Recent content by Mhill2079

I've had a few comments from judges that my ciders have to much astringency. Any idea how or where it comes from?

I think it is one of the better beer fests in KC. I'd recommend it.

I did a version of this in may/June. It got bottles on 6/28 and it still has yet to carbonate. I opened a bottle Friday night and there is VERY minimal carbonation. At this rate I fully expect it to take another two months if not longer (sitting at 70-72 degrees). Also my ABV was 8.6 but added...

I'm getting ready to start this one next week and I've noticed that no one is oaking it. As I am a huge oak fan, and a huge fan of the Rumpkin I was gonna do 2 oz of French oak in the secondary (soak the chips in the rum and what not before the addition). Has anyone tried this?

I've got the 7.1 cubic foot from Costco. When I backed the screw out (lefty loosy) a few turn it dropped the temp down to -8 F. then I screwed it in all the way and the highest it would get to was 25 F. So it looks like I will continue to use the Johnson controller. If anyone figures out another...

It's the pumpkin extract kit from northern brewer.

How do you know which yeasts will go with a higher ABV. Is there a rating on most websites? Usually I use northern brewer.

I want to make an imperial pumpkin but instead of adding sugars or more light dme I was thinking about just doubling to original recipe ingredients to get the ABV up to where I want it. Is this an ok technique?

Just what it says. Imp stout from this year just exploded in my cellar. 66-68 degrees pretty steadily. Any ideas? I've stored beers down there for years and never had this happen. That particular beer probably hasn't been disturbed for months and all of the sudden today a side of the bottle...

So i should just use like 2 more lbs of DME and then up the hops and what not to match it ratio wise?

So I bought the Smashing Pumpkin kit from Northern Brewer. You can see the recipe here http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/SmashingPumpkinEX.pdf And I am wanting to raise the ABV by about 2% from what it is just by using the included ingredients (5% or so). I ordered some...

Ok I feel like an idiot. It is just paint that came off the stand and burnt itself to the bottom.

I'll recheck but it seemed like it was a groove in the pot. Not like extra material on the outside of it. I felt likei could get my fingernail under the aluminum and peel it off.

I did an hour water boil to oxidize the pot initially. These pics are after the first batch and it got significantly worse after the second. The metal parts missing follow the brown lines exactly (where it touches the stand). and also on the inside there is one of those brown metal half ovals...

So I've done 2 batches with a new aluminum pot (7.5 gallon size) and on the bottom of the pot where it touches the stand the metal is burnt off in the pattern of the half circle pieces of metal it sits on. I'm assuming this is just from being really hot but it doesn't seem right that the...