Recent content by erikpete18

If you want to do the stainless pipe, there's a bunch of stainless steel thermowells out there for fermenters. I could see putting one of those in, pouring some hot water inside after freezing, and letting that thaw enough to slide the thermowell out and begin melting in the center. Then you...

No worries, just thought I'd give you the heads up. That's the same reason I started freezing them down, then I'm sure I just moved on to obsess about something else!

The article sounds pretty good. I'd add a couple of quick things, when you're inoculating if you've got glass tubes, you can flame the mouth of the tube quick to sterilize it again just to increase your odds. If you've got a bunsen burner or ethanol lamp, great, otherwise just a lighter will...

It depends on how far out you're wanting to go. Unfortunately there aren't too many downtown, but Pike is definitely one to hit. If you don't mind going north to the Fremont and Ballard neighborhoods, and don't mind walking a little bit in the rain, you can make a nice tour from Fremont...

The other option is to pick up a keg now and carb it in the keg with sugar so it's ready to go when you get the rest of your kegging setup. If course that depends on how quickly you plan on getting the kegging setup, but that would be the easiest. If you go that way, double check the priming...

Purge it with CO2 and then it should be good. Assuming you're planning on removing the oak chips, I've heard a sterilized bag tied to one of the posts with some sterilized unflavored floss will still allow you to seal the lid but make it easy to remove the chips when it reaches the oak level you...

So the thing about mixed gas equilibrium is that each gas ignores the other gases in the headspace. What that means is that whatever the proportion of gas in the tank will be proportion in the headspace. The CO2 doesn't realize that there's more nitrogen in the headspace, it just seeks to...

I'm sure somewhere online there's probably a table that lists what temp certain glycerol concentrations will freeze, but from the sound of it if the glycerol is separating out you aren't mixing out well enough. You'll definitely want to shake the tube well to get everything into solution...

Not sure what you mean by additives, unless you're talking about chlorine. If that's what you're talking about, I've got no idea what the level of chlorine on your list actually works out to for brewing as far as whether it matters. Does your water taste like chlorine? I'm not sure if the free...

Hey, I'll give it a shot!

I suppose it depends on the beer. Unless you have an infection, the complex sugars and proteins that normally make up the "body" shouldn't be breaking down any more, unless you're really aging a long time. However, I feel like I've heard repeated somewhere (secondhand-secondhand info?) that...

Some depends on how many beers you normally have fermenting at once. I've got a mini fridge build that I basically just extended the door on, but it only fits one carboy. That's fine for me, since I really only need the temp control for a week or two, and if I have a second fermenting beer I...

If you're doing it in a large-mouthed container (mash tun, BK, bucket, etc) I've seen people use plastic wrap to cover the top of the water to prevent oxygen from getting in. That would give you your oxygen barrier, as well as leave the flexibility to expand if you get any significant foaming...

Are you talking about souring with grains/lacto and then boiling, or going straight from sparging to fermentation? If you're just doing this as a modified sour mash (a sour sparge?), then you aren't going to want any headspace, because any oxygen is going to lead to acetobacter growth and...

It was fairly close, which is about all I was going for. The values that I got were a little lower than I had calculated, but I'm not sure if that's due to the fact that I put the concentrate in first and then added the apple juice on top of it so mixing might have been off, that I added too...