: Calcium: 3 ppm Chloride: 54 ppm Hardness (Ca/Mg): 8.14 ppm pH: 7.8 Magnesium: 0.7 ppm Sulfate: 9 ppm Total Alkalinity...

Two great suggestions, thank you. --Dean

Thanks for all the tips on improving my sanitation, but that's not what I'm looking for here. Please read the OP and this one before chiming in.

Guess I didn't 'splain myself enough in the OP. I'm getting a consistent infection in my fermenter. See this post for details on that. I got some pointers on changing my sanitary technique - IE what I do to sanitize my fermenter. I'm going to put them into practice, but don't want to dump...

Hia folks, Have any of you tested your sanitary technique? I've been getting pretty consistent infections in my fermenter and rather than wasting 10 gallons of beer just to find out that I cultured some lacto. My thought is to boil 10 gallons of water with enough DME to make a 1.050 wort and...

Thanks everyone for the replies. There were some questions so I'll answer them all at once. The paint mixer is a squirrel brand mixer. (SquirrelMixer) It's plastic and I soak it in idophor at the same time I sanitize the fermenter. Hi Clint! I use the same pump (and chiller) that I used to...

Hello from Bryan, Texas, USA. I moved here in January, 2008 from San Jose, CA where I was a member of the Silicon Valley Sudzers. It surprised me to find there was no club in Bryan since it is a college town so I started looking for homebrewers in the area. So far we have about ten core people...