Recent content by pain++

Just found a 5gal pot at the hardware store to supplement my 7gal brewpot, trying this right now! So far so good, thanks for the post :mug:

Thanks to all who replied! I brewed my Ginger Saison this weekend (man, MUCH smaller apartment in NYC!), and it's bubbling away merrily in the primary fermenter. All signs point to awesome!

The water's definitely hard, which is good news for me, bad news for the shower :) I'll be brewing with it next week :)

Great, thanks for the reply! I personally love my NYC water, I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't any treatment going on with it that would cause my little yeasties to be unhappy. Thanks again!

Hi Guys, I just moved to NYC and, after settling in, am ready to start brewing again. My big question is, can I use the city water to brew? Or should I get spring water from my local bodega. Thanks!

so, any updates? I want to hear how this came out :)

I am just coming to the end of a keg of an Oaked vanilla winter warmer that I brewed last year; and it was fantastic! I made a pretty basic, malty brown ale and let fermentation begin. On the same day, I scraped the seeds of 2 vanilla beans into 2 cups of bourbon (used Elijah Craig) and let...

Agreed, for me the best part about honey in cyser is in the aroma: make sure to add after flameout!

chillers can also be made easily at home from fittings and copper 'fridge coil that you can get from home depot :) $15 immersion chiller, can't beat it!

I tend to use hop plugs and a muslin bag...easy cleanup

I believe I used 2-3 stalks, about 3" long, added to the last 5 minutes of the boil in a muslin bag. I wasnt sure how potent it was going to be, so I didn't over-do it. Definetly added a nice touch :)

I used 2 beans, and am pretty pleased with my bourbon soup. I plan to toss it into the secondary, and see where it goes from there. If it's not enough, I'll go ahead and use some extract :)

I've done it before, but only when I was taking the bottle to a friends for near-immediate consumption. I'd assume that the air in the bottle make the beer spoil after too long, but what do I know :)

Hey Evan, I'm going to rack tomorrow <brewed a few days after you!>, but the fermentation looks good. I used 1.5oz of oak, pre-packaged in a teabag-like sack from the LHBS. Steeping looks like it's going along well, did you end up adding any more vanilla? I'll let you know when I rack how...

Can't help much on the grain selection, but as far as adjuncts go, when I did my saison I added both crushed coriander and lemongrass to get that nice spicy flavor. Just a suggestion, but I thought it really added to the beer.