Recent content by smokyjoewood12

I made a 2L starter in a 5L erlenmeyer of Abbey II, covered with tinfoil, no stir plate. I checked on it after about 10-11 hours and it wasn't quite at high krausen so I grabbed it around the neck and swirled it. I heard the sound of gas running through a channel very quickly and then the...

I have the Milwaukee MW101 pH meter, its a great meter, but today I had some strange pH readings during mash, it was higher than expected and it seemed no amount of acid would bring the pH any lower. So after the brew I calibrated the meter in 4.01 and 7.0 solution, which proved it was already...

I'm deciding between the two as well, already have a hop rocket though so I was leaning that direction. I was looking at the temp sensor fitting and probe to go with it, http://www.homebrewing.org/Temp-Sensor-Fitting-RIMS-Rocket_p_5210.html total for the three being around $250 seems fair but...

Correct me if I'm wrong but If I lost about a gallon due to hops (I used more than a pound of whole cone) that would account for the 6-5 gallon difference, the hops wouldn't selectively soak up pure water and leave the dissolved sugars behind. So the loss due to hops would not increase the...

AHHH thats what it was!! I did multiple samplings, so I know they were on point. It was the preboil volume! I forgot that I had assumed 10gal preboil but didnt use enough sparge and only had about 7.5 so I DIDN'T hit my extraction. Got a new mill so I'm thinking the grind is the culprit. Thanks...

cooling wort, and then refractometer. And no not first high gravity, haven't had a problem with efficiency before. The main thing I don't understand is that my preboil gravity was right where it should have been. Which means that I extracted exactly how much sugar the software was expecting...

Ok I have not been able to figure out the solution to my problem. My efficiency is typically around 75-80%. I brewed a double ipa yesterday shooting for a OG of 1.096. Preboil gravity according to brewers friend was to be 1.054, ground my grain as usual, mashed at 153, nailed a 5.4 mash pH, hit...

Hello had a question about the wording of this description that Midwest Supplies has for their Briess Smoked Malt: "Lovibond Rating: 5L Usage: up to 70% for big smoke! Try around 20% for more subtle smoke character." When they say usage are they suggesting using this malt as 70% of the...