Recent content by ChiefIlliniwek

Murphy's Law is a real thing people. It's also my family motto. So I'm finally brewing my Oktoberfest tonight, since it's November 2nd, and all. It's an extract kit from Great Fermentations. I'm chugging along, get my water up to a boil, add my can of extract, get the wort back up to a boil...

23403 +6 gal Dunkelweizen +5 gal Octoberfest 23414

Austin Homebrew also has partial mash kits. I just brewed my first one 10 days ago, the Kalamazoo IPA, which they say is pretty similar to Bell's Two-Hearted. I don't know it's going to turn out, so I'm not much help there.

Ok that's a nice looking setup. What's the contraption in the middle?

Buy it. I use the hot water from the IC to clean bottles which usually gets me to 90 degrees, then I fill a cooler full of ice with the next batch of water. Disconnect the hose and hook it up to the fountain pump in the cooler. That takes it to pitching temp while I start cleaning bottles. Just...

I do 5 gallon batches on a gas stove. I start with 6.5 gallons in an 8 gallon pot and watch it like a hawk with a spray bottle of Starsan for the first 20 minutes. I center my pot on the large front power burner, the back burner, and the center griddle burner. It takes a little while to get...

5 gallons of Two Hearted clone. 5 gallons of air that needs to be filled with a Dead Guy clone.

If you're confident that you hit your FG, bottle like you typically do and when you get to the bottom and only have half a bottle of beer left - take your FG reading and then drink that up.

My homebrew doesn't make me fart any more than usual. That being said, I let it go pretty freely. It's not good.

5 gal AHS Kalamazoo IPA (Two Hearted Clone) 5893

Yeah, don't look at it or touch it for at least two weeks. I don't even think about cracking my fermenter open for three weeks, usually longer than that. Every time you open your fermenter you're introducing the possibility of infection. I learned after my first brew last year to just let the...

I had my 30th birthday party a couple of weeks ago, and my best friend drove 7 hours to surprise me. He's a borderline alcoholic, drinks only Bud Light. I've seen him put down a 20 pack in one sitting. The party is at local micro that opened in the fall. The server is giving him a list of beers...

1216. Sunday night. Had it sitting on a table in my basement drying from bottling day last Saturday (don't all hydrometers take 8 days to dry?) I set a case of beer on the table and the hydro rolled off. Bye-bye hydrometer.

When I did my first Kolsch last year, I didn't use a starter, because I hadn't advanced that far yet, it was also my second brew. I ended up using one on the next brew (not the Kolsch) four days in advance, let it swirl on the plate for two days, and then moved it to the fridge for two days. I...

There's a really good thread on washing and storing yeast: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/ I used this to save some Wyeast 1098 English Ale yeast back in November. I haven't reused it yet, because I haven't needed this type of yeast since. I'll probably...