Recent content by HatchetJack

Yeah that makes sense. What if I boiled a 12 oz IPA along with some dme to sweeten it up. And would a splash of pineapple or lemon juice be a good or bad addition. Would the citric acid in those work along with the hops to help discourage bacteria or mold?

Just for kicks I am making an attempt at the moment. I microwaved/ boiled about 6 oz of an IPA and added roughly about 12 oz of canned pineapple juice and combined them in a sanitized powerade bottle. I left it outside yesterday for a couple hours at about 50 degrees. Today I uncapped it and...

To be fair, Mr Beer did send out some feelers about a year ago asking if we wanted bigger fermenters, all grain kits, liquid yeast ect.. I just don't think there was enough interest to justify them trying to compete with the big brew supply stores. Most likely the biggest percentage of their...

Or here:http://www.mrbeerfans.com/ubbthreads/ You can brew anything in a MB fermenter you can brew in any other fermenter including 5 gallon batches of any recipe, you just need 2 fermenters and it's a great way to introduce new people into the hobby. Sure it's a novelty gift thing and...

I think Minky is right. I doubt it's the copper or the water or the grains ect.. This thread caught my eye because some of my brews have an annoying bitter finish. I think I have solved my issue by avoiding Notty and moving my hop boil to 30/ 40 minutes and picking up my IBU's from later...

Don't dump it, it's still too young to judge. My first hefe tasted exactly like that at bottling but turned out fanatastic. Bottle it up and taste it again in a couple 3 weeks.

Howdy Jake, there are numerous youtube videos of guys doing all grain brews. That would be a great place to start and get an understanding of it. Plenty of brewers here to help you out too once you get a better understanding of it. I was at Max Lagers downtown this weekend and they have a...

I went from a 5 gallon round to a 40 qt. rectangular igloo. I already had it so no extra cost other than extending my braid. Wow, it's way better. I mashed 19 lbs of grain today for a 10 gallon batch. Drains so much quicker as the grains don't compact like they did with the 5 gallon. Easier...

I have bottled upwards of 10 five gallon batches using the dishwasher with great success. Not a single "off' bottle. What I do is put the bottles in the dishwasher as I drink them. They get an initial wash with the dishes and then a few hours before I bottle I put them back in there along...

I started with MB which is bottled straight from the primary. I have since moved on to 5 gallon all grain and ferment in 6.5 gallon plastic buckets which I installed the spiggots slightly higher than normal. I prime the bottles with funnel and meas. spoon " 5 minutes max" . Once I purge the...

A lot of brewers use tap water and it does not go bad and you said you used spring and bottled water with the same bad taste. You are using oxyclean and starsan like most of the rest of us, I don't think it's that. Not really desribing an infection. I picked up one clue when you said your...

You could move it to another vessel and mix it but there is a small risk of infection. Stirring sugar in the fermenter could bring up some trub or off flavors that have settled. Not sure if 30 minutes would be enough time to clear. Honestly, adding sugar to the bottles takes about 1 minute...

Ringmaster, 3 & 1/2 weeks is not enough time for the beer to fully mature and probably why there was not much head. 3 weeks in the fermenter and 3 weeks carbing at room temp will yield much better results. It would be better to add your sugar to the bottles. If you stir it in the fermenter...

I would suggest taking a step back and simplify things. Use a basic extract recipe/dry yeast and skip the secondary. I ferment all mine for 3 weeks in primary. I use well water but do full wort boils and just assume the water could have nasties and never rinse with it or let my utensils touch...

Tell us more about your temp. control method. Also, my first three batches were crap. On # 30 now and they have all been great. Two major changes I made were submerging the fermenters in a 68* water bath and full wort boils. No off flavors at all nothing.