Recent content by fishmonkeystew

There's a real estate agent in my area whose name is Debbie Gumbs..........

No snow here yet this season. But that storm hasn't hit us yet, either. It's 62 (!) right now, so I doubt it'll be anything but rain. Weird, usually its 32 at this time of year.

Well then, you all just blew every stupid thing that I've done completely out of the water. Awesome!!! I think the worst that I've done involved smokin' some green, eating some LSD, and drinking some Jim Beam. Apparently I got up in the middle of the night and took a whiz in my buddy's...

yeah, i should have been more thorough with the stirring. I gotta get me a mash paddle. and a larger thermometer would prolly help. As for unfermentable sugars, within 12 hours of pitching my yeast (wyeast 3787), it was fermenting like mad. Actually, by the following morning, I had to clean...

Howdy folks!! Quick question-I recently brewed my first AG, and in mashing, my intial water was a bit too hot- I added cool water to bring it back down to 155, closed the lid, and checked again in roughly 10 mins. It had shot up to 165-170. I added cool water again-back down to 152-154...

what's a heat stick?

I have to agree about the theraputic aspect. Nice and slow. 'Course, everything I do is slow. My wife calls me Turtle. hehehehe. Maybe I don't need that kind of therapy.

ahhhhh, the Corona mill. I have one of those. I used it for the first time (first AG ever) a few weeks ago, and I saw what they mean about impossible to stay adjusted. I had to keep my hand on the various wingnuts, etc. the entire time and crank at about 40 revolutions a min or...

Just an update, I racked to the second fermenter on Sunday and dryhopped an oz of cascade hops. The SG was 1.015.

I am repeatedly seeing people mention making a starter with their yeast before brewing. How is this done? I'm assuming the benefit is an almost immediate start to fermentation when you pitch. Anything else? Do you make a starter for all yeasts or just dry yeasts. hmmm, curiouser and curiouser.

An off-flavor training session? Did they purposefully brew a bunch of off flavor beers for tasting?

hehehe, ya know, I have to wonder where my brain is sometimes. Of course the extract drove it up. duh. A taste test is definately in order at this point. I'll let you know what the results are.

Ok now you can all give me hell. I checked my notes last night and my SG was not 1.07 it was 1.06. The target was 1.05. Hmmmm. Zok pretty much wrote me the recipe and handed me the ingredients and he's pretty sharp, so I'm guessing he knows what he's talking about. Any suggestions on how...

hmmmm. Well, unless this guy from the store was trying to set me up (which I highly doubt-he's got a pretty good reputation in New England for brewing, including winning awards), I suspect that I'm the one whose got the name of the type of grain wrong. It did say 8# crystal on the bag, but in...

I used it on my last batch, and I did notice a bit richer "mouthfeel" and it did wonders for the head retention. I didn't realize that I should attribute all that to the DME. Makes sense.