Recent content by MicroMickey

My local water comes from the Mississippi River. We enjoy a full spectrum of agricultural runoff, city waste-water effluence, chemical / refinery discharge, and whatever else makes it's way into "Old Man River." Even with all that, our local water department cleans it up and provides a rather...

Foam is about 25% beer. If you really want to understand the dynamics of kegging and draft systems, download the DRAFT QUALITY MANUAL https://cdn.brewersassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/13094643/Draught-Beer-Quality-Manual-2019.pdf Everything you'd ever want to know about setting...

Watch the salt addition. Some years back I started brewing Gose and settled on a rate of salt at 1gm per pint in the primary. It's one of those ingredients where just a little more becomes way too much.

I used to be plagued with boil-overs. I used my stainless steel spoon to stir the foam back into the beginning-to-boil wort and that seemed to work. Sometimes I couldn’t keep up with the foam and I’d have a boil-over anyway. Then I got the bright idea of simply skimming the foam from the kettle...

https://crescentcitybrewtalk.com/has-it-got-the-power/ It's fairly easy to estimate DP. Doing so on marginal grain bills might keep you out of trouble and becoming a victim of "buyer's remorse." If you've got the software, that's great but a pencil and a scrap of paper will give you the same...

There are several different styles/lengths of poppets and that's why I started using the "universal Poppets". They work so well I never went back to the original equipment. Pin lock and ball lock posts use different dip tube O rings. The pin lock O rings have a smaller sectional diameter.

https://crescentcitybrewtalk.com/corny-keg-posts/

The main difference in the posts on corny kegs is the thread size and pitch. I've attached a chart which reveals the difference.

The way I used to remove poppets was to use a small flat nose punch to push the poppet out. Just stand the post on a table, put the punch on top of the poppet, and simply push down. You'll feel the spring give way before it feels solid. Push just a little more and it will drop out of...

Dark grains don't have any convertible starch and virtually no (if any) viable enzymes. They are as useful in the mash as a handful of broken bricks. At the beginning of the mash, I usually add enough crushed dark grains to adjust my mash pH. I add the remainder at the end of the mash just...

If your meter is anything like the ones I've used, you'll need to soak the probe bulb in either storage solution or calibration solution for perhaps an hour. After initial soaking, store it in the solution. Be careful on the "Temperature Correction" feature. DO NOT CHECK your pH in a hot mash...

I've brewed Grodziskie a few times. I once brewed an all-wheat Porter that scored a 46/50 in a local competition. The lautering problem can be managed by the addition of rice or oat hulls. I find in a 9# grain bill, a double handful of hulls is sufficient.

Cascade is great for dry hopping but don't forget about Amarillo.

Like MrFancyPants, I've found a dedicated steamer basket to work wonders. CAUTION - Don't use your wife's steamer basket if you want to live long enough to finish that batch of beer.

From what I gather from just a little research, W2575 and WLP003 are Weihenstephan 165. The W2565 is a slightly mutated version of the Weihenstephan 165 sourced from Päffgen in Köln. The WLP029 is from PJ Früh in Köln.