Recent content by Hebrews

i think i'm going to do these, and soak a couple for a day or two in port in a carboy. http://www.blackswanbarrels.com/shop/ Then i'll put them in with the beer in a secondary carboy. Like a Dry hopping stage. Any objections? LOL

Sounds like there's lots of options. Just got to see what i can come up with logistically. Thanks guys it's really appreciated.

The concept here was a barley wine first, but aged in port barrel. I'm not necessarily going for "Port-Beer". Does that makes sense? i guess i could do the barley wine first, then secondary on port staves like dry hopping, then bottle and age that way.

Interesting. Flor is basically the sherry yeast right? When to add that? Durring the yeast pitch?

that's exactly what i was afraid of. I had a feeling that was the case. i've been looking for 5 gallon barrels to use, but they'd all be new and not have that port flavor. I think i'll give a call to a guy i know that makes some of the best port i've ever had, and see if he's got some staves i...

I'm currently brain storming a new batch with some friends. We want to do a big, complex barley wine for 2016 christmas time. I have some questions. Provided I can get my hands on a port barrel, will the fact that the volume of the barrel is 59 gallons and the volume of my batch may end...

silica pack! that's a great idea. I usually disassemble the valve and clean it, then re attach it. We'll see how this batch comes out. lol

So, I have a decent amount of brewing equipment. it's all currently stored in my garage. My brew kettle is cleaned after every use and put up on a shelf. My bottling vessel, and carboys are cleaned and likewise put in the garage. The Small stuff is ie; hydrometer, chiller, siphon etc, are all in...

awesome. thank you. I'll wait till next week to order then.

So this isn't a home grown question exactly, but I wasn't sure where else to ask. I'm getting ready to brew and I want to use whole hops this time. I'm going to order them from an online source. how close to my brew date should I get them? I'm brewing on the 22nd of February. If I order them...

Good news. I went home on lunch and found that all is right again. No foaming, just a consistent happy air lock. I can see stuff moving around in the beer, and a nice yeast bed going on the bottom, but i'm confident that i'm in good shape. thanks for the help guys.

so the 1.070 SG and my temp control. Alright then. So I know my next project needs to be a temperature controlled fermentation environment.

it was still going like gang buster's when I got home last night. So I left the air lock out for another night. The brew store didn't have the 1" tubing so I had to forgo for now. I'll get some from Williams or More beer before my next batch... Last night I had put just the bottom of the 3...

well it is a bath tub, so I suppose I can just plug it and add cold water? i'll need to make sure that the carboy is well stabilized first though. I don't want it sloshing around in there. That'd be bad.

its only my wife and I for now, so the bathtub isn't an in convenience. (2 bath house). I started on a Mr Beer, so every batch gets a little better. From Mr. Beer, to 5 gallon batch on a kit, then full boil rather than concentrated, then a properly cooled wort, not 1 hour ice bath. Next time...