Recent content by Jayhem

Unless you are in a hurry, you will make better beer and be at FG 99.99% of the time by letting it primary ferment for 21 days before even checking it. I don't even measure FG anymore. I just let them ferment out 21 days, they are always done and ready to keg at that point. If you are in a...

I would mash 6 lbs of the 2 row and then use about 4 lbs of light DME (dried malt extract) to make up the difference. DME will put more fermentables per lb into your wort than equal weight of malt barley. You should really be using a brewing calculator to convert this. There are several...

That method is fine. I have used that method of harvesting for at least 20 -25 batches and all turned out great. I always do a starter though unless the yeast was harvested within a week of use.

There is no benefit to using Centennial to bitter with, it usually costs 2 time more than Columbus. Just use all columbus to bitter and add it all at the same time, either FWH or at 60 and run the IBU calcs from there. the most efficient use of hops for bitterness and flavor aroma is bitter up...

UPDATE: So I disconnected my gas line from the keg, cleaned and reconnected and put it back on gas for 24 hours and now I have carbonated beer and I backed it down to 8psi for serving and it's pouring a nice pint with 1" of head that lingers and nice full carbonation! Not sure what the problem...

Oops. Sorry I just double checked. I have 1/4" gas line and 3/16" beer line at 6' long and 2' of lift to the faucet. According to that calculator that is about an 8.5 second/pint flow rate.

See my responses in RED

I have no idea if my tank is almost empty, I've just heard that you don't usually get more than 4-5 five-gallon batches force carbed and served on one tank. The gauge on the tank stays the same until it's empty so unless I weighed the tank before filling and after I would have no way to track...

I've been researching this and only thing I can think of is that I either have a problem with my regulator or CO2 tank. I have a 5 gallon corny keg on the gas right now at 25psi at 35*F. It's been on the gas for a week. I check for gas leaks using dish soap in a spray bottle as always, no...

Wanted to update those who helped me out! First beer has been carbonated and serving for a week now and it's perfect! I used stainless MFL fittings on both the ball lock ends and the CO2 regulator ends for easy of dissasembly. I used 1/4" and 3/16" ice maker food grade poly tubing for the...

Some micro-breweries will also sell or give away their excess yeast. I've gotten yeast from my local macro before. Legally they probably can't sell it though.

I've had an IPA of mine that sat in the bottle for about 15 months and it was fine, no aroma of course but the bitterness was nice and the flavor was good. I agree, this may not carbonate as most of the yeast were dormant or dead after that much time. If it doesn't carbonate you can always...

Not sure what you mean by "Commercial". What we homebrewers are using are industrial grade and will last many 10's of thousands of pounds of malt going through them. the best inexpensive mill I know if is what I bought, the Barley Crusher Malt Mill. It was around $120 with the hopper...

That small amount of Vienna doesn't make a huge difference. You can leave it out or do what was mentioned here and lightly roast some 2-row to give it a more full flavor.

Why are you wanting to cold crash this? Dark beers don't' really benefit from it as it's meant to help clear up a beer and in IPA's cold crashing actually causes a loss of hop aroma.