Recent content by Thumbs71

So, I took a temp reading and it wasn't as bad as I thought....

Well that sucks. I took liquid temp measurements by having a glass of water in sit over night then checking the temp everyday. It's already going so I guess I'll just wait and seen how it turns out. What's the worse thing that could happen?

That room in my basement stays right below 60.

Well, it came out at 1.067 and I pitched the entire started. It was rolling real nice 4 hours later. 8 hours later I had to switch my blowoff container from a 1qt mason jar to a growler. I woke up to this...

Thanks guys. I'll let it go for a few more hours and pitch it as is.

Last night I cooked up a 2L starter for a 1.067 Midwest Oktoberfest lager. The yeast is Wyeast Oktoberfest Lager 2633 manufactured on 4/5/2013. It's been about 12 hours and it's chugging along real nice on a stir plate. I'd like to brew today in a few hours, but will that be enough time? Can I...

I'll take something!

I'll take one.

I'll take one!

I would gladly take one off your hands.

Yeah, I did pour some off, but it still was taking a long time to warm up. I actually ended up putting it in a warm water bath to help it warm up.

Here's the starter warming up the next day. Looks like I had pretty good reproduction. I pitched it at about 1:30pm and I had activity in less than 4 hours and very aggressive activity in 8 hours.

Oh jeez! That's good to know. Everything I read said to boil for at least 20 minutes.

Thanks for the replies guys. It was suprisingly easy. @Coff I was also suprised at how much boiled off. I'm guessing the pot I used and the 30 minute hard boil conrtibuted to so much boil off.

I've always had luck doing this... - Dump the wort out of my kettle into my Ale Pale or bottling bucket - Top it off to 5 gallons - Whisk the crap out if it with a sanitized stainless steel whisk for a minute or so. (It's amazing how quickly your arm gets sore.) - Pitch my yeast - Dump it...