Recent content by Eckythump

The instructions for carboy heat belts suggests that glass carboys can explode when used with glass carboys. I'm wondering if anyone has actually had a glass carboy shatter when using a heating belt. I've wrapped my carboy with a towel, and wrapped the heater around the towel. I hope this is...

You can use the syrup instead of dry malt extract. The "light" version would be best. The proportion is different through. Use 0.75g of liquid for 0.6g of dry. Oh and you can use regular sugar, but it'll probably water it down. The liquid malt extract should make a better beer :)

Do you have a second pot that is bigger than 1 gallon? I do split boils with two larger pots (23Q and 16Q). Fill them both up about 3/4 of the way. Then I split the hops between the two (1/3 and 2/3) as I do additions. In the end, I mix the two "full-split boils" into my primary.

Those preachers are so clever!

It was an explosive hit.

Just to finish this off, it turns out I was mistaken by my first post. He corrected me yesterday (after trying my first Apfelwein) that in his part of Germany it is pronounced "abel-voy".

My German friend tried my 2 month old Apfelwein yesterday. He said it tasted just like something he would buy in Germany. I would consider that a complete success! Thanks EdWort!

Considering the pressure in a regular beer bottle caused by the carbonation, I presume beer back in the day wasn't carbonated? I doubt a barrel could hold enough pressure to keep the beer carbonated.

I've used Nottingham in at least 3 previous batches and never had this smell (specially after 3 weeks in the primary). It might indeed be this, though I wouldn't call it a sulfur smell.

Others with more experience with pitching rates may argue against this, but I would pitch it on the whole yeast cake instead of trying to take some out.

I'm afraid I don't get it... Stuck my nose in the glass?

Just tried this out last night. I put 6 1L plastic bottles 3/4 filled with water in the freezer. When boil was done, I filled the sink with water and put the bottles in there. Changed the water 3 times during the half hour cool down. It worked very well. Next time, I'm considering...

I use a primary bucket as a fermenter. Not sure how big it is.. Maybe 8 gallons? Lately I've been making smaller batches (3-4 gallons) and use a 5 gallon carboy so I can watch the fermentation intently :)

That is one crazy fermentation; it looks like it's boiling!

Holy wow lol. A bigger fermenter would definitely help, or a larger blow-off tube. With all that activity, it shouldn't be an issue to leave it open. I usually just cover my bucket with a garbage bag during fermentation. Granted, I use a much larger bucket so the beer never reaches to touch the bag.