Recent content by nlavon

I had posted here earlier about taking up brewing again after a 20-year hiatus. I brewed an ale from an early edition of the Charlie Papazian Homebrew book. The batch was started in mid-July and and then sat in the fermenter for about three weeks while I was out of town. I bottled when I got...

Thanks for the feedback all. Particularly the part on the taste of the dregs. The bottles are downstairs and the temp is 74. Maybe I can get it down a little by leaving the bathroom door open to the cooler basement but that's it for the moment. I used to have a second refrigerator I bought at a...

I bottled my Palilalia IPA today after three weeks in the fermenter. I kept the fermenter in the basement where temperatures were in the low to mid-70s. I got lots of feedback here to be wary of brewing an IPA at those temperatures but I really wanted to do it. And by the time I got the advice...

Those are great ideas and cheap, too! Making ice bottles is not a problem. Thanks!

I think I am going to construct the Minimalist Wort Chiller using styrofoam, put the bucket in, some ice, and see how it goes. But I agree, I do need to get that temperature down.

I did google swamp cooler and saw some interesting ideas that could lead to another construction project. I agree, I need to lower the temperature where I park the fermenter. If I can build one of those things, I have a shower stall as part of a bathroom in a finished room off the basement. Such...

Now I can go on vacation! Relax..don't worry....etc. Thanks!

I have to say this group has been very responsive to a former homebrewer taking the hobby back up after 20 years. Basically, I tried to brew an IPA referenced in the 1991 version of the Complete Joy of Home Brewing called Palilalia India Pale Ale. 7 pounds of DME, 1.5 lbs specialty...

I ended up heating the water to 150, adding the grains and then trying to keep the temperature below 170. Sometimes it climbed up, sometimes down, and I tried to vary the temperature for the time it was in there. Most of the time, it was okay. I chilled the wort in the sink and with some ice...

Uh, checkl that. SG corrected for temperature is 1.0636. That's a little better!

I finally brewed today and thought I followed everything pretty close except forgetting to take the SG reading. I had already pitched the yeast about ten seconds earlier, so I grabbed some wort quickly and then slapped the lid back on. It's always one last thing that I forget to do. Anyway...

OK, thanks for all this. The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing I have is the 1991 edition, a second edition with the first one being 1983.

I am brewing the Palilalia India Pale Ale recipe from the New Complete Joy of Home Brewing, p. 180, using the Specialty Grains listed--crystal malt and malted barley. Questions: Is the 30 minutes of steeping time for the grains is in addition to the 45-60 min of boiling with extract added and...

I used to brew with liquid extract from the cans. Most of what I made was drinkable. A few batches went down the drain. I tried mashing grains once and it was an all-day fiasco that went nowhere. I don't want to make this harder than I need to. I have seen some excellent advice on yeast...

I see that Cleaning and Sanitation are still top of the list. Thanks for the tips.