Recent content by stonecutter2

Going to start a new round of making this brew, with some modern varieties as well as anything I can figure out is historically close to colonial times. It's been too long since I had some GW small beer! Cheers to any Townsends folks who are looking for 18th century recipes, which made me...

I chilled my wort in the kitchen sink with ice, and skipped the wort chiller. One less thing to clean :) Also, although the smell didn't bother me, in an apartment you may have neighbors who don't like the delicious smell of wort boiling. Boiling outside, when possible, may be considerate. My...

I'm planning on brewing this soon. I don't have a large enough kettle for mashing all grain for this (although I may spring for one), and a full volume boil. And I do BIAB anyways as I don't have a mash tun etc. So going for a BIAB partial mash and then extract enough to bring up the ABV. Will...

I make 1 gallon for my 5 gallon batches, sanitizing on brewing day. Then another 1 gallon on bottling day. I reserve some in a spray bottle for any sanitizing needs then dump and refill with a new batch. Cloudiness has never mattered with my results.

Just looks like yeast rafts. All is well.

It isn't that messy, if the hops are left to sit long enough and they're not whole/leaf hops. Leaf/whole hops clogged up my racking cane pretty bad when I used them. Will it still be a pale ale w/o dry hopping? Sure it will. However, remember that taste is strongly associated with smell...

The recipe posted is for a full volume boil, I believe. So whatever your boil off rate, you want to end up finally with 5 gallons at the end of the boil. If you can't do a full volume boil, then yeah - just boil what you can (let's say like 3 gallons), then top off in the fermenter with water...

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/169337/pumpkin-oatmeal-stout It's still conditioning in the bottles. I've had a few that were really amazing...hoping time does that to all the rest.

Yeah, my parents gave us a check to go toward our down payment. They wrote a gift letter and the bank was cool with that. They "uncovered" my group purchase of coffee for people at work, which I then distribute when it gets delivered (not for profit, just for fun) and I had to explain how I...

I was mashing a pumpkin oatmeal stout, and I got the genius idea to rig up a piece of 2x4 with two L brackets, and lean that against our burner setup, so my thermometer readout could sit on it perched over the kettle (it's magnetic), with the probe then ran down into the mash. My brother-in-law...

Good point re: infection. The haze, i guess it depends on whether you want clear beer or not.

Oxiclean is very effective at cleaning. However, it is not no-rinse, it must be rinsed very well. It's great stuff for scrub-free cleaning, and I use it at 1/2 scoop per 4 gallons to remove beer bottle labels. Just a dunk in hot water and Oxiclean Versatile, and the labels generally fall...

Even if grains need to be mashed, steeping them can add body, color, and flavor without adding much fermentable sugars :) It can certainly add an interesting dimension to beer, and with pilsner I believe it would also benefit head retention somewhat too. If the result is yummy, keep on...

A couple of things come to mind when you say "burnt." First, did you turn off the flame when you added your extract? And, was it liquid extract or dry extract? Liquid extract (LME) likes to sink straight to the bottom, and with a flame heating the kettle and a very hot bottom of the kettle...

That's what i'm wondering, too. Use One Step or Starsan and no need to rinse. Rinsing in fact reintroduces the possibility to infect something, after you've sanitized it.