Recent content by nackedei

"Has anyone mashed with the colander raised to the lower handles?" I can't speak to your fresh hop situation (you bastard!). Perhaps for ease put a large amount in with the water when you start? At that amount, I can't imagine it would be a horrible result if there was a huge first wort hop...

Think about it this way: everything is getting boiled, and it's a closed system. Clean it out like you would any other fermenter, and it's assuredly going to be less likely to have any problems. Even if this weren't the case, it's Lacto. It is incredibly hop-sensitive, and wants higher temps...

Different poster, but I've now made four Berliner Weisses in the medium BIAC (15 gallon batches), so I'll comment. Really, there's nothing to it, though I do go through the effort of doing multiple brief boils to sterilize things, because it's not really that much more effort. Mash like...

Largest brew I've done in my medium was a Berliner Weisse. Sent ten gallons to kegs, five and change into a carboy with some apricots and Brett, and a half gallon into a 2 liter PET bottle that I chilled and carbed with a carbonator cap. Had a half gallon or so left over before reaching the dead...

[Hop issue: thoughts?] I've got probably a dozen brews under my belt with my medium BIAC, and yesterday's was the first PITA brew. Wanted to hear other people's thoughts. The goal was a giant hopstand/whirlpool charge for all bittering/flavor: 5oz of hop pellets in at 205f, another 6oz at...

The goals: nice hop flavor in a more sessionable beer; chance to experiment with the pound of Green Bullet I bought a year ago and haven't opened; some doughy/wheat going on underneath; get a first generation of Conan (Yeast Bay Vermont) ready to attenuate a DIPA. 11 gallon batch, target OG...

Once the mass of fermenting wort in the Brewha is at a given temp, keeping it there is easy, even with only marginally cooler water. So your only real issue is dropping it down post-boil. And given that, the cost of a chiller isn't going to be worth it in your case (in my opinion). You have...

In the interest of documenting these bastard bugs, I thought I should note that I decanted a couple small mason jars of the Dirty Dozen starter to use for later (think it would be a nice addition to a Berliner Weisse coming up soon). 36 hours after the whole starter was butter nose and lemon...

Let it sit for a couple days, figured I'd change my brew-day plans today if it was still a butter bomb. Now it's got some butter (diacetyl? crazy multi-strain brett stuff?) on the nose, but the taste is pure lemon. Conclusion: who knows what to expect with an old vial of twelve strains of...

It was on a stir plate, yes. Thick/slick on the tongue, super buttery. Hard to determine how much of the latter was the aroma, though, it's that strong! While I know Brett fermentations are weird, I couldn't find anything on 100% Brett fermentations producing such outcomes, but it's not like...

Was curious if people who have used ECY34 (or any other lots-o-straints cultures) have any experience with this. I had a bottle from last year's production that I decided to throw into a starter (nothing else in it), hoping it was still viable (I've had good experiences with the viability of ECY...

I have a medium, and you'll be fine with an 8 foot ceiling. It's not nearly as big as you'd think. You will, as another poster states, need a rig or some help. I make sure my wife's going to be around come mash out, as that's the only point where I need any help. We can get it out without a...

Brewed ten gallons of this (only changes were I used the Willamette and WLP002 I had) over the weekend. 60 hours at 66f, went from 1.034 to 1.011, with fermentation all but stopped. Ramped it up two degrees over the next 12, and it dropped another point. Will keep it here for another day or...

Brewing a mild as we speak. Because I wanted something delicious I could drink gallons of during the Super Bowl and not be on my ass!

Quick question to those of you in the US who have purchased something from Brewha: have you ever been charged a foreign transaction fee?