Recent content by PhillyMike

I didn't steep. I added the additional grains to the mash tun, which still had my original grain bill. I added full volume of water (7.5 gallons), mashed for 45 minutes, then drained, boiled, etc. I probably didn't have to mash that long, but did anyways. Rye porter turned out well.

I didn't steep. I added the grains to the mash tun with the original grain profile and added full volume of water (7.5 gallons) and mashed for 45 minutes. I probably didn't have to mash that long. Eye porter turned out very well.

I made an imperial stout, then added some additional speciality malts and rye malt to make a rye porter. I didn't add any base malt to my bill for the second runnings.

I saw this in a magazine. Take a cocktail shaker and place it in an ice bath. Pull about 6 oz of wort at any point during brewing and put in cocktail shaker. It'll cool to 60 degrees in no time. Take your readings. No need to adjust for temperature.

Take it to your local home brew shop. They'll probably crush it free of charge. And it's definitely worth the trip than trying the rolling pin method, which will have a very varied crush and potentially poor efficiency.

Stop by Monks in Philly. Best Belgian beer bar around.

Are you getting foam as you pour/right after pouring and it quickly disappears or is there no foam at all?

Glad to hear brew #2 was good. Continued success!

Agree 100%. It was really cool being able to walk on an old copper open air fermentor. Cantillon's self tour was really cool as well.

Agree 100%. I loved walking through the unused open air copper fermenter. Self tour of Cantillon was also great.

Agree 100%. I loved walking through the unused open air copper fermenter. Self tour of Cantillon was also great.

How new was the yeast packet? Reason why I ask is it sounds like the yeast just ran out of steam and didn't have enough left to produce good carbonation. I hope your newest beer carbonates properly. Keep us informed.

Out of curiosity, what was the OG on your beer?

How many of these bottles have you opened? Sometimes the sugar is not mixed well and the bottles towards the end of your bottling may not have much carbonation. I would also wait. Sometimes it takes longer than the traditional "few weeks" for a beer to carb. Some yeast are simply sluggish. Try...

Why would you want a Barleywine to drop to 1.01?