Recent content by mappler

Quick update on my brewing fun. The Russian Imperial Stout was racked into a 5-gallon bourbon barrel last night. Beer #2 is waiting patiently next to it for its turn in the barrel. Both beers have fermented out nicely. I did end up diluting down the RIS in the fermenter at the start. I had...

+1 on taking apart the poppet on your keg AND the liquid coupler (ball lock or whatever you are using). It is not uncommon to get a few hop bits stuck in there. It is also a quick and easy thing to do. If that fails, try changing out the liquid coupler. I've had a few that have failed...

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you very much for your clear explanations. I liked brewing this way, and I really like the idea of being able to hit OG every time. I often brew with a group of local homebrewers in my neighborhood. This seems like a good methodology for some collaborative...

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. Take wort post-boil from #1 and #2 and make a blend of those to for a beer #3 / #4 etc.?

While typing in my last post, I realize my RIS is fixable right now. I'm going to dilute in 1 gallon of water. This should take my OG down to 1.096, a much more manageable number for WLP013 to handle. I need to remember my lessons from extract brewing. Blowoff could be interesting on this...

Jwin, I steeped my roasted grains as well, but in the full kettle of the imperial stout. I did the same as you and had only base malt and crystal (as well as some flaked oats) in the mash tun. Seemed to work great. I like the idea of holding back some of the first runnings for the second...

I brewed on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Things went fairly well, and I learned a lot! My gravity estimate (pre-boil gravity) for beer #1 was 1.090. It came out to 1.092. Pretty spot on. My gravity estimate (pre-boil) for beer #2 was 1.060. It was 1.038. A little lower than planned...

I use the same. I have one for every glass carboy I use. I've never had an issue with them. -Matt

Thank you Mr. Snake, this sounds like what I am planning on doing. I have some DME on hand should things go horribly wrong with the second beer. :) However, I'd prefer not to adjust it and just let things fall where they may. -Matt

My current plan was a single mash, and then sparge out. However, let me make sure I understand. You did one mash, empty to boil kettle, then refill with water at mash temp, go through a second mash, then empty to second boil kettle and sparge? Note: I'm mashing in a 10 gallon igloo cooler.

My exploration into all-grain brewing started with a talk given by the head brewer at Blue Mountain in Afton, VA describing their method for making their Dark Hollow / Local Species sister beers. Suitably inspired, I've been been all-grain brewing for several years in preparation for an homage...

I use the CoolZone and really like the system. You list as a downside the need to refill ice in a cooler. I do NOT use a 10 gallon igloo for cold water though. I keep a small (1.5 gallon) bucket of water in my kegerator. I run the water lines through the side of this refrigerator and ferment...

I see people are having trouble installing Raspberry Pints on the latest RPi. I had need to replace my installation this past weekend, and figured out how to get everything working (without flow meters). I'm leaving instructions here in the event it helps someone out. A few notes: 1) I...

In this case, I have a friend of mine running like 8 fermenters he is looking to temperature control individually. We are discussing out some design work for how he wants to do this. The Pi directly would work for one device, but the Arduino should be ultimately cheaper for 8 at a time. In...

I'd like to know if I am understanding something correctly. Let's say I wanted to operate this device remotely, say from somewhere out in Internet land. I keep the arduino hooked up to a computer (probably a Raspberry Pi in my case) and can interact with it via the com.ino sketch. So, if I...