Recent content by richfei

I have a hand bottle capper http://www.morebeer.com/products/emily-bottle-capper-magnet.html For oxygen caps like these, there are no issues in capping non screw top bottles http://www.morebeer.com/products/oxygen-absorbing-bottle-caps-100.html However for screw top bottles, the cap sticks to...

I have a 16 oz mason jar with about 8oz of yeast and 8 oz of water which I collected from a hefeweizen batch I made 3 months ago. It's been left in the fridge all this time. I want to reuse that when I make a hefeweizen again next week, but it'll be my first time doing this. 1) Do I just...

On some diagrams I see that three rather than one wire connector is used when wiring up an STC 1000 i.e http://canadrian.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/tempctrl_wiremap.png So 1) the ground on the plug end doesn't go directly to the ground connector on the outlet. An extra wire is used...

I recently built a temperature controller based off an STC 1000 and radio shack box. I have a Sanyo 4.4 cubic foot fridge and I'll be using a 6 gallon plastic carboy to ferment in future. I have a few basic questions 1) If I attach the probe to the carboy and I'm looking to ferment ales at...

I've probably spent close to $300 in brewing gear and over half of that was due to the grain mill and wort chiller that I bought new. Everything else was a cheap purchase from craigslist or was free from people who gave up the hobby. I like simple beers and buy grains, hops and yeast in bulk...

I normally leave my bottles in milk crates in a closet but this weekend it'll be over a 100. So I took them all out and transferred to a few ice chests and made a swamp cooler out of it. I'd rather not take any chances

I have an American pale ale which has been fermenting in a 6 gallon bucket inside a Homz tub acting as a swamp cooler. It's the first time I've done this. In the past I would just leave the bucket alone in a closet but the temperature fluctuated wildly and sometimes reached 80-84, which is...

I'm actually just using unfiltered tapwater from the kitchen sink I did think about using some pH stabilizer. But reading some threads, some were suggesting it was more trouble than it was worth I haven't read too much about pH Are there bands of acceptability and are there certain nutrients to...

It's the astringency. The last but one BIAB was a hoegardden type effort. It was posted on this site. I felt a lot of care was taken throughout except when this mashout occurred. 3 weeks fermenting and 3 weeks bottling. I did try saving a few bottles and drinking them after 5 weeks. Not a huge...

LLBeanJ. The problem I'm having is getting the temperature to 170 with the grain in place. 164 with no grain and then rest for an hour to 154 is no issue. As soon as I stir or if I don't stir enough or not at all, the temp seems to be all over the place. I obviously don't see any of that with...

Thanks all and especially LLBeanJ for the clarification Yes keeping an even mash in temp of 154 or thereabouts for an hour isn't the issue. With covered towels, it really doesn't drop at all It is this problem of stratification that I'm finding My beers always tasted better from extract versus...

I've done 3 BIAB 5 gallon batches now indoors on the stove I can get to 164 and mash in for 60 min at 154 quite easily But my problem is with the mash out at 170 I normally use my thermapen (5 inch probe) But since my pot is tall and thin-nish I wonder if I need to get a longer probe to...

Bought a cereal killer grain mill some time ago but will use it later this week Read that it's worth changing the setting to around 0.036 I've done that Is it still worth double crushing the grains for BIAB ?

I have a steamer one inch from the bottom to rest the bag against so it shouldn't burn Looking to do another batch tomorrow so will take more care this time Will set aside the batch for a while longer and check next month

Yes bagged grain in pot Belgian Wit Ale White Labs #WLP400 1.048