Recent content by Sgwilson

If so can you walk me thru your process/ results? I just got my water report back in my bicarbonate are at 371 or so. Which is obviously, pretty high. I was wondering if there was a non-chemical way to reduce that number, I've heard boiling will do that if there is a chemical option I'm open to...

I just did a 5% pumpkin beer and I'm going to age 5 gallons of it with some rum and an oak spiral with two vanilla beans in it. How long should I leave the vanilla beans in for? I know the oak will be done in about 6 weeks but that seems like a long time for vanilla beans. Any thoughts?

Lol, @BrewerBrad82 I post this meme every year, and totally agree, but it's been 10 years of avoiding pumpkin beers. My time is up!

I've never done a pumpkin/ spice beer, but got roped into it this year. I'm going to do an oatmeal stout as the base with about 10 lbs of pumpkin in the mash, but my question is about the spices... I have a friend who has done well with adding the spices to the last 5 minutes of the boil, but...

Seems to have worked pretty well! The matt didn't melt, and maintained a pretty good temperature. It dropped a few degrees, but I did a 5 gallon (13lbs grain weight) in a 15 gallon keggle, so there was a LOT of head space for temperature to escape. Otherwise seems pretty successful, my next beer...

@wilserbrew, it's a keggle. I've been out of the brewing world for a few years and am just now getting back, hoping to get a better mash result with better temp controls

Has anyone tried using a yoga matt to insulate their mash? My mash does not take direct fire (I have a RIMS) so it'll only need to stand up to the initial strike water (and sparge too, I guess) I'm not sure if the matt will melt or not. Does any one have any first have experience?