Recent content by cernst151

Hey fellow brewers, I've got a batch of wine just about ready to go into the bottle but when I looked in the basement it turns out I only have magnums and champagne bottles. Anyone in the Twin Cities area have excess 750ml bottles they aren't using. I'm happy to figure out a trade if you need...

Count me in.

After freezing, thawing, and freezing my rhubarb again last Summer I finally got started on this a couple weeks ago but found the initial recipe a bit confusing. I read through all of the comments in this chain and have consolidated the answers to various questions along the way into a somewhat...

I understand. I'd originally thought homebrewing would save me money too and that of course isn't always the case. I don't necessarily need my hops to be cheaper than store bought but they need to either be cheaper and as good or better. Right now they're obviously much worse but even the...

I've brewed both wet and dry, using about 5x more when wet. I built a screen setup to dry them off and dry them to around 10-20% the original weight. I like to grow hops the way I grow veggies too. With minimal interaction. ;) I put in a load of compost at the beginning of the season...

Wow, you fertilize every couple of weeks through the Summer? At that rate you're probably spending more on fertilizer than you'd spend on store bought hops. If it takes constant fertilization to get hops that are worth using I think I'd rather just buy the ones in the store. dyqik, That's a...

I'm about 5-6 years in on growing my own Cascades and Centennials. Every year I've been disappointed. They produce like mad but the flavor & aroma are sorely lacking. I don't fertilize but I've stirred in some compost a few times over the years. They get full sun for the first half of the...

Has anyone tried using any of the standard wine clarifying agents like Chitosan et al to speed up the clarification process? I'm not against waiting until fall to have beautiful clear rhubarb wine but it would be nice to drink it this Summer. I just want to know if that would do anything bad...

Have you tried yeast nutrients? That worked on my stuck fermentation. Yeast nutrient and some simple sugar got things moving nicely.

All free to anybody in the Twin Cities area. I'm freeing up space on my brewing shelves and haven't used these in years.

It seems to me that a 30 minute mash is kind of short to make assumptions about. I'd generally do a 60 minute mash and get even better conversion from a 90 minute. Especially on the mixed mashes you're dealing with reduced enzymes in the mix so I would expect conversion to take longer. I'd...

Wow, that's incredible. I can't believe you're able to get any airflow through a layer of hops that thick.

@SouthernMaineBrewing, I'd recommend making a tincture to put in at bottling/kegging. um... I've heard that works well.

@ drunkenjon, The ingredients for Canada Dry tonic water are: Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate (preservative), Quinine, Natural Flavors I don't think any of those are stabilizers. Of course, if the quinine liked to settle out of your beer you'd have the...

HA! Nice one. It really does make me curious how the bark would work as a bittering agent and whether it would take so much to make it glow that you'd make your beer terrible. @ passedpawn, did the extract itself glow under black light before you put it in the beer? If so, maybe it's just a...