Recent content by CHSBrewer

Interesting about the boiling intensity, had always heard that a rolling boil was better but obvioulsy that would increase the boil off rate. Decreasing the heat is certainly easy, and along with checking the crush on the grains and maybe asking for a finer crush from the LHBS then I might be...

All of the water went into the mash tun, so adding more water next time is on the list, especially due to the apparent high boil off rate. And I know I'm doing BIAB slightly different in using a converted cooler, I wanted to go ahead and get the cooler with the intent of later moving to "true"...

1. Yes, I could have boiled some more water off to concentrate the wort, but not sure how that would affect the hops utilization. If you use a hop bag or some way of separating the hops that you can just pull out then I don't think that would be an issue. Aside from the whole less beer thing...

Thanks for the suggestion to check things with 10 minutes left, I'll remember that for next time.

Thanks for the explanation. I will keep this example so I can figure it out next time (though hopefully there won't be a next time). This was my first BIAB batch so I don't have accurate measurements on a couple of things I know I need to adjust recipes for my system (pH, boil off rate, trub...

I'm just getting going with BIAB/all grain brewing and am in the process of dialing in my equipment. My first batch I missed volume and OG targets and ended up with 4 gal and 1.054, while my targets were 5 gal @ 1.068. I've seen the equations for calculating how much DME to add to compensate and...

I've had a some WLP041 in the fridge for a few weeks (was planning on brewing a month ago but life got in the way) and needless to say they're not at peak viability. I'm planning on brewing this weekend and prepared a starter Wednesday evening since I was going to use a two-stage process to make...

I added the hops at 1.018. My target was 1.017 but it had stayed at 1.018 for a couple of days so I figured it had just finished the slightest bit high, and I wouldn't think any further movement of .001 would be that much more CO2, would it?

One question about the dry hopping length. Does leaving the hops in for longer than 7 - 10 days decrease the effect of dry hopping? Or does it just not add anything?

Thanks everyone, all great feedback that I'll take into account next time!

I just tried making my own recipe for the first time and was hoping to get some feedback. The goal was a dry hopped American Pale Ale, so I was expecting some significant hop aroma and bite. What I ended up seemed to be fairly balanced but was more malt-forward than hoppy, almost like an English...

Looks like chest freezer it is then. On a side note, what kind of monitoring do you have set up aside from temperature?

Thanks for the tips, the chest freezers seem like the better way to go from a price/effort standpoint. Most of the mini-fridges that would even work are the same cost as the freezer ($170 now) or within $10 - $20. Does running the freezer at higher temps cause frosting issues or anything like...

I'm interested in this as well. I don't really have the space for a second full-sized fridge right now, but the minifridges that I've seen I'm not sure are big enough. Most of them have a big bulge on the floor in the back where the compressor sits which doesn't leave enough room for the...

Thanks for the advice Revvy!