Recent content by Buckeye_Phil

Ideal gas law isn't what you need. You need Henry's law. CO2 in a cylinder is in liquid phase, not gas. So the pressure you read is the equilibrium vapor pressure at your storage temp. Your tank will sit at the same pressure for weeks and weeks and weeks (hopefully if you don't have any...

If you could get the balance right, a standard IPA with lots of tropical hops (mosaic / citra) and then some rauch malt (20%-ish) would give a hint of something "meaty" without being a campfire / bacon bomb. The trick would be getting the rauch malt portion right. Too much, and it will be...

Water chemistry is one possibility, but with a bunch of roasted malt in the grain bill, I doubt it's a pH issue. If anything, it's that your water is geared more to pales than dark ales. Not prone to astringency, I wouldn't think. Good to check and be sure, though. One thought I had, sounds...

Walk us through the recipe / process to give us a better idea. Recipe - grain bill, hops, yeast strain, etc Process - mash temp, sparge?, fermentation temp, yeast starter?, etc

So after a very long lag period (4-days) in the fermenter, things started progressing. Additionally, my yeast starter became active in day 5, so I pitched it too (figured it would help attenuate and minimize off flavors from long lag). Beer fermented from 1.052 down to 1.012. Not bad, but...

Could be the hops. My water is low alkalinity, so not likely that. I was using a digital thermometer that I use for cooking - always gets me pretty accurate for meat doneness. As for calling it my first all grain... Nice zinger! Haha. It's the first where I did a true mash out and sparge...

So I've been doing BIAB for 3-years now and have decided to start doing the igloo cooler MT / HLT process. First batch went smoothly from a process standpoint, but wort sample tastes very tannic, which I've never had before. Process details below. Any thoughts on where I went wrong? Also - any...

At this point, I recommend you just relax and drink the results. There's always next time to dial in your process and hit your targets.. But for now, just drink some beer.

Bump. Anyone have any thoughts that could help me out?

Thanks in advance for the help. Finally getting around to designing a pseudo automated system (currently just doing BIAB) and figured there's a lot of knowledge here that could assist... My goals are certainly not top of the line automation, but something that gets me 80-90% of the way there...

To test the volumes of CO2 in the purchased keg, try the following: 1) put keg in keezer long enough for it to get to desired serving temp, disconnected from gas 2) dial pressure regulator down to very low pressure and connect to keg. 3) slowly dial up pressure regulator setting until you hear...

We're the beer lines filled with sanitizer before pouring? If the line was not liquid filled, the tubing could have air pockets, which create pressure drop and turbulence, which in turn make foam.

You can. Or you could throw it in the fridge 24 hrs before you plan to pitch, then pour off most of the starter beer and pitch the cake. 3L is quite a bit of volume to add to your primary fermenter - I know if I added that much, I'd have to watch my blowoff bucket carefully.

I always have a dark layer of trub / hot break at the bottom and just assume it's from DME. Never had an issue.

You should just be able to set the pressure regulator to your desired pressure (based on target vols CO2 at your 39degF temperature). As long as the relief valve is closed, you shouldn't have to mess with it. Just don't set your CO2 pressure too high (I.e. Stay below 14 psig, if that's what...