Recent content by illinibrew04

I do think I may have some more room to crush a little finer. I hadn't done that previously because I was hitting numbers on other beers with pretty good consistency. Also, I guess i could crank down my efficiency setting in beersmith for higher gravity beers and use more malt. Time to start...

Especially in this case I don't think that would be of benefit. I don't think you'd even be able to stir the sparge additions at 1.75 gallons each (in this case). In any event, I don't want to make this into another discussion on one vs two batch sparges. There are plenty of those out there...

OK, so yes, the higher amount of grain is because I scaled the recipe up to 5.5 gallons. Here is my process: 1. Mashed in with 18.75 pounds of grain and 6.75 gallons water 2. Mashed for 60 minutes with occasional recirculation and direct fire to maintain temps. 3. Vorlauf and runoff...

Thanks guys. I really appreciate you all helping me work through this. I'll post the specifics once I get to work and have my laptop. I'm pretty sure the difference in the grain is because I scaled up to 5.5 gallons into the fermenter from the 5 gallon recipe

I did not leave any second runnings behind. I usually mash in at 1.4 qts/lb of grain since I recirculate the mash with a pump. I then drain first runnings and do a single batch sparge. I stir the heck out of that and then drain all runnings. Usually I hit my numbers pretty well with...

Hi All. Forgive me if this has been asked before but I couldn't necessarily find what I was looking for with a search. Here's the situation: Last weekend I brewed Mr. Denny Conn's Bourbon Vanilla Porter recipe. I normally batch sparge using a single addition of sparge water and hit my...

Pappers, I actually set out to try and clone this beer a few years ago based on the information that was provided on Elysian's site. I've never actually tasted it side by side with the Dark O' The Moon, but I can tell you that I haven't changed the recipe since, we've brewed it every fall, and...

Hi All, I had seen some negative experiences regarding Barley Crusher's customer service, and I just wanted to add a recent experience. One of the set screws on my BC mill had the head break off. It seems these screws are made of a very malleable material. In any event, I tried to extract...

I just hooked my brew stand up to natural gas and it runs three blichmann burners very well. You do need a hose with quick disconnect. I bought the 1/2 ID model here: http://www.tejassmokers.com/NatGasHoses.htm Yes, it's more expensive, but it feels very well made and I wanted the higher...

There was an issue of BYO a few years ago that had recipes for brewing with different cereals. I can't remember which one it was exactly, but a friend tried the one with crunch berries.

Iodophor or any diluted sanitizer mixture will do for the blow off bucket. Just make sure that when you cold crash the beer the liquid doesn't get sucked back into the fermenter from your airlock or blow off bucket. An easy way to ensure this is to just remove the tube or airlock and cover the...

Here is what I use: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/brewing-equipment/siphoning-equipment/racking-canes/30-stainless-rack-tube.html

I basically used Gordon strong's procedure here for the tea only with pumpkin pie spice: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/beer-recipe-of-the-week-chai-tea-brown-ale/

+1 on the spice tea. Works like a charm, and you can add to taste into the bottling bucket/keg

Thanks everyone! In case anyone is interested I was able to find these online: http://abingdongas.com/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=63 Looks similar to the piece blichmann includes to plumb burners in the actual top tier system.