Recent content by owmatooth

I really think many people are interested but intimidated by the idea of homebrewing. I know most clubs do an open house "learn to brew day", but as my kids school is always looking for interesting experiences to be donated, I thought about donating the "privledge" of hanging out with me during...

since they are added preboil, is there noticeable sulfite content left. I was under the impression that it completely dissipated in the boil, thus the reason that it does not have an affect on the yeast. otherwise any significant residual sulfites would kill the yeast, no?

i use two tablets for a 5 gallon batch. I'm using the Mash and Boil and just toss them in when i turn the hose on.

just a thought. since you're having more trouble in warmer months, and using hose water (as i do in florida), the local water supplies tend to up the chloramides (similar to chlorine, but not quite) in the summer. do you add two campden tablets at filling, prior to heating? I did everything but...

i agree. like the great bob ross said "happy little accidents"! looks like a lighter ale from the bill, 10 lbs isn't too crazy, maybe a 1.040 -1.042 to look for to start. i'd go with a quarter ounce of the hallertau at boil for bittering and use the belgian saison at 72 degrees and see what...

i second the idea of leaving it at least 30 minutes for the trub to settle. as its chilling with the wort chiller, i give it a good stir at about 100 degrees. then i don't touch it for about 45 min. this lets all my trub settle to the bottom. the whirpool effect of the final stirring is...

thanks. i think the issue is the purpose of the boil, if there are no hop additons, and it is a sealed extract, so no sanitation issues, there really isn't any purpose of boiling the extract, all you really need to do is rehydrate it (in the case of dme). I know the beer that can be made with...

ive been using the M&B for biab for the past two years and it works well for me, but i'm in florida, so not trying to push it in cold temps. it takes me about 5 hours from room temp water to completed chilling and pitching. it's nothing fancy, but i tend to look for simplest solution anyway.

So for the past year or two I've been keeping one of my four taps as a cider. I make a very plain cider with 5 gallons of motts and american ale II yeast. comes out fine, though a little boring. I'm not looking to add fruit to flavor it up, but i have thrown an extra gallon or two of any pale...

i like the saison yeasts, i prefer the french to the belgium, but to each his own. With either, I do the full ferment at room temp (72-78 degrees) in order to get some ester flavors. I've done both at 67 degrees and didn't get anything interesting from the yeast. Though I got a fine beer. And I...

i tend to lose about a half gallon for my typical 12 lb grain bill. I squeeze pretty well, but nothing too crazy. so 64 liquid ounces per 192 grain ounces. about .33 fl oz/ oz. is about right by my simple math. feel free to correct me if i calculated wrong.

looks like a solid IPA with a simple grain bill. should be a tasty beerverage. keep it up. only thought i have is to use your boil kettle as a mash tun, eliminates cleaning the cooler. every little step to make it easier on brew day. give up a little in insulation, gain a little in simplicity...

looks like its still fermenting a little. all good. keg it when you reach the right sweetness you're looking for. if you're bottling, I'd wait till they're dead still. then backsweeten if needed and bottle em up.

i had a 5 gallon carboy of cider that had been fermenting for 2 weeks (my usualy time before kegging a cider). Fermentation was complete for sure. I had it cold crashed to 34 to be ready to rack to keg, and then hurricane hit florida and i lost power for a week. had to commandeer the chest...

wow. if he leaves the window open and does an open fermentation with wild chicago yeast like they do in belgium, that's pretty hard core. of course the fact that he doesn't bathe for two months fits with the carbondale mystique...