Recent content by stpetebrewer

I have a couple 2nd year plants. I ended up cutting back the first growth about a week and a half ago. Since then it pushed up about another dozen or so bines. I then cut them back all but 5 bines today that I plan to let grow for the season. Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

I would for sure make a starter. I would just see if it ferments out, if it does I would just use it. I have used yeast that I have washed that has been at least that old and it work great. It just needed a starter. Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

True if done without a proper starter.

Powder yeast always takes longer to get started.

Thanks for the replies! I was worried about letting it sit in the primary for a year, because of it sitting on the yeast cake for that long. I only let my clean beers sit in the primary for 2 weeks before I keg. I didn`t know if I should get a sour beer off of the yeast cake or not.

Planning on brewing my first sour on Friday. Planning on doing 10 gallons of a Oud Bruin style split into 2 fermenters. One will get Wyest 1056 for the primary fermentation then ECY20 for the secondary. The other will get Wyeast Roeselare blend from the start. One question I have is how long...

That's good to know. If the element I bought doesn't work well I will most likely try the 2000W. I know some have had issues with scorching while heating up to mash out. I figured I would at least give it a try. I'm not sure if using a 240 volt element at 120 volt would be better or not.

I ended up going with the 2" because I was told that some of the fold back elements could be a tight fit. Also, I think it was only $20 more then the 1.5". My tube came in yesterday and the electronics will be here on Tuesday. Can't wait to get this up and running.

Thanks for the update! I'm glad it worked well for you. I'm hoping I will have good results with the 5500 watt element also.

Yeah I ment to say that I was going to run it at 120. I ended up finding a 5500 LWD at Lowes. I'm going to try that and see how it goes. I would prefer the 2000 watt, but concerned about it tripping the breaker.

The pump is going to be plugged into the control panel. The pump has to be running before the element can be turned on though, so it won't have the start up spike of amperage. I also thought about going with a 4500 watt 240v element. From what I understand, it would work better for ramping...

I'm in the process of putting together my rims system. I bought the brewers hardware 2" rims tube, and getting ready to order my electronics from Auberin's. I would like to see what people like as far as rims elements? I have done a lot of reading and it seems like there is a wide range of what...

I would make one. I make one anytime I use a liquid yeast. Doing a starter is too easy and well worth it.

Cool, thanks for the input guys. It will only be sitting around for about a week or so. I think I'm just going to purge and let it sit with about 10 psi on it.

For the time being I'm only able to store 2 kegs in my kegerator. Im going to rack a couple batches today that I will have to store at room temp until I can free up a spot in the kegerator. So if storing full kegs at room temp ( 65 degrees ), what pressure should I store them at? Or do I just...