Recent content by TurkCowan

I have a MO/Falconer's Flight smash in the primary right now. It's still really young but smells excellent. Mostly late hop additions and dry hopped.

It sounds like your beer will be fine. Unless someone introduced some type of infection to your beer, I don't see an issue. Some people don't use an airlock at all. The CO2 produced by the fermentation sits as a blanket over the beer because it's heavier than O2 (as I understand it). Some...

200 degrees is much closer to mash temp than 65 degrees (room temp). I would heat the oven to 155-160 then shut it off. I routinely use my oven that goes down to 170 and have never had a problem provided it's turned off during the mash. It's much better than constantly constantly checking at...

Going to try this one tomorrow. It's something I threw together, what do you think? Type: All grain Size: 3 gallons Color: 8 HCU (~6 SRM) Bitterness: 20 IBU OG: 1.049 FG: 1.010 Alcohol: 5.0% v/v (3.9% w/w) Grain: 2 lb. German Pilsner 2 lb. German Vienna 1 lb. German Munich...

I used S-23 and lagered for 6 weeks. The taste is smooth as glass with a nice bite. Next time I'll try some munich or maybe even a little melanoidin, not really to style but I like a little added malt complexity.

I regularly brew lagers although I have no experience with fermenting them at 60F. If you want to use 60F then go ahead and let us know what you find out. Otherwise, I would suggest that it's really not that difficult to keep your primary at around 50F, especially if you're in a cold area...

That"s a good looking starter. I would decant almost all the starter beer before pitching (just gently pour it off). Shake up what you have left to suspend the cells and pitch. FWIW that looks like a ton of yeast. How big is your batch?

You should only use bottles that have held carbonated beverages (e.g. champagne, not wine). clear and green are fine but will skunk quickly so keep them in the dark. I've heard screw tops leak although I have no experience with them.

I'm going to have to agree. A small amount of mercury can permanently damage or kill you. Wash everything really well and get brewing again asap

::bump::

Anyone want to split a bag each of GW 2-row, GW vienna, and gambrinus pilsner for ~$1/lb (no shipping cost)? 25 lbs for $25. Would be happy to get something else as well if you're interested. I don't have the storage for that much grain but want half of each. :mug: PM me.

I usually do a large starter for my lagers as well but I'm starting to wonder if it's as necessary as I thought. For sure you shouldn't just pitch dry yeast and expect something to happen quickly, but I'll share an anecdote. For my last two lagers, brew days were sort of impromtu so I...

This is what I do. My oven has settings every 5 degrees from 100F and up. Not sure if that's common but it's great to maintain heat, especially when doing a step or long mash. I mash in my brew kettle at 152 in a 150 oven for 90 min without losing any temp. Just keep it off the bottoms (I...

I believe it does. I guess my concern is pulling some bottling yeast and not the actual fermenting strain. Or maybe just pulling in some dead yeast. I'll give it a try. If it doesn't work out I'll probably pull some hoegaarden yeast. There's lots of information saying their yeast is viable.

I love this beer. Anyone ever try to pull some yeast from a bottle? I'm wondering if it might be possible given that it's both unpasteurized and unfiltered.