Recent content by mattlsull

yeah, sorry about the reversal, trying to work and read HBT at the same time. The conversion would be less DME than LME weight wise. And like Captain Damage said, probably from a recipie that was either converted or scaled at some point and is negligible. I use BeerSmith too. It is great!

You'd want to use a little more DME. The conversion rate is about 1 DME = 1.25 LME.

Assuming the beer was chilled down between 38F-42F, it sure seems like you did enough force carbonating. I just kegged up a Pumpkin Ale where I chilled to 38F before I racked to the keg. Then I CO2 burped out all the air, and, at around 12psi rolled the keg for 10 minutes. I had a pint...

You might want to also sanatize your bottle caps either by boiling, or using either starsan or idophor. I always like having a spray bottle full of sanatizer handy. You can get a spray bottle at Home Depot in the same section where you find the Oxiclean.

I've had a faulty valve before and when I brought it back to where I normally do my swap outs (AirGas store), I tell them the tank valve had a leak. Since I got the faulty tank from them they didn't even charge me for the gas on the swap out.

Probably not the keg, but maybe the poppet spring valve inside the stem of the gas post. it could not be seated properly and the spring action is catching if off center to the hole. Or it may need replacing if the little gaskette has been dammaged or worn. Also during assembly I usually...

I don't have a brutus but to answer your other two questions: Got 30 bucks left over? http://www.beersmith.com/ I jumped all-in to when I switched to AG, and, this software has been a huge help! Maybe a pumkin ale for your first since the fall season is near\here....

Nah, you'll be fine. Beer is very forgiving (except the day after you drink 1 too many). There are actually techniques that some use that are an open fermentation where they basically ferment in a bucket covered in aluminu, alumini, aluemin... tin foil. Having your tube pop out for a few...

Maybe your gauge is broken? And\or sometimes I've not gotten a good seal between the regulator and the tank itself. I use 10lb tank on my kegorator with two taps. One lasted for months (possibly a year at a rate of floating 2 5gal kegs a month). Then when it emptied, all I did was swap...

That is called Krausen. It is a normal part of an active fementation process. This settles down in the first day or two. Until then you will want to use a "blow-off tube" setup and not an airlock. You can search the forum on that. For a simple blowoff use 4-6 feet of tubing with a...

I only mention this because the thread topic indicated "1st time bottling" , and, it sucks... So if the original poster is new to homebrewing, my advice is save up for a keg system. When I got back into hombrewing after a 10 year hiatus, the first time bottling again I rememberd how much I...

3 inches. I have the small plastic hopper, but would like to build something that can hold up to 25lbs of grain. I'll be looking forward to what you come up with!

Crushing more could help if what you get from your supplier doesn’t look like the husks are opened up enough. But, crushing the grain too much can cause clogging problems when sparging. Crush too much and the finer particles can turn into pudding, which will clog\stop the sparge runoff...

Fantastic! I ordered two. Knowing me, I wlll need a spare. I also got some flared fittings for my keg system, becuase I needed some and it makes me feel better about the shipping charge. Although, it was only 10 bucks to ship FedEx Home Delivery. I hope it get's here by Friday...

CM, Did you ever get a replacement site glass? I just broke my 20 gallon site glass and need to get a replacement A.S.A.P. for a brew this weekend. Cheers.