Recent content by dgramenz

I brewed a Cream of Three Crops Ale two weeks ago and tonight I'm racking it to secondary for a week. I plan to use gelatin in the secondary and cold crash it before kegging it. I've never used gelatin, cold crashed, or kegged before. Can I get some advice on timeline/temps/general tips? Thanks!

Check brewhardware.com or call them for help. They have compression fittings made for inserting thermometer probes into kettles and coolers. They probably have something that will fit. I would think you could then use one of the wireless meat thermometers to keep an eye on it.

I've got an Oktoberfest on D-rest right now that'll be ready to rack to secondary in a couple days, then lagering for 6 weeks before bottling. When is the right time to use gelatin and how do I use it? Thanks!

I've been wondering this exact same thing.

It comes from John Palmer in "How to Brew". I have no reason to believe it won't work. The starter is moving along nicely. Why would I not want to acclimate the yeast to the temp at which they'll be working on a full batch?

I had plenty of time and I read several sources that said it is ideal to make a starter at the same temp as primary fermentation. It's a 5 gallon batch with OG of 1.040, so I started with 4 pints of water and 1 cup of DME. Boiled it for 10 minutes. It seemed like a lot boiled off, but I checked...

I can see the picture. What am I doing wrong?

I have my first starter in the fridge on a stir plate at 53 degrees. It's White Labs 802 Czech Lager Yeast. This is what it's looking like at 48 hours. It this ready to crash? It had some decent foam 24 hours ago and it's looked like this all day. Far enough? Thanks

Thanks for all the help guys. I'm getting pretty excited about this one. Just checked on it and it's bubbling like crazy. Hard to see through the bucket, but it looks like it's got a pretty good krauzen going too!

I was hoping to hear it would be OK to lager first. I'm brewing a Kölsch because I picked up the yeast before I got the fridge and Fermostat. I'm looker for the cleaner flavor and the next brew will be a true lager.

I think 3 days sounds awfully short too. Especially as slow as its been getting started. If I rack from primary to secondary, I'll get rid of a lot of sediment. I wasn't sure if the Kölsch yeast could take those low temps and come back out of it.

Hey guys. My first post here, but I've done lots of reading and picked up lots of good info here. I've got my third batch in primary right now. The first two were kits, but I threw this one together from scratch. It's supposed to be a Kölsch, using WLP029 at 63 degrees. Beersmith calls for 3...