Recent content by MashStirBrew

Count me in!!:tank:

Thanks for the advice everyone! Unfortunately grubex doesnt come cheap for a broke bastard like myself. (New baby, remodeling, etc,etc) As much as I would love to, treating an acre yard gets spendy! That and I know the neighbors wont either. Seven does work, I have used it, I just dont care...

I give up! Every July my hops attract what could be the worlds largest Japanese Beetle orgy and am ridding my yard of every plant that they like. They are on there 5th year and grow like weeds until July and then get stripped in about two weeks. 2 Cascades, which seem to do the best, 2...

Get some brew software! I prefer Beersmith.

I started out with the five gallon igloo and it worked great. I have graduated to a larger cooler for bigger batches since then because it takes about the same amount of time. But I cant seem to keep my kegs full. whatever you end up doing make sure you at least try out the demo version of...

Software is a must in my opinion, and get it as soon as possible to start learning it. I have promash and beersmith and very much prefer beersmith. Its only 20 bucks. I use a cooler https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/ and it works great. As...

I dry hop in the primary after fermentation is done for about a week. Then I cold crash for a few days and secondary in the keg. No bag just dump the pellets right in. the pellets may need to be swirled around a bit but they will drop out soon enough. It works for me and seems to be alot more...

Holy Bacon Batman!! That just made me tingle a little bit. Now just add some smoked velveeta, a good beer, and this could be better than crack!

Sounds like good beer to me! congrats on your first AG! Looks like you did your homework if you had a boil over and still ended up at 1.045 on your first AG.

Any Luck??

After plunking some numbers in beersmith if you had exactly 4 gallons of wort with a SG of 1.053 and added exactly 1.25 gallons of water you would end up with 1.040. If you had a pre-boil gravity of 1.045 you did well on efficiency! Your preboil gravity is only a point below what the final...

I would get rid of your traps! They bring every beetle around! My hops were fine a few days ago and today the upper third of one of them is nothing but skelaton. Last year it was almost complete devistation. I hate the thought of insecticides in my beer. But what choice do we have? I am...

For me it would be Dudes https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/lake-walk-pale-ale-32939/ . By far the the best recipe I have sampled. Even if you eliminated the dry hop and/or toned down the hop schedule a bit to cut some costs. Absolutely delicious beer, and have yet to meet someone who doesn't...

I needed a couple onces of hops that I was short, called them, and they sent it USPS for 2.95. And it only took a couple days to recieve. Normally USPS takes at least a week. And they ship FED-X which makes Saturday deliveries!

"Primary only" worked great for my last batch. I let it finish fermentation for 2 weeks, then dumped in 2 oz of pellets for a week at temp, and cold crashed for another week. Everything dropped out fine. And it was my favorite beer to date!