Search results

If you're concerned about lack of yeast, you could rehydrate 3-4 grams of dry yeast and add it to your bottling bucket along the with priming sugar, just as a safety measure. I've used cheap grocery store yeast for this with no ill effects that I could detect.

When you add the cereal mashed items like oatmeal or grits to the main mash, do you calculate their weight for mash-in liquid from the grain's dry weight, or the weight after the cereal mash? Might be a stupid question, but Newbies do have special dispensation.

I mash in a 6 gallon plastic bottling bucket with spigot. I use a $1.50 plastic kitchen strainer from Dollar General with the handles trimmed off a bit to fit tightly in the bottom of the bucket. I have a huge Voile bag that i made from curtain material from Walmart. If you're not into sewing...

Malto Dextrine is the numero uno ingredient in Splenda, though. My a large amount I suspect — it's used as a filler to make it more sugar-like. Look at the ingredient order on a package sometime.

"I really hope I didn't oxidize the beer when I swirled it around the day I pitched the yeast (waited like 4 hours and no activity so I swirled it around a few times.)" I doubt that will cause any problems. A lot of folks, including me, feel that oxidation is an overrated issue unless you...

Add a little vinegar, teaspoon or so per gallon to your water if you're concerned about high ph value. Vinegar will also make bleach work a lot better by lowering the ph. 1 ounce of each to 5 gallons of water. No rinse.

The homebrews I create are in the 6-7% range, and the wife and i generally (AKA almost always) have 2 per evening with our popcorn and a movie or decent TV from Netflix/Roku. The 2 homebrews seem to be about right to provide some great relaxation (AKA moderate buzz) and leave no trace of a...

I'm a comparative AG novice, and have had a pretty good time producing a few batches using found recipes from this site and others and also some clumsy amateur attempts using http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe recipe calculator. I'm generally pleased, as are my wife and friends with the...

I don't think the volume of h2O makes much difference. Temp between 90-100 is important. I use a fairly large soup bowl with a wide top and about 8-12 oz. of water. I like the wide surface as you can sprinkle the yeast in a thin, even layer and get quicker and more complete hydrating. I think...

+1 :ban:

Bee-ware

Just passing along a couple of tips I've seen in other threads. You don't mention your fermentation temp, but if it's currently on the low end of the recommended range for your yeast, you might consider bumping it up 2 or 3 degrees to encourage them yeasties to get on with it. Many folks also...

Tried Royal Grolsch Holland Premium lager one time when it was on a supermarket special. No more, maybe not undrinkable, but it's nearest neighbor. Same-O for Molsen Lager — way too skunky for me, but it's possible that it had set on the shelf too long under fluorescent lighting, I hate...

That's a good thought Wilser. I do stir the mash 2 or 3 times, but haven't been stirring the sparge. It would make sense to do so.

That's close to what I use Josh, except I'm using a 6 gallon plastic bucket with homemade insulation blanket for mash/sparge. A $1.50 plastic strainer from Dollar General fits perfectly in the bottom of the bucket (tun) to hold the bag away from the spigot. I made a huge bag from Walmart viole...

That's a nice catch there Conroe. Apparently, there's a pricing error there somewhere as the 10# bags of the Pale run about $1.20 lb. I'll put your suggestion on the wish list for the next order and get a few sacks. 5# sacks would be even more convenient to store and use I think. Thank you.

I'm relatively new to this, but MoreBeer seems to me to be about the best if you don't have a home brew brick and mortar nearby. They offer free shipping on orders over $59.00, but certain items, including 50lb. sacks of grain," are exempted from the freebee shipping. However, their prices...

I have a similar bag. The voile has a finer weave, and is stronger than the paint strainers. They drain really clean, but don't clog up. I've found that with BIAB you can really grind the grains fine — almost flour if you wish, and still not get stuck mashes/sparges\. I like to add the grain...

Yah, you're just a relative youngster.;) So far the only concession I make to age is I refuse to brew any recipe that takes longer than 4 weeks from grain to icebox. I'm not cookin' this stuff up for the survivors.:D (BTW — I don't buy green bananas either.)

I'll be 71 in February 2011. Just took up brewing last fall. Sorry I let all those brewing years go by undiscovered and unexplored. Cheers!