Recent content by tasteslikechicken

I use pellets. no-chill + ferment in BK. The hops are still in the kettle when I've siphoned off the beer to bottle it. Works for me.

No-chill plus ferment in BK. After the boil is done, the lid goes on the BK and a layer of saran wrap is added. After an hour or so a gentle fan is placed next to BK. In 8 hours BK/fermenter goes into the fermentation chamber. Pitch the next morning. No racking, no IC, nothing to clean...

1) don't secondary. 2) if you do secondary do so in a tightly sealed container without any headspace. 3) see #1.

Coming back into brewing into brewing after a decade lapse I have adopted the attitude that I care about as much what big brewers do while making beer as I do about what Hostess does while making Wonder bread. BIAB is a fantastic simplification to me. If you are a higher volume homebrewer...

Like most things in homebrewing I expect far too much energy is spent imitating those who brew a million barrels a year (give or take an order of magnitude). The reasons why commercial brewers pitch at the rate they do is probably more dependent on making beer at a certain rate given the...

It would be easier & faster. Less time cleaning, racking, etc. No plastic fermenters to buy/scratch up/replace. Heck, less equipment overall. Except BKs. :)

yep. This is AG, and I only use hop pellets. People dry hop all the time with vast quantities of hops, so I'm questioning why just leaving the whole mess in the BK/primary is so bad. Even with a separate primary it seems a not uncommon approach to just dump the whole shebang in.

I'm only two batches into my return to brewing after a decade hiatus, with both batches in primaries right now. Using BIAB + no-chill (in BK) I'm already wondering why I'm bothering to use a Better Bottle as a primary rather than just fermenting in my brew kettles. With a healthy dose of...

I guess there is a divide to some extent in the no-chill (air chill) community. Those who chill in the kettle vs those who chill in a cube. I can see the benefits to each but guess I lean toward chill/ferment in the winpak approach for my first attempts. But both are on my list to try.

Not having brewed in a decade or so I am intrigued by these three relatively new time saving developments. When I left the scene BIAB and no-chill were rare or unknown (at least to me) and dry yeasts were sneered upon. Now that I'm getting more serious about finally getting back into brewing I...

I started brewing in the late '80's with extracts and over the next decade I worked my way up to 50lb sacks, hop pellets by the pound, and a kegging system. The birth of my first daughter in '99 brought an end to my free time and my brewing career. Now that the kids are old enough to be...