Recent content by mesathinks

Just an update, tried one after a couple of weeks just to see how it worked out and is one of the best yet. As many here said, much ado about nothing :)

Revvy & Deathbrewer, that's exactly what I bought. Damned if I could get it to work the way it should. Got it going and then it stopped on an air pocket and I just pumped a s#!t load of air into my partially racked secondary trying to get it going again. Used it as an aerator for the next batch...

While I still see the merit of the folks who prefer not to use the hydrometer, I'm going to start getting two in a row, close to or at FG before I rack to secondary. It sounds as if those of you that have forgone the readings are extremely experienced and feel the risk for you outweigh the...

Just relized Bob said the secondary rack might stop fermentation which would result in the second reading being the same. I guess there is no middle ground, sigh. It would however not be at FG so you would know something was wrong...

Yeah it is very refreshing to see a debate on-line being carried on in a friendly fashion in regards to something that all of you folks feel so strongly about. It happens so rarely it seems. I certainly wasn't trying to provoke. I'm such a novice that I can hardly debate any issues with you...

Hi Malkore, Well you seem to have a strong opinion on this :) I'm re-reading William Mares 'Making Beer' as I am re-reading all my books accumulated over the years. He seems very knowledgeable and while folks may or may not agree I think it would be a stretch to call his methods...

Hi Bob, sounds like you know your way around the industry and much more about all of this than I do of course. Lack of cash doe not have to mean shelve it. No doubt, bootstrapping is a hard way to start a business. It also is often a waste of time because no money is easily confused with no...

Not bad advise to just let it sit for a while but it's bottled now so I'll just hope for the best. It feel fairly certain it was done. My reading at transfer was 1.011, bottling 36 hours later was exactly the same and after 30 hours in the bottle I'm not seeing any signs of unual activity. The...

My wife was helping me with the first couple of batches I have done in a while and while asking questions she was astonished at my replies and at one point gently admonished me for not refreshing my memory better before jumping back in. I patiently :) explained that there really are no hard...

Just checked out the ice cube cooler and it looks right on. Yeah the temps caught me by surprise, we have been buzzing along in the low 70's highs so far this summer and it's back to that now, just had a few days last week through the weekend that jumped up to the mid eighties. I actually own...

Thanks everyone for the input, I really appreciate it. Will read the referenced threads and work on it. I did some research and the wet towels as jackets brought the temps down 5-6 degrees and most of the early 4-5 days was more like 68-70. I have the refridge control- just not the refridge...

I've got temp problems. Getting four batches ready for an end of August B-day bash and we happen to be in the only hot time of year in the Northwest. Just bottled two batches that fermented in the 70-85 range, jacketed with wet towels part of the time. Fast fermentation of 12 & 14 days to...

There is nothing inherently wrong with bootstrapping any type of business and I would think a micro would be no exception. The road to success though is much different than through determining and getting the anticipated cash needs prior to launch. The biggest problem I see with the approach...

Thank you one and all! You can all go to sleep tonight knowing you saved about 4 1/2 gallons of inocent IPA from a wasteful demise and they will live to die another day. Heading to the kitche.. urr ... brewery to get this done :-)

You guys are great! Wife is a little quesy, me I figured what the hell :-) Last question, since I have jerked around with this decsion all day I have a rack of carefully sanitized bottles that have had a sheet (clean :-) over them since midnight last night. Should I re-sanitize or just bottle...