Recent content by mjkinne23

Thanks scottballz, appreciate you taking a look at this. I'm using essentially the exact same setup on the new as the old. It's a 10g Rubbermaid circular cooler (the typical orange one that gets dumped on the coaches head at the end of the big game, for some bizarre reason that makes me glad...

I'm grateful for any feedback the forum can offer on a problem I've just started to encounter with what I describe as a chalky taste and mouthfeel in my last two all-grain batches. I've been brewing for years and have never had this problem but I've now had it with my last two batches. What's...

Thanks, appreciate the update. I'm going to give this a try with all-grain and see how it goes. It would be interesting to keep this thread going and refine the recipe as others try it too. Just stopped by Otter Creek to get a keg of it and there's a two week waiting list because it's...

Did you ever try this again? Did you make any changes to your grain bill and hop quantities/schedule? This Black IPA is one of my top 5 beers of all, I absolutely love it. I keep a keg of it at our lake house in VT (just down the road from the Otter Creek Brewery :ban: ) but I'd love to...

Thanks, interesting things to think about there. I'm an all-grain beer brewer and this is my first attempt at going solo on cider. We did one in this barrel two years ago but I wasn't there when it was all put together so I'm not sure how much of what to use. I'm really interested in knowing...

I'm preparing for my first large batch of cider in a 55 gallon oak barrel. How much head space do I need to leave? If I'm using 2lbs of sugar for every 5gals of cider (as was recommended to me), how many gallons of cider do I use?

I'm making my second batch of apple cider (probably more technically apple wine given the targeted alcohol content) and desperately need help. The first batch was a fantastic mixer but didn't have great taste on its own, it was very harsh. I want to design the next batch to have better...

Thanks a. So other than correct readings, any suggestions on what to do differently with the next batch to produce some actual alcohol?

So I clearly made a rookie mistake when calculating my post fermentation gravitates but is it really as simple as not having let it ferment long enough? I know readings are the only true way to know when it is over but it had been two weeks of very active fermentation and the foam had fallen...

Could it have been a very very slow fermentation that I should have just let continue longer? The foam had settled back and it had been 2 weeks. Can it take longer with AG?

I used a refractometer to take all my readings.

I made a 5 gallon Dunkelweizen, the grain bill was: 6lb white wheat 4lb 2 row 8oz caramunich 4oz pale chocolate 4oz carafa special II My pre-boil gravity was 1.046 and into the carboy it was 1.054, target OG was 1.050-1.052. When I racked it was 1.032 but when I bottled it was 1.40 (one was a...

Sorry, I probably should have been more thorough. I used the BRIX readings and entered that into my software to calculate the OG and FG to then obtain my final ABV. I certainly may have done something wrong with the readings but I'm still struggling to understand how I ended up with almost no...

I just brewed my first all grain batch after investing a lot of time and money in building my own system. Despite having a very active fermentation and hitting my OG targets I have almost not alcohol content. I'm not giving up but I need to understand what I did wrong before trying again. I'd...