Recent content by theDarkPint

Is the flavor sulfur-like at all?

Do you mean storing a solution of water and star san in a plastic jug, or do you mean 5 gallons of "raw" star san (ie, unmixed with water)?

Did you ever find the answer to this?

Just some background on this cider and the steps I've done: - Ingredients consist of just 5gal of local unpasteurized cider and wyeast 1098. OG read 1.060 on a hydrometer. - Fermented for about a month - very active. - Cold crash in primary (~38 degrees) when SG hit .997 - Mixed a solution...

That... that is the most beautiful keggle I've ever seen.

My obsession level is already outgrowing my available space. SWMBO and I have agreed that when we buy a house, it must have an unfinished basement or external building for me to convert into a brewery. Right now, I have the closet in my office as storage and that's it (besides the keezer which...

My gear is all stored in a couple of buckets and loose around my house. My goal tomorrow is to come up with a way to put it all in one spot that makes sense. So how did you all do it? Feel free to share pics of your setup too!

Thanks for the input everyone. Seems that with all things homebrew, there isn't an exact "right" answer. I'll just give it a shot and see how it turns out. Thanks again!

I'm working on my own recipe for a chocolate stout (building from what I've read in the recipe forum) and I just realized that I have no idea how long to steep the grains. In the kits I've done in the past, it's been 20 min at ~160 degrees. Is this standard all around? I thought I read...

Hydrometer yes, refractometer no. Alcohol refracts light differently than a sugar solution. This is fine pre-fermentation to establish an OG since there hasn't been any alcohol produced yet. Once fermentation has started, you have to use a formula to convert the reading to take alcohol...

This. I've noticed that my cider was way more active than most of my previous beers. Not using a blow off tube is asking for trouble early on, imo.

Have you taken any gravity readings?

I'm within a week or so of kegging my beer (and cold crashing). However, today's taste test still had traces of sulfur. How will kegging impact the ability of the sulfur to make its way out of my delicious, precious, cider? Does it help? Hinder? Make no difference? Would force carbing...

What kind of cider are you looking for? Dry or sweet? That will impact what kind of yeast you'll use. If you're going to pitch yeast, then there's no reason to go with raw cider. I went with unpasteurized from an orchard and since I've learned that not only does store bought have the same...

The fewer words it takes to answer my question(s), the more noob-like I feel. ;) My last few batches of beer have struggled so my confidence is a bit shot. I'll just relax and let it do its thing. I did taste it today after pulling an ounce to test. Still a bit of sulfur in there and no...