Recent content by goodham

What an awesome giveaway!

I have two two year old bines. One is a cascade and one is a centennial. They are both in pots. The pots are completely filled with roots in both. They definitely need to be planted in the ground before next season. I am in the Marine Corps and moving and cannot take them with me for...

The exact same thing happened to me this week. I built two heat sticks, one straight and the other a ninety-degree. After I wired the elements with my 12/3 wire, I made a cardboard mold around the terminals and sealed it totally with thinned jb weld. After assembly, I submerged them and they...

It took me two batches to realize that I was picking up some off flavors from the water I was using to sanitize my kegs. That is why I also adopted the filter + campden method. I've only had that problem since I moved in the Miramar district. Never before and not since I started my current...

I've never heard any down side to adding campden to brewing water. It reacts with chloramine and evaporates out. Personally, I filter my water before adding the tablets with a Brita point of use filter that goes on my kitchen faucet. I bought it for about $14 at Walmart or Target. It may...

There are 3 different water regions in San Diego from different reservoirs. I have experience with two of them. I lived in Mission Valley and had no problem with filtering my water, but now I live farther north and I have to use Campden tablets or I pick up off flavors in my lighter brews...

Just put 5 in the fermenting fridge! 3036

I was looking at the Thermopen and shopping for other alternatives. In checking specifications, I found some with thermocouples list accuracy as +/- 1%. What does that mean? 1% of the range? Surely not. For example, one reads: Temp 60 to 750 degrees F +/-(1% reading + 5 digits) I...

Thanks for the advice. I thought about my thermometers. I use three and the only vary about two degrees total, but I need to invest in a good one. That's my next purchase. I think I will try the same recipe in two weeks with the flaked barley and ONE rehydrated pack of S-04. The last time I...

I mashed at 153 degrees. The recipe is as follows: 10.5 lbs 2 row .75 lb chocolate malt .25 lb black malt 1.0 lb crystal 80L 4 oz Special B 1 oz Northern Brewer (60 mins) 1 oz fuggles (5 mins) I pitched 2 packs because I am lazy and did not rehydrate. I did not realize that I was...

I brewed a porter on Feb 27th. I hit my target gravity spot on (1.052). I chilled my wort to 68 degrees and pitched two packets of Safale S-04 directly to the wort. I could not keep an airlock on after two hours, had to use a blow off. Within 7 days, I had reached 1.012. I racked to a...

2nd batch. I only did one PM because it came with my kit. Occasionally, I will do a small extract batch (1-2 gallons) to experiment. I will not spend a 5-6 hour brew day on an off-the-wall experiment.

I was about to start a thread about my weekend until I saw this one. I brewed on Saturday (all-grain). I used fermcap on 7.5 gallons in the boil kettle. It worked great. I was very pleased. Put my Porter in the fermentor and placed it in my swamp cooler. I pitched two packs of S-04...

I use a cheap sandwich bag and rubberband. I assemble the stopper and airlock, but before I put them together I punch the airlock through the platic bag. I submerge the entire thing in Starsan and soak. As soon as I am ready to cap, I put it on and secure it in place with a rubberband just...

My astringent batches were beers that I mashed at a higher temp (155-156) to get a more dextrinous flavor profile. Best I figure, I was extracting tannins during the mash, not the sparge. My efficiency was terrible, too. Since I replaced my thermometer, I have been getting 75%+ efficiency and...