Recent content by Challey

Thanks for the responses but I'm hesitant to bottle from the keg based on past experience doing just that. I have a DIY counter-pressure filler that works fine for filling growlers or occasional bottles for transport. For ales or porters that are carbed at fairly low rates (less than 2.3 vols of...

I have a question about potentially splitting a recently brewed batch between kegging and bottling. The reason I'm considering splitting it is that I need some bottles to provide for judging, but really don't want to hassle with bottling the full 5 gallon batch. If it was an ale or even porter...

No sure if this is the right forum for these questions but if not, hopefully a moderator will move. I have two batches of English Mild Ale that were fermented with WPL022 (Essex Ale), a strain I have not previously used. Both were done in a primary, and left behind a pretty substantial yeast...

I've got a batch of mild ale that is several days into fermentation and would normally just rack it off to the carboy (I'm a fan of quasi-open fermentation and so do a my primary in a bottling bucket) and trash the yeast. My portable brewery is still set up, so I can relatively easily just do...

For most of my beers, I employ a quasi-open (loosely covered) primary fermentation in bottling bucket for two or three days before transferring to a carboy with airlock to finish fermenting. This allows me to skim off the krausen periodically and at transfer, I leave the spent yeast and other...

My own personal opinion is that, assuming you are reasonably proficient in fermentation technique, you should use always use a starter irrespective of gravity, style or size. While the newer live yeast packaging provides much more active yeast than those of the past, more is nearly always a good...

This is a bit of long rant but I wanted to get it off my chest. In anticipation of a decent-sized tax refund, I’ve been planning to change out some of my brewing equipment and add some new components. The biggest item on the list are burners. I’ve been using two propane units that...

Some great info and photos on this thread, all very informative and useful. I've been using an IC for years with mostly good results but have now decided to build a CFC. Some questions for those who've already built them: 1) The most common length seems to be 25'. Is there a reason for this...