Recent content by mountainrev

Absolutely! Just be sure to reduce the amount of extract added to the half-batch.

Are you planning to add the juice to the secondary, or at bottling time? A gallon of juice seems like an awful lot. Lots of people add a couple of pounds of cherries or puree to the secondary and rack on top of that, or else use a small amount of cherry extract at bottling time. I would think...

I brew at about 6,700'. I'm not so sure that the hops utilization is reduced at all. While it's true that your wort will come to a boil at a lower temp (less 200 degrees where I am), I believe it's the action of the boiling water, not the temp, that has the biggest effect on hops utilization...

Two weeks is way too soon to judge a beer. Be patient. Leave it for three more weeks, at least, before judging it. It will undoubtedly improve immensely! You might also want to consider using a secondary fermenter to let it settle and age a couple more weeks before bottling.

Lots of us use the "1-2-3" method, as in one week in primary, two weeks in secondary, and three in the bottles. Since you are kegging, disregard the "3." But the only true way to find out whether or not its time to bottle (or keg) is to take hydrometer readings. Take readings on two or...

If I'm reading this correctly, hardrain is referring to the rubber seal for the airlock, not the lid on the primary. And since he only has one such rubber seal, which is currently, buried in trub at the bottom of his other primary, he's in a bind (apparently, he has two airlocks, but just one...

Sounds a little high to me. Just doing some rough calculations, it sounds like you could pretty much buy all that equipment brand new for what he's charging used, maybe even for less. If the equipment is in excellent condition, I'd offer no more than $200.

Yup. Generally, you want to carbonate at room temp for three weeks, give or take. Then, your beer will benefit from cold conditioning, the longer, the better. Keep it stored somewhere nice and cool, like your basement. Then, chill for a couple of days in the fridge before drinking.

Anyone ever use a growler tap for handled 2 liter swing-top growlers like this one: I believe it works simply by pumping air into the bottle. I'm not thinking of using it to keep the beer fresh and carbonated, like a real CO2 system. I'm more thinking of it as just a novelty when I bring...

I use my dishwasher exclusively for washing my bottles, and have never had any problems whatsoever. Of course, I always rinse my bottles very thoroughly immediately after emptying them, so that all the dishwasher is doing is basically sanitizing them. I don't use detergent, but the Jetdry is...

My first thought as well. I just had a shelf that looked identical to it collapse after about four years of constant use (no, I didn't have any beer on it). It was anchored into the wall well enough, but the braces buckled, and the whole thing bent at a right angle. Losing two carboys of...

I've never had a problem with Grolsch/EZ caps after many batches. I have so many that I seldom use the gazillion or so 12 oz. crown cap bottles I have. My strong suspicion is your bad beer was not due to the bottle, but I certainly could be wrong. To sanitize, I run them through the...

You may have scorched the LME, and its age certainly wasn't in your favor. But be warned that using LME will often result in a darker product than you might have been expecting. That's because LME tends to caramelize, even if it doesn't scorch. The darker color doesn't effect the taste at...

We have very, very hard water where I live. It definitely takes a toll on appliances (we're on our third dishwasher in 12 years, and it sounds like it's on its last legs). But I have never noticed any off-tastes in my beer because of it. I would say let your green beer age some more before...

Same thing happened to me a couple of months ago. Ordered a kit from Midwest, upgraded to the "smack pack," and only after starting to brew did I notice they had sent me the Propagator, rather than the Activator. After debating what to do, I decided not to risk pitching the Propagator...