Recent content by firepunk

I like using steinfillers as my emergency place, or for quick little things. Everytime I go in there, the people who run the shop just seem off... Whenever I need to do a big order, I head out to more beer in riverside. It helps that my parents live in riverside, so I can visit with them...

I bottled 3 batches and said to hell with that and bought a keg setup. Now I need to get another keg and I suppose build a new draft tower so I can have 2 taps. Or maybe just buy a picnic faucet. I haven't decided yet. I do want to keep one keg of beer and one keg of cider on tap though.

However if blended improperly, the resulting mixture could become highly unstable resulting in a explosion of immense magnitude.

I'm actually trying to figure out the same thing. On one hand, kegging makes it so I don't need to bottle. On the other, the only way for me to get cold beer would to be to set up a tub with ice and park the keg in it. works for parties, not so much for home dispensing. Hopefully "santa" will...

Whats the deal with this yeast anyways. What makes it so spectacular? Or is it just that it is from a well known microbrewery, and people want to use it just for that reason.

I too drop my sanitized hydrometer in the chilled wort before pitching. Then during fermentation I use the spigot on my bucket to collect samples.

It's highly recommended that you make a starter. The viable cell count will be kind of low if you just smack, and pitch when it inflates. I'm sure you will still get a beer if you just smack and pitch, but there is a chance of off flavors. As a bonus, if you make a starter, you will know 100%...

my understanding is that this stuff is best with time. I mean, I am sure it is drinkable at 1 month, but why not let it age a bit? Also, according to the gigantic thread about apfelwein, you can drink carbed or not. I personally am going to carb mine, because I love bubbles, and whenever i drink...

I put my batch in a dark corner or the closet. I plan on forgetting about it until sometime in mid January, maybe even early febuary. Then I'll take a look. Well, I lied, I plan on checking on it, in a few moments just to see if fermentation started. THEN i'll forget about it until it comes time...

So anyways, I decided whilst at costco to do some apfelwein. Only instead of 5 gallons I decided to do 4. Also, I don't think I am going to add too much sugar. Maybe 1/2# of regular old table sugar. Hopefully it comes out well. It sounds like it is pretty hard to mess up anyways.

I just finished using my BB for the first time. Its a ported one, with the racking doodad and It worked great. A little slow, but otherwise fine. I simply move the end of the racking adapter to just above the trub and badabing badaboom, siphoned off without sucking up any (or very little) trub...

1) some say you can, some say you can't. If you do, most recommend a bench capper to make life easier. If you do use them there is a chance for oxidation and/or no carbonation. As far as the pry offs are concerned, check your recycling center, ask bars, etc. Shouldn't be too hard. Or you can buy...

this is how it has worked for me so far. me: Hey babe, uhhh, you know... I would really love to brew a new beer this weekend. her: How much? me: like... 30 bucks, 35 max. her: Okay... we're going out near the beer place anyways. then when i get into the lhbs, its like being a kid in a candy...

I guess its cheaper than buying co2? maybe. At the very least it is a neat little trick.

just bumping for more opinions. Thinking about brewing it in the next two weeks. Also, since I can't get these hops right now through my lhbs any hop replacements anyone would like to add? I'm probably gonna be going through more beer for the ingredients.