Recent content by BubbaMan

@specharka & @day_trippr Thank you!!!

I'm a newb and I'm learning on Brewer's Best kits, mostly because that's what the shop in the small town I live in sells. I love stouts, especially chocolate stouts and oatmeal stouts. So, how can I make the BB Oatmeal Stout kit come out with a chocolate flavor? Can I simply just add some...

Yes, it's 1" thick and is like a dense Styrofoam type material.

Here's what I went with. I simply built a "riser" to sit on top of my chest freezer, made out of the sheathing that is used for basements. It comes in 1"x4'x8' sheets and one sheet was plenty. It's made out of some sort of foam which cuts very easily. I used aluminum tape to hold it...

Hello friends, I am going to use a small chest freezer as a fermentation chamber. I will be using it with a 5G FastFerment, controlled by Inkbird 308. Length and width are fine but I need to add about 20" of height to the freezer. What's the best way to go about this? Thanks!

I like that price! Lots of great reviews on Amazon too...thanks!

Thanks...as you probably already know, my FF has a thermowell.

Hello friends, I am converting a chest freezer into a fermentation chamber for a 5G FastFerment. I would like advice please for a reasonably priced temperature controller and your advice on where to purchase it from. The freezer will be kept indoors and for the time being I have been...

@flars -Thank you. What you said about cell wall damage was interesting. I will certainly rehydrate my dry yeast before doing another starter, I'll also take your advice about using foil. @Kent88 -Thanks. My concern was that the airlock is ONLY active while I was swirling the flask. This...

@Kent88 I swirled the starter maybe a dozen times over a day, I'm not sure what you mean by degassing but I'm assuming you are asking if the airlock was aggressive when I agitated the flask...and yes it was. The water & DME amounts came from a YouTube video made by Northern Brewer. Thx.

Hello all, I'm a newb and doing my second yeast start. I'm working with the yeast that came with my Brewer's Best Mexican Cerveza 5 gal. kit. It is a packet of dry Nottingham yeast, exp. 2/19. My first yeast start was with Saflager S-23 and it was VERY active, this Nottingham seems pretty lame...

@RM-MN Yes, I did my yeast start 2 days before brew day. 62 degrees was the LOWEST I could achieve with 6 frozen 2L bottles, rotating have of them out every day. This measurement was from a thermometer that was in the fermenter's sampling port, so it was wort temperature, not just ambient temp.

Just took a hydrometer reading, it is at 12. Please keep in mind that I'm a newb...what do I do now??? Take another reading...if it's the same, remove & empty trub collection ball...then what? ETA: It tastes pretty good. :)

Thanks for your replies... Yes, I'm am using a FastFerment conical fermenter. OG was 40, and according to the instructions this beer should finish at FG 9-12 (4-4.5% ABV).

Maybe everything is ok, maybe not...I'm not sure. Maybe your insight can help. There are a lot of "firsts" for me this batch. I'm using a FastFerment for the first time, first 5 gallon batch, which is Brewer's Best Continental Pilsener, and first time doing a yeast start. My yeast start was...