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Hi Tom. Sorry I haven't responded sooner. I was hoping to find an old email/letter/notes from contacting the brewer at the rail house. I do remember getting some info from him that I'll do my best to divulge, and I'll still keep my eyes out for it, but in the meantime: OG of around 1.042...

How's your beer turn out when the krausen fell and reformed? Just happened to me for the 1st time and I'm not concerned (since it's still bubbling away) but am curious as to why. It happened to me with an English Brown Ale using S-04 on an OG 1.040 beer at 68-70F. Krausen fell after 48 hrs...

...so with that $60 system (keg, charger, dispenser) I could prime with sugar and carbonate in the keg, cool it down, and I'd be good to go?

...even with an air-tight screw on lid?

Sounds like just the approach I'm looking for. It would be a weiss beer and as long as it's semi-cold and has a head when poured it would fit the bill. Ideally I could get by using air tight 5-gal plastic buckets with a spigot on the bottom. Could I simply prime at racking for 1.5-2 vol CO2...

I'm brewing beer for a good friend's wedding. I'm planning on bottling about 14 gals, which would only provide about 1/2 the beer. Brewing more would be the easy part, but I'm looking for an inexpensive alternative to more bottling (which would take a lot of time and bottles) or kegging (which...

Thanks again everyone for your time and thoughful comments. Scone, thank you - that's the quick and cheap solution that'll scratch my itch to monitor fermentation w/o opening the airlock. I bought an extra hydrometer for $5, sanitized, and let it float in there. I just started my first lager...

Wow - you're very helpful, thank you. I have quite a bit on my hands that I could use - half a mayonaise jar full of solid, settled yeast. It sounds like all I'd need is to pitch 5 oz of settled yeast - just over a half cup - which I do have and then some. So my options now are whether I make...

I'm planning on brewing this Saturday and will make a starter in the next few days. It's my first lager and I want to make sure I pitch the right amount. The yeast I will use came from a friend who works at a local brewery. They brewed back in December - so it's about 1.5 months old. When I...

You're spot on, SpanishCastleAle, I fully agree. My motivation here is admittedly for the pure pleasure I take in actively monitoring what's going on, as opposed to improving the beer. It's just really fun for me to watch the activity - I love the process. Very interesting approach to...

Thanks for passing along that idea, winstonofbeer, that's exactly the type of approach I'm interested in. I'm sure a refractometer would be a great option, so thank you guys for vouching for that option, it's just not what I'm interested in exploring right now. I've got an itch to build or...

I've been dreaming up a way to determine the gravity of my beer throughout fermentation witout sampling 8 oz at time and exposing it to oxygen and potentially infections. I'm thinking the ways I can do this would be to either accurately measure the weight of the carboy and beer and monitor it's...

My grandfather grew up in near the old Oconto Brewery and was reminiscing with me this past Christmas about him drinking this beer when he was younger. I have been home brewing for a while and would love to brew a batch of this for a gift for him. Has anyone here tasted that beer? If so...

Interesting update to this experiment: 1) After a few days with no airlock action, I lagered in a basement closet (that's a Wisconsin winter for ya) at around 48-50 for two weeks before bottling. 2) No descernable sour flavor or aroma - so at least for now - I don't think any lacto was able...

Just in case anyone else is remotely curious about this: 11/26 PM Pitched 1 mason jar of German Ale yeast from washed reused yeast. 11/27 Krausen. 11/28 Krausen fell. 11/30 AM Added 2 crushed tablets of beano. 11/30 PM Krausen up. 12/1 PM Added 1/2 cup powdered 6-row (with coffee/spice...

"Slow" would be okay with me, if we're talking several days to a couple weeks for the enzimes to work at that low temp range (70F). Lactobacillus would probably eat some sugars too, but perhaps not dominate? Maybe just sour a bit? Thanks for all your input.

I've been itching to do a little brewing experiment and finally got the time over the Thanksgiving weekend. I wanted to push the limits of 6-row's diastatic power in a mash with mostly potatoes. One source I found put potatoes at 20% starch by weight with a gelantization tempurature of about...

I'm working towards a house beer recipe I plan to keep stocked with. My target is a quasi-European Pilsner (akin to Bitburger) that I'd like to produce using ale yeast at lower ale temps (60F) and local grain (Briess 2-row). I'm fine with flavor characteristics that are different than a...

Theoretically, what would result from someone taking milled grain, dumping in a sanitized bucket with strike water, let it convert for a few hours until cooled to 70F, then just pitch some yeast with all the grain bits and all? Assuming someone got lucky and didn't get infection from anthing...

Wow. That John Palmer can make a mean spreadsheet. I plugged in all the values from my water report (with Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate values I didn't previously include) and I get: Est. SRM (Low): 6 Est. SRM (High): 11 Chloride to Sulfate Ratio: Bitter I can work with that. Thanks...