Recent content by dezman

Just brewed this. subbed candy sugar for honey and crystal 80 for caramunich because I didn't have. Also, forgot the pepper :( Should be good though still. Excited for this one.

Yea i would give it a shot. Not familiar with refractometer use but if what other poster said is true, test with hydrometer and get accurate reading. You should be past the point now where warm temps will give off flavors so warm er up a little and see if that doesn't help.

What was the OG and how long has it been? Don't add yeast or aerate, just because fermentations acted different doesn't mean the yeast stopped working. Like others said take gravity readings every few days and make sure its going down still. Only add new yeast as last resort. There are other...

I agree with kev, check your gravity with hydrometer. Thats the only sure way to know if its working. Some fermentations are more vigorous than others so relying on signs of activity is sometimes difficult. It is quite possible it finished quickly also, since it sounds like you had lots of yeast...

Also very interested to see how this turns out. Being from Michigan this is almost to good to be true :) As other have mentioned though would want the tc fittings. Basically I would be looking for similar to what is commercially available (nothing fancy, just the economical versions) just cheaper!

I think I just used some in a brew a few months ago. I belive the alpha was around 3% just as the above poster said. It could be possible to be only 1.5 though i'd probably go with whats on the package, the hop supplier would know more about their hops than anyone else.

The reveiws have a couple of people that use it for homebrewing. Check em out might help you.

i just put mine on the floor of the freezer. I figure the fermentors will be sitting on the floor so that would be a good place to measure temp.

+1 for cammo this stuff makes me wanna vomit

you should be fine, according to mrmalty 1.4 packs of 11.5g yeast packets are required so you were pretty much spot on as far as pitching rate. Edit - sorry didnt see 3 gal batch size. 1 pack would have done it as you said. You still should be ok though, let it ride and see what happens!

Are you measuring OG before your boil. Before the boil the gravity reading will be lower because you should end up with more volume then 5 gallons before the boil. The OG should be measured post boil were your volume should be close to 5 gal. This might be part of your problem. Also remember to...

Recipe looks ok to me. One thing I might suggest is drop the amount of carapils to .5lb or .75lbs. You have the wheat and crystal that'll give you body, might be a little much with that much carapils. Also make sure to make a good size starter for this, looks like a pretty high grav beer. Good...

Probably should have left it in the primary a little longer and tried warming it up or rousing the yeast and see if it wouldn't get you lower. I would wait a few weeks in the keg and see what happens. Check gravity after a week or so and if its lower just let it go till you reach somewhere...

Using lager yeast for an ale? What temp are you planning on fermenting the pale ale at? I would reccomend getting diffrent yeast for your ale. Unless you wanna do another lager and pitch it on you current yeast. I wouldnt reccomend using your lager yeast at ale temps. You could make the PA...

Count me in cool stuff!!